The College is demolishing three buildings near Dartmouth Medical School this summer, as part of the first phase in a planned $94 million construction project to provide a new home for the biology department. The new Life Sciences Building is intended to fix inadequacies in Gilman Hall, which currently houses the department and contains only one classroom and a small number of teaching laboratories.
"These labs are old and they're really insufficient to meet our needs and we would really like to teach more labs in [biology] classes," associate professor and chair of the biology department Thomas Jack said.
Jack noted that six professors in the department had to move their laboratories to Centerra laboratories in Lebanon, because Gilman -- which was built in 1964 -- lacked accommodations for them.
"In 2004 the biology department had basically filled up Gilman lab," Jack said. "The infrastructure of the building was basically saturated."
The new building will feature two 30-seat classrooms, two 80-seat classrooms, one 200-seat classroom and six teaching laboratories intended for undergraduate use. It will replace the DMS buildings Strasenburgh Hall, Butler Hall, the McCollum Modular Laboratory and the parking area around Strasenburgh. These three buildings are in the process of being demolished this summer. Construction of the new building's foundation will begin in November 2007, with an expected occupancy date scheduled for March 2010.
Mary Gorman, associate provost for the College, stressed that the new facilities will be used primarily by undergraduates but that graduate students will also be doing research with professors in the new laboratories. The biology department has 25 faculty members and last year 1,783 students enrolled in a biology class.
Before construction actually begins, plans for the building must be approved by the town of Hanover, Gorman said. This review is standard for any building project.
However, the Occom Pond Neighborhood Association opposes the Life Sciences Building and has asked the Town Board to spend more time scrutinizing the plans.
"The neighbors are saying we need to get a special exception from the zoning board," Gorman said, referring to the Occom Pond Neighborhood Association. "What we do is we go to the town and say, 'Do we need this?'"
Members of the Occom Pond Neighborhood Association -- a group made up of local residents from the northern edge of the Dartmouth campus -- contend that the new building is a "research laboratory" because more than half of the building's space contains lab facilities. Therefore, the association says that the plans require a special exception permit from the Hanover zoning board and that they should face further scrutiny from zoning board.
The association's president, Wes Chapman, wrote a letter to Judith Brotman, the administrator for the Hanover Zoning Board, raising questions of public health regarding toxic materials used in a building located so close to residential homes, according to the Valley News. The letter also mentioned problems associated with noise, light and traffic that might result from the building's completion.
Chapman could not be reached for comment by press time.
Judith Brotman, the administrator for the Hanover Zoning Board, has already ruled that the planned building falls within the guidelines of the institutional zoning district, which includes the Dartmouth campus. The Occom Pond Neighborhood Association has appealed that judgment.
"Her ruling was that this is clearly an educational building," Gorman said of Brotman's decision.
Gorman noted that the projected layout for the new building is similar to both Moore and Burke halls -- both completed by the College somewhat recently and both of which were considered "educational buildings" by the town.
"Within the institutional zone, which is where this land is, we are allowed to build educational buildings," Gorman said. "It happens that biologists educate in the classroom and in the laboratory."
