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North End Housing

  • North end watercolor exterior wood with stone

    Located west of Lyme Road (across from the Co-op), three apartment-style residential buildings represent the new North End of campus.

Project Vision/Goal

This new student residential community is designed to anchor the North End of Dartmouth's campus, creating additional options for on-campus apartment style living, and offering necessary capacity to house undergraduate students while a multi-year process to renovate existing housing stock is underway.

When completed, the two apartment-style residential buildings will house approximately 400 students. The project has been carefully designed to expand housing choices, while staying true to the fabric of Dartmouth's residential community. The project will operate within Dartmouth's existing house system and include significant indoor and outdoor shared space to foster community building.

About the Project

Planning for Possibilities: A Strategic Campus Framework  contemplated including housing on Lyme Road, and this revised plan for apartment-style housing builds on that concept.   

The project features two residential clusters (including one building with two wings), which will meet Dartmouth's urgent need to expand housing options to include high-quality, apartment-style living for undergraduate students and address the need to significantly update our existing housing stock. The design builds in flexibility to convert to graduate and professional student housing in the future. Notably, the project has been relocated to the west side of Lyme Road on the grounds of the former golf course.  The College initially proposed that a residential project be sited on the east side of Lyme Road in early 2022; based on initial feedback the proposal was revised significantly and the location was changed. 

Design and Sustainability

Current design contemplates both a stone-and-wood or a brick-and-panel exterior. The residences are designed to fit into the character of the existing neighborhood of commercial and residential buildings; this includes stepping down to three stories closest to Lyme Road, similar to the other buildings in the area.

exteriors_aerial_wood_w_stone_1.jpg

Student housing

This project will include high-performance systems starting with a well-insulated building envelope and rooftop solar photovoltaic panels that will generate onsite electricity. Coupled with a geothermal energy system, the project seeks to eliminate fossil fuel combustion. These sustainable design considerations will meet or exceed the college's High-Performance Building Design Guidelines and achieve leading-edge sustainability certifications.

For more information on sustainability and design:

  • Project page on the Town's Planning Board website (including Site Plan application and meeting minutes)
  • Stormwater Management Report

Student Life

The project includes a number of features designed to enhance the quality of student life and build connections among student groups living in the residences.  The design includes ample amenity space, including 26,000 square feet of common and gathering spaces between the buildings. Common spaces will include study and lounge areas, a large common area with a kitchen facility, and room for administrative offices. Other amenities will include on-site laundry, a fitness center, a mail and package center, and indoor/outdoor spaces for social gatherings.  The project also features a 3,500-square foot indoor/outdoor pavilion, which will support student programs on the west side of the site.

These spaces offer ample opportunity to create a wide array of formal and informal student programs, designed for all students. 

Students living in the residences will continue to participate in the house program.  The project will provide dedicated apartments for live-in professional faculty/staff, such as a Community Director.

Community Engagement

As part of a robust commitment to community engagement, Dartmouth hosted a series of five meetings throughout July and August to engage in feedback and provide input to key areas of the design process for the North End. All meetings were available in-person and via Zoom for remote participants.

Detailed feedback on transportation issues included comments on maximizing shared transit options, improving safe bike and pedestrian routes, parking (the project includes 110 spaces as required by zoning), and conducting a comprehensive traffic study. The College expects to share a detailed transportation study once it is completed later this fall.  The community also reinforced the importance of sensitivity to Pine Park, both as it relates to stormwater runoff, views, and access. 

Dartmouth also responded to a number of questions about the location of the project, sharing a rigorous analysis they conducted of multiple locations to identify a site that had the appropriate footprint for an apartment-style project while considering other long-term planning needs. 

Student Engagement

In addition to the community process over the summer, which students were invited to attend, the College held focus groups for students and House Faculty and conducted additional feedback sessions with student and faculty groups prior to submitting its plans to the town. Their feedback is also being incorporated into the project's design.

Project Milestone

The project proposal received unanimously approval from the town of Hanover Zoning Board of Approval. Dartmouth will next seek site plan approval from the Town's Planning Board.

  • Design Submission and Town Review process - Winter 2022/23
  • Planning and design – Summer, 2022

Related Links

Planning Principles

In 2020, Dartmouth released Planning for Possibilities, a comprehensive study and master plan for the future of campus over the next 30 years. Organized into two parts, Enduring Framework provides a long-term structure to the preservation of and improvements to the campus and lands. Catalog of Options provides a set of opportunities to be further explored as needs arise.

Eight planning principles were developed through the engagement process for the development of Planning for Possibilities and support the continued work of all capital planning:

  • Support the academic and research mission and Dartmouth's core values;
  • Maximize flexibility for 21st-century paradigms of teaching, learning, and research;
  • Preserve Dartmouth's campus character and activate campus landscapes;
  • Leverage Dartmouth's presence to reinforce a vibrant downtown;
  • Optimize the cost-efficiency and utilization of buildings and spaces;
  • Promote well-being and an inclusive and equitable environment;
  • Advance Dartmouth's commitment to a sustainable and resilient future; and
  • Embrace Dartmouth's multicentered regional presence.

Learn more about Planning for Possibilities.