I learned something today:
The Kremlin is holding the door open for contacts with the U.S. regarding a possible prisoner exchange that could potentially involve jailed Wall Street Journal reporter and Bowdoin College graduate Evan Gershkovich.
Kremlin open to talks over potential prisoner swap involving Gershkovich (pressherald.com)
So, the news from Vermont is that Middlebury will be joining fellow NESCAC members in what seems to be a round-robin of bulldozing campus fixtures in the name of progress. On Tuesday the college announced the groundbreaking for a new dorm which upon completion will replace Battell Hall, the familiar, 1955 Georgian Revival structure that has graced the pages of countless brochures over the years:
New dorm for the twenty-first century student - The Middlebury Campus
This is in line with similar moves on the Williams and Wesleyan University campuses where returning alum have found themselves scratching their heads over the disappearance of such landmarks as the Ephsâ 1953 Baxter Hall, the scene of many a post-game deconstruction:
and Wesleyanâs first college-wide dining hall, the 1962 McConaughy Hall:
Meanwhile, this space will continue to eyeball Amherstâs Frost Library, Chapin Hall, Merrill Science Center and Mead Art Museum, all within the present generationâs apparent post-WWII, âmid-century modernâ cross-hairs.
I hate when entities tear down beautiful things for no good reason. If it aint broke, donât fix it. (if it is broke, of course⊠fix it. Actually, according to tense, give it some money. hehe)
Amherst is currently tearing down the 1960s era Merrill Science Building complex and will replace it with a mammoth 
new Student Center and Dining Commons. The new complex to be completed by the fall 2026 should have spectacular views of the Holyoke Range. The Student Center will shift the gravity of the campus further south away from Town and replace venerable Valentine Dining Hall and the inadequate Keefe Campus Center. For students living in the old frats/dorms in the Town of Amherst, itâs gonna be a significantly longer walk to the dining hall. (This also likely means that it will be awhile before anything gets done regarding a replacement for Frost Library. )
They collapsed a large chunk of the building right when we were walking past it on our tour. Our Amherst guide literally yelped in surprise. Fun moment.
I would caution Amherst against sheathing the new building in exposed and unpainted wood. The University of Washington tore down the old and historic Burke Museum building and replaced it with a similar (though taller) monolith sheathed exactly as the rendering shows. After a couple of years, it looks like ****. What is charming âweatheringâ on Cape Cod shingles looks crappy on big buildings with unstained or painted exposed wood siding. Itâs a mistake Iâve seen made at many colleges. And it seems like a maintenance nightmare, particularly given New England winters and what they do to exteriors.
But, Amherst can afford mistakes, so câest la vie.
It isnât at all clear what exterior sheathing the new building will have from the drawings.
And is it just me or does anyone else find the 3 different webcams of the demolition oddly fascinating?
The picture on this site gives an idea where theyâre going with it. But itâs just a rendering.
As chance would have it, the east facade of Battell graces the cover of PRâs latest college guide.
The plan is to tear down Battell and replace it with a new art museum. At least the new 296-bed dorm fits in nicely with existing campus architecture.
My son lived in Battell during the 2021-2022 school year. As freshman dorms go, it was a great social experience. But the dorm shows its age, and to be frank, Middlebury was doing the bare minimum to keep the building habitable. For the price you pay to attend Midd, a dorm built during the Eisenhower administration is not going to cut it.
Battell does appear to be among the oldest dormitories on the Middlebury campus (which begs the question: where were Middlebury students living before the Eisenhower administration?)
Starr, Painter, Hepburn, Gifford, Forest.
The rendering is beautiful and agree it fits perfectly.
My kid was there 2019-2020, so fall and J term really. I heard that they are finally renovating it.
As @arcadia points out, there are older dormitories on the Middlebury campus. However, the others appear to be closer to the historic quad and at least two of them are important anchors to the row of granite buildings flanking Old Chapel. One would think they are safe from the wreckerâs ball. Battell Hallâs true crime was its inconvenient location, not quite in alignment with expansion plans for a secondary quad and not quite old enough to justify renovating.
Planning and executing post-Sputnik era expansion has been a unifying theme among the NESCACs and according to multiple sources, the newest Middlebury dorm will house close to 50% of the entering class.
Evidently living at Battell was a rite of passage. It was so bad that any other dorm seemed like an improvement. It wasnât its age as much as the fact that it was deteriorating. They either needed to do extensive renovations or tear it down. However, as you wrote, it really wasnât old enough to be considered as an integral part of the campus, so they decided not to renovate it.
The biggest problem is that replacing Battell will only add 48 beds, and they need at least 100 more than that, especially if they seem to want to increase enrollment (though itâs not clear whether the high enrollment is simply because so many students took a semester or even a year off and are coming back).
From what Iâve read, the plan is to bring enrollment back down to around 2,500. The extra 300+ undergrads have really over-stressed the college and its resources.
Also, for those who may have missed, the acceptance rate for the class of 2027 was 11%. The numbers are buried deep within this press release:
I think Middlebury is worried how the present enrollment figures will eventually impact its off-campus population. Which I suppose brings us back to the whole dilemma of independent living options in a small town (is it taking away housing from local residents; will it lead to higher rents in and around the college? Etc.) In any event, at 2,500 undergraduates, Middlebury remains the third largest member of NESCAC after Tufts and Wesleyan University.
Not sure if you saw this:
No, I hadnât. Though the collegeâs concerns abut the number of students living off-campus did raise some flags. Iâm glad that Middlebury - the college - is in a position to inject some much needed capital into its downtown.
