Over the next two weeks, a temporary stretched fabric “Sprung structure” will be installed beside Alumni Gym that will serve as an extended living room for the North Park and South house communities opening this fall.

Dartmouth is establishing six house communities that will provide permanent home bases for all undergraduates while presenting greater opportunites for faculty-student interaction beyond the classroom. Each community is supported by a house professor who will live in a College residence nearby.

The Sprung structure, sited on a tennis court adjacent to Memorial Field, will provide gathering spaces and smaller meeting nooks, a convenience store, and, on the south side, a landscaped terrace with outdoor seating and a fire pit.

Meanwhile, crews are finishing off the interior and landscaping work on the other new house community structure behind Gile and Hitchcock halls. They are also completing work on the new and renovated homes for the house professors, who will be moving into their new residences in July and August in preparation for the coming academic year.

“We are very excited to see the last 15 months of planning coming to fruition,” says Dean of the College Rebecca Biron. “Building on the success of Founders Day in late February, students, faculty, and staff have been developing programs and events for the fall. We can’t wait to start using these new facilities, and are grateful to our colleagues in Campus Services for getting them in place so quickly.”