Kate Murphy '0l and I attended the January 27th, 2001, trustee meeting of the Buildings and Grounds Committee as student representatives, listening to the latest plans for the new dorm on the quad and ideas for renovating or rebuilding the science center. We had received permission from Headmaster Eric Widmer to attend after requesting to participate.

The proposed dorm, Harold Smith, has been designed according to the style of architecture of the houses along Main Street and hopes to replicate the authentic look of a 200 year old house down to the barn attached off the back of the building. The new dorm will be built in conjunction with an extension off John Williams for a second faculty apartment, and the goal is to make the two buildings meld into a small complex.

I brought up the question of event parking, as the future site of Harold Smith is currently used every Wednesday, Saturday and visiting day for cars. Physical Plant Director Chuck Williams spoke up, saying, "Unless we have an alternative we're going to have problems." He mentioned that with the upcoming renovation of the tennis courts there will be room for a possible 80-100 car lot on the eastern end of the lower level.

Jeff Louis, head of the committee, announced that the dorm would be moving to bidding stage, and introduced the next topic, the science center. David Childs, alum and architect of John Louis, Louis Marx and the pool, has been selected to design the building when it moves to that stage. Mr. Widmer also noted that administrators had visited the new Middlebury College science facility and that Deerfield would like to follow their lead in constructing an environmentally-conscious building. Though the current science center is only 26 years old, Rich Bonanno, dean of faculty, spoke about the need for a new facility, saying that over that time, "the level of complexity of labs has changed significantly."

The meeting made it clear that any plans for a new science building will take time and thought, as well as fund raising, before designs are set. Kate and I appreciated the opportunity to meet the trustees and hope that Deerfield students will be kept informed on campus development.