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Over the next three years the Smith campus will be abuzz with the sounds of three major construction projects intended to enhance the life of students, faculty and staff well into the 21st century. For the first of these projects--a sorely needed 350-car parking garage--an architectural firm has been hired. At its February meeting, the Smith College Board of Trustees approved the appointment of the architectural firm of Arrowstreet Inc. of Somerville, Massachusetts, to design the garage, which Smith students, staff and neighbors hope will help ease the college's daily parking problems. The $4 million structure will be built on West Street, south of Garrison Hall. If all goes according to plan, groundbreaking for the project could take place this fall. While the four-story garage is a step towards solving the college's chronic parking crunch, other new parking spots are being considered as well, says Bill Brandt, director of campus operations and facilities. The college's 1996 Master Landscape Plan, designed to halt the gradual decline of Smith's historic and unique landscape features, calls for Dickinson parking lot on Green Street to be closed and replaced with a plaza and green space once the West Street garage is open for business. Other parking spaces will be created around campus with the construction of smaller surface lots. Smith's fine arts complex, which includes the Museum of Art, is slated to undergo extensive renovation and expansion under a proposal recently approved by the board of trustees. The trustees also approved the planned renovation and expansion of the fine arts complex (which includes art classrooms and studios, Hillyer Art Library and the Museum of Art) as recommended in a planning study completed last spring by the firm of R.M. Kliment and Frances Halsband Architects of New York City. The construction work will solidify the complex's reputation as one of the finest of its kind at any liberal arts college in the country. The architect selection process begins this spring and groundbreaking is expected in 2000. Likewise, Smith moved a third project off the drawing board and into the active phase with a go-ahead for the long-awaited campus center. The board of trustees in February approved a site for the center in the vicinity of John M. Greene Hall, and gave the college authorization to begin an architectural search. The new campus center will provide a gathering place for students and a hub for social and leisure activities on campus. It's an idea that has been endorsed by the 1996 Campus Center Task Force, the Smith Self-Study Committee and the Committee on Planning and Resources. A planning study conducted last spring by the architectural firm of Sasaki and Associates of Watertown, Massachusetts, recommended two sites for the center; the second, at what is now Dickinson parking lot, was rejected as being too small. Taking into account the time it will take to choose an architect and produce a design for the building, Brandt estimates that groundbreaking for the center might occur sometime in 2000. Whether it is the construction of a brand-new facility or the renovation of an existing one, the evolution of a project relies heavily on how well the project is planned by the architects. Smith takes very seriously the selection of architects, Brandt says. Firms are invited to respond to a request for proposals according to a formal policy, adopted by Smith last year, that calls for an on-campus architect screening committee to oversee the selection process. Based on the responses, a small number of semifinalists are invited to campus to make formal presentations to the screening committee. Following those, at least three firms are recommended to the Smith Board of Trustees Building and Grounds Committee, which ultimately recommends a firm to the full board.

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Copyright © 1998, Smith College. Portions of this publication may be reproduced with the permission of the Office
of College Relations, Garrison Hall, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts 01063. Last update: 4/16/98.

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