BIG GREEN'S BUILDING PROGRAM NEARS ZENITH

Dartmouth will have a covered hockey rink for the coming season. An announcement from the President's office states that funds anonymously provided enable the College to proceed at once with the construction of a building to be located on the site of the former rink at the east end of the Alumni Gymnasium. President Ernest M. Hopkins in making the announcement said that work on the rink would be rushed in order that the varsity and freshman squads may occupy the building at the start of the hockey season.

Vote Made Last Year

More than a year ago the Dartmouth trustees voted that a hockey rink should be built as soon as funds were provided for the purpose. At that time it seemed probable that a group of alumni, headed by one already a generous benefactor of the College, would contribute toward the building of an arena to house an enclosed rink. The plan did not develop in time to build a rink for use during last season. Active agitation for a rink has been carried on in the meantime however, by a group of Dartmouth alumni interested in hockey. The donor of this latest gift to Dartmouth enables the College to fill what graduating classes have often voted to be the greatest athletic need of the College.

Architect Releases Plans

The cost of construction of the rink is estimated at $60,000. J. Frederick Larson, college architect, describes the building as a simple structure with main points, balancing the Davis Field House on the opposite wing of the gymnasium. Viewed from the exterior, the rink will appear low, with two prominent main entrances, one facing Park Street at the east end and the other at the west near the gymnasium. There will be four exits in addition to the entrances. The rink will be 220 feet long, with a roof span 116 feet wide and 33 feet above the ice. A patented truss which has been developed for airplane hangars and hockey rinks will be used, making possible a large arch without any supporting trusses. The ice surface will be 188 feet by 85 feet. All of the exterior walls will be of brick to match the general architecture of the College.

Vents Will Afford Natural Ice

Natural ice, considered much superior to artificial ice for hockey, will be formed in the new rink by the use of vents opening from the walls under the stands. These openings will fill the rink with cold air during the night and once a good body of ice is formed it will be possible to hold this during any protracted thaw. This method of forming ice has been used successfully throughout Canada and in many rinks in this country.

Will Seat Seventeen Hundred

A notable example of the results obtained in this way was demonstrated to the Dartmouth team last winter when a game was played at Hamilton College on excellent ice at a rink very similar to the one under consideration here. The outside temperature was above freezing, but the ice successfully held through the thaw. Not only will the building provide good hockey ice but it will also be comfortable for spectators. The seating capacity of the rink will be 1700, with standing room for about 1000.

President Hopkins said that the plans were in accordance with the suggestions of H. R. Heneage, supervisor of athletics, whose ceaseless insistence upon the need for a rink and whose suggestions in regard to practicable plans had induced the gift.