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Dartmouth Begins West Wheelock Demolitions as Part of $500 Million Undergraduate Housing Plan

Published Updated 3 min read

This article was originally reported in January 2025. Progress through 2026 is covered in the latest update.

Dartmouth College announced on January 31, 2025 that it would begin demolishing three college-owned buildings at 14, 41 and 43 West Wheelock Street in early February 2025, the next step in President Sian Leah Beilock’s $500 million plan to renew undergraduate housing and add 1,000 beds for students, faculty and staff over a decade. Dartmouth had bought the three properties in June 2024. The site at 14 West Wheelock would first support construction elsewhere on the street and later be redeveloped for housing; the land at 41 and 43 West Wheelock, whose buildings were past their useful life, would first be used to store materials for the new Russo Hall, with design work for housing to follow (Dartmouth News, January 31, 2025).

Dartmouth College modern housing revitalization

The $500 Million Housing Plan

Dartmouth laid out the plan in September 2024, calling it a once-in-a-generation investment in new and renewed undergraduate housing. Its main parts (Dartmouth News, September 17, 2024):

  • More beds: a combined 1,000 new beds for students, faculty and staff within ten years, with the goal of housing more than 90% of undergraduates on campus, up from 85% at the time.
  • New apartment-style halls on West Wheelock Street: starting with Russo Hall at 25 West Wheelock, an apartment-style residence for juniors and seniors with single bedrooms, kitchens, single-user bathrooms and shared study and social space. It was funded in part by a $30 million gift from Thomas A. Russo and Gina T. Russo, both Class of 1977, the largest gift for undergraduate housing in Dartmouth’s history, which launched a $165 million fundraising campaign for Dartmouth’s first new undergraduate residences in more than 20 years.
  • Renewal of existing halls: staged renovation of about 60% of existing undergraduate residences over 15 years. Andres Hall reopened in fall 2023 and Zimmerman Hall and Brace Commons in fall 2024, together adding a net 24 beds; Fayerweather Hall, about 120 years old, began renovation in summer 2024.
  • Sustainability: buildings are moving from oil-fired steam to geo-exchange hot-water heating and cooling, in support of Dartmouth’s goal of cutting campus carbon emissions 60% by 2030 and 100% by 2050. “We are designing all of our new residences and our housing renewal projects to last more than 100 years,” said Josh Keniston, then senior vice president of capital planning and campus operations.

Latest Update (2026)

By March 2026, Dartmouth said Russo Hall and the renovated Fayerweather Hall were on track to open in fall 2026 (Dartmouth News, March 30, 2026):

  • Russo Hall houses 283 juniors and seniors in apartment-style suites, most with four single bedrooms, two single-user bathrooms and a shared living room and kitchen. Each floor has private rooms for telehealth appointments or job interviews, and the building includes a library, lounge, game room and bike storage.
  • Fayerweather Hall in South House gains 35 beds, elevators and a new house social center, for 263 beds in total, with all five levels wheelchair accessible. Once it opens, Dartmouth will no longer assign students to the off-campus Summit at Jupiter apartments.
  • Three more halls on West Wheelock Street, the Class of 1989 Hall, Shonda Rhimes Hall and Alumnae Hall, are under construction and are expected to house 404 juniors and seniors from fall 2028.
  • Mass Row, three century-old buildings in School House, is scheduled for full renovation starting in summer 2027.
  • Timeline: Dartmouth expects 783 new beds to be available by fall 2028 and now targets 2033 for reaching the 1,000-bed goal.

Juniors and seniors get access to the new Russo Hall apartments through Dartmouth’s fall housing selection process (Dartmouth Residential Life: About Fall Housing).

What It Means for International Students

  • Living on campus: Hanover is a small town with a limited rental market, so more on-campus beds matter for students who arrive from abroad without a local network. Most Dartmouth undergraduates already live on campus, and the new apartment-style halls give upper-class students an alternative to off-campus rentals.
  • Aid covers housing too: Dartmouth admits all applicants, including international students, without regard to financial need and meets 100% of demonstrated need, which includes room and board (Dartmouth News, January 2022; Dartmouth Financial Aid: International Students).
  • Size: according to the latest IPEDS data on our school page, Dartmouth enrolled 6,938 students in fall 2025, including 4,637 undergraduates, 726 of whom were international.
  • Ranking: Dartmouth is No. 12 among national universities in the 2027 U.S. News ranking, according to Forward Pathway’s US Colleges Ranking.

See our Dartmouth College profile for admissions, cost and ranking data.

References

#Dartmouth College#Sustainability#student housing

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