Connecticut College - Campus and Facilities

Campus and Facilities

The main campus has three residential areas. North Campus contains the newest residential halls (Morrisson, Wright, Lambdin, Park, Johnson—formerly Marshall—and Hamilton, collectively known as "The Plex"), all of which are connected to each other and Harris Dining Hall. South Campus contains residence halls along the west side of Tempel Green (Harkness, Jane Addams, Freeman, Knowlton, and Windham), across from several academic buildings. Central Campus contains the oldest residence halls (Burdick, Smith, Larrabee, Plant, Branford, Blackstone, Katharine Blunt, and Lazrus) and is the closest to the student center and the library. Students also have several less traditional housing options, including the 360 Apartments, River Ridge and Winchester Apartments, Earth House, and Abbey House. A few students also live off-campus in New London or Waterford.

The college's science facilities include the completely refurbished Science Center at New London Hall, a rooftop observatory, lab for NMR spectroscopy, a digital transmission electron microscope, a scanning electron microscope, a greenhouse, a channel flow laboratory, a GIS lab, and a 1 MeV Pelletron ion accelerator. Its computer facilities include standard UNIX and PC labs as well as specialized labs in robotics, networks, virtual reality and digital signal processing. The robotics lab is equipped with Sun workstations, PCs, robots, and overhead cameras. The virtual reality and signal processing lab (which is also part of the Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology) has high-end graphics PCs, head-mounted displays, 3-D trackers, force feedback devices, spatialized audio devices, and software for producing high-end animations and graphics.

The departments of the fine arts are located in three places around campus. The Cummings Arts Center contains two concert halls, the Center for Electronic and Digital Sound, pianos, practice rooms, a pipe organ. The Art and Music departments and their classrooms and studios are also housed in Cummings. Surrounding the Arts Center are numerous sculptures, especially in the courtyard known as Castle Court. This lies between Cummings and the largest of the college's performance spaces, Palmer Auditorium. The Theater Department has offices in Palmer, and has classes on the main stage, in a smaller classroom in Palmer, and in Tansill Theater, which is further north, near the main entrance. The Dance Department is housed on the third floor of the student center, and includes three dance studios.

There are three libraries on the campus. Shain Library houses a collection of more than 500,000 books and bound periodicals, along with an extensive collection of microforms, computer files, audio and video tapes. The library is also home to the Charles Chu Asian Art Reading Room, a space used for studying, public lectures, and receptions. In 2004, the "Blue Camel Cafe" opened in the library basement, selling coffee, tea, pastries and other items to studying and socializing students. The Greer Music Library in Cummings Arts Center holds books and periodicals about music and musicians, printed music, and numerous recordings. The chapel library, in the basement of Harkness Chapel includes volumes and periodicals related to religious studies and social justice.

• The Connecticut College Arboretum is a 750 acre (3 km²) arboretum and botanical garden. Students frequently go to the arboretum to walk, study, or otherwise enjoy nature. The arboretum is also open to the community, and its staff host frequent workshops, guided hikes, and other interpretive activities.

• Harkness Chapel is a fine example of noted architect James Gamble Rogers' colonial Georgian style, with twelve stained glass windows by G. Owen Bonawit. The building is used for several denominational religious services each week, as well as for ceremonies, concerts and recitals, weddings, and other public functions.

• The college has a variety of indoor and outdoor athletic facilities, including a new fitness center that opened in fall 2009.

• The Lyman Allyn Art Museum is located on campus, although it is not connected to the campus proper. The museum's web site describes it as follows: "Housed in a handsome Neo-Classical building designed by Charles A. Platt, the permanent collection includes over 10,000 paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, furniture and decorative arts, with an emphasis on American art from the 18th through 20th centuries."