Exterior furnishing and interior development remain well underway on the new first year dorm located between Coffrin Hall and BiHall, situated on the northern end of Battell Beach. The new dorm is set to replace Battell Hall, which will be torn down and replaced by an updated college art museum and multipurpose learning space in the coming years.
The project first broke ground in June 2023, and completed its “dry-in” phase — the period of construction in which the exterior support structures and roof are completed — in March of this year.
Based out of Brandon, Vt., construction company Naylor & Breen has had a long-term partnership with the college beyond the development of the new dorm. Naylor & Breen have renovated a number of Middlebury buildings and facilities, including Warner Hall, the Prism Center for Queer and Trans Life and, most recently, the Johnson Memorial Building.
Last week, Project Superintendent John Drinwater gave us a tour of the dorm in its current state. We donned our hard hats and ventured where few Middlebury students have gone before. Walking carefully between new welding and to-be-completed wiring, The Campus’ executive team bravely explored the new dorm to see just how well the class of 2029 will be living next fall.
The basement floor — one of five total accessible levels, with a non-residential sixth level off-limits to students — features a laundry room with nine washer and dryer units, a bike room with 55 racks and two janitorial closets, according to Drinwater. The college is still debating whether to install heat-pump systems — which Drinwater said would be more expensive to maintain and require advanced mechanical knowledge — or the more typical units available to anyone in Forest, Atwater or Stewart Halls.
The basement floor also features the electrical room, which is currently vacant of all the necessary electrical equipment needed to power the dorm. Drinwater explained that the electrical power system is set to arrive in early winter.
“One of the things we're waiting on is our main electrical gear, so I can't energize anything in the building until I have the main gear. Same with the elevator, and all that big stuff. We should be seeing that around December,” Drinwater told The Campus.
Moving to the upper floors, Drinwater detailed the designs and dimensions of the residential rooms — almost all of them doubles, and which will number about 150 rooms, in order to house approximately 300 students. Each double room contains one open closet space for each student — similar to the open closets in Atwater Hall rooms — and built-in shelves on either side of the room’s door.
One new feature of each double in the new dorm that is not found anywhere else on campus are peepholes, located next to the pin-pad. Directed into the hallway, the peepholes allow for students inside the room to gain a wide-angle view of anyone who might be at the door or nearby in the hallway. Each of us took a turn putting our eyes up to the peephole from inside a room to see Drinwater’s shape on the other side, where he stood patiently waiting for us to come out.
“It was part of the hardware package I mean, I think it's a great addition and they're pretty concealed where right next to the hardware, you don't even notice them,” Drinwater explained.
Each double, Drinwater said, is 15 feet in width by 20 feet in length. The doubles on the first floor also feature ceilings that are two feet higher than those of the rooms on higher floors.
The communal bathrooms on each floor are spacious, L-shaped spaces with three open sinks and several sizable, individual lockable spaces with a shower and toilet — luxuries we could only dream of as first years.
Additionally, each floor will offer a kitchen space — a true rarity among Middlebury dorms, which usually only feature one or two for the residents of each hall that does not include suite-style living arrangements.
Overlooking Battell Beach, the fourth floor of the new dormitory offers a common room comparable to those of the floors beneath it, but with two impressive additions: cathedral ceilings and arched windows, the latter of which offers the clearest view of the campus sprawl of any accessible vantage point in the dorm. With vaulted ceilings and spacious dorms, the next crop of first years will be living like royalty come September.
Located above the fourth floor is the attic floor, which will be off-limits to students and houses much of the lighting and climate-regulation equipment the dorm requires. (Note: Do not even attempt to venture near the cupola if you have a fear of heights or unstable ladders, as we discovered some of us do last week.)
Among these pieces of equipment are energy recovery (ER) units, and Drinwater explained how they set and control the interior temperature of the dorm.
“[The ER units] pull air into the building, they climatize it and then push it out to the rooms,” Drinwater said.
While circling the perimeter, Drinwater provided an update on the masonry and chimneywork which sheathes the inner walls and structure of the dorm.
“We're getting close and we've been working on the chimneys up there. There's a lot of really large stones to set up on top. Realistically, I'm gonna run out of time by the time I finish [the roof masonry],” Drinwater said. The masonry team plans to work through the winter to complete what work remains on the chimneys and on the sides of the building.
“All the kids will kick the doors in periodically, and spray paint stuff in there and play frisbee and just do fun stuff,” Drinwater explained, warning that there are plenty of hazards to trip up unexpected partiers who want to see the new residence in the moonlight. “It's getting better now that the stairs are tied in, but there's some pretty good open shafts or like at the elevator in the stairs.”
The very first students to live in the new dorm will not be first years, but Middlebury Language Schools students next summer. Whether it will be in Russian, Chinese or German, the students will inevitably have a lot to say about the impressive facilities that Naylor & Breen employees have been and will continue to work through the winter and spring to welcome them in June.
Cole Chaudhari ’26 (he/him) is a Managing Editor.
Cole is a managing editor at The Campus, where he has previously served as a news editor, copy editor, and staff writer. He is a junior, and is studying history and literature.
Ryan McElroy '25 (he/him) is the Editor in Chief.
Ryan has previously served as a Managing Editor, News Editor and Staff Writer. He is majoring in history with a minor in art history. Outside of The Campus, he is co-captain of Middlebury Mock Trial and previously worked as Head Advising Fellow for Matriculate and a research assistant in the History department. Last summer Ryan interned as a global risk analyst at a bank in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Madeleine Kaptein '25.5 (she/her) is a managing editor.
Madeleine previously served as a staff writer, copy editor and local editor. She is a Comparative Literature major with minors in German and Art History. In Spring 2024, she studied abroad in Mainz, Germany, from where she wrote for the Addison Independent about her host country. In her free time, she enjoys journaling, long walks and runs, and uncomplicated visual arts projects.
