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It’s no secret that Grey’s Anatomy creator and Shondaland CEO is a fan of Dartmouth. The celebrated showrunner, producer, screenwriter, and author made her affection clear in her viral 2014 Commencement address, and she continues to demonstrate it in her service as a member of the and in her enthusiasm for the reopening this fall of the Hopkins Center for the Arts, where she performed and directed as a student. 

Now Rhimes is throwing her support behind comprehensive housing vision by pledging $15 million to name one of the new undergraduate residence halls transforming West Wheelock Street.

The five-story Shonda Rhimes Hall is not only the first Dartmouth building named for a woman, but also the first building named for a Black alum. It is slated to break ground early next year and to open in 2028 in time to welcome the Class of 2032.

“This extraordinary gift is pivotal for Dartmouth at this time,” says President Beilock, who began discussing the gift with Rhimes two years ago. “It will directly enhance the student experience while reimagining a key part of campus. I’m grateful to Shonda, who has made a career of creating inclusive worlds where any one of us can be the protagonist of the story. We are honored that her name will grace this building and be a beacon of welcome to the generations of Dartmouth students who will write their own stories here with that same expansive sense of possibility.”

“It’s an opportunity to show how formative my college experience was for me. It’s also really beautiful to be able to place some legacy on the building—to give back what was given to me and to leave something behind,” Rhimes says of the gift. “And at a time when it feels like people are questioning the value of higher education, it feels important to put my money back into higher education.”

Rhimes, whose TV productions include Scandal, How to Get Away With Murder, and Bridgerton, among many others, has been inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame and Dartmouth’s Entrepreneurs Hall of Fame.

Rhimes says she hadn’t realized the historic nature of her gift when she first decided to support the housing initiative. When she learned of this distinction, she says, “My first thought was: Dartmouth wasn’t made in my image, but it is possible to remake it to include my image. There has been a continual making and remaking of who Dartmouth is for and who belongs here. I think philanthropy can set an example and open doors for other people to see what’s possible.”

Strengthening community 

Dartmouth’s push to build new undergraduate housing on West Wheelock Street is part of President Beilock’s $500 million commitment to create at least 1,000 new beds for students, faculty, and staff in the next 10 years. The goal: strengthening the student community by making it possible for more than 90% of undergraduates to live on campus and helping to make housing more affordable and available in the surrounding communities of the Upper Valley.

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The five-story Shonda Rhimes Hall planned for West Wheelock Street is one of several buildings fulfilling President Sian Leah Beilock’s call to create at least 1,000 new beds for students, faculty, and staff in the next 10 years. (Rendering by Elkus Manfredi Architects) 

When it opens in fall 2028, Shonda Rhimes Hall will house 115 juniors and seniors in apartment-style suites on the north side of West Wheelock Street between the Connecticut River and Thayer Drive. It will adjoin another residence hall and will be located just west of the previously announced Class of 1989 Hall. The structures combined will house about 400 students. The buildings, which will cost $95 million to construct, are being designed to achieve LEED Gold certification, and their infrastructure will connect to the upgraded energy system Dartmouth is developing as part of its ongoing .

They will also sit down West Wheelock Street from Russo Hall, which is currently under construction.

The third major housing gift announced in 12 months by Beilock, this gift brings total funds raised for undergraduate housing to $82.5 million. With these new buildings, as well as the ongoing renovation of existing residences such as Fayerweather Hall and the construction of 21 houses for employees in West Lebanon, Dartmouth expects to have achieved nearly three-quarters of its 1,000-bed goal by the end of 2028.

Rhimes to students: ‘Try everything’

For Rhimes, who lived on campus for all four years as an undergraduate, the Dartmouth residential experience was a time of exploration and of building lifelong relationships.

“I was a very sheltered kid, and coming to Dartmouth opened my eyes to the world in a way that I never imagined possible—and I could imagine a lot,” says Rhimes, who grew up in a suburb of Chicago, the daughter of academics.

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Shonda Rhimes ’91, shown here at her graduation, helped lead the Black Underground Theater and Arts Association while at Dartmouth. (Courtesy of Shonda Rhimes ’91) 

As a first-year student she lived in French Hall, part of the River Cluster. “It was an outpost of Dartmouth. We were down the hill and around the corner, and there wasn’t much in between the way there is now,” she says. “But because we were all out there and nobody wanted to walk uphill in the wintertime, it made for a tighter community. I’m still friends with some of the people that lived on that dorm floor with me.”

She had never participated in theater, but she joined the Black Underground Theater and Arts Association and by senior year was directing productions. She wrote for The Dartmouth student newspaper. She didn’t think of herself as a visual artist, but she took drawing classes that revealed new ways of seeing. 

“One piece of advice I would give anybody entering Dartmouth is to try everything,” she says—a philosophy in line with her 2015 memoir, Year of Yes, whose 10th-anniversary edition is being released in October. 

“That’s one of the best things that comes from being inside that little Hanover bubble—you have the ability to try new activities you’ve never done before, new intellectual pursuits, to meet somebody different from anyone you’ve met before,” she says. “There’s something about allowing yourself to be brave within the College walls that will expand your world more than you ever dreamed.”

Spaces to grow and create

Residential halls play a central role in Dartmouth’s sense of community and distinctive learning model, and the new residences on West Wheelock Street are creating a neighborhood for juniors and seniors to experience apartment living while still having all the benefits of on-campus life, says , senior vice president for operations. In Rhimes Hall, the mostly four-bedroom suites will include kitchens, bathrooms, and common living space. 

“The ultimate goal is to have the first two years be more dorm-style, with students developing a place-based connection within the house system,” Keniston says, referring to Dartmouth’s six house communities, to which every Dartmouth student has an affiliation from the time they matriculate. “In your junior and senior year, you can still maintain an affiliation with a house, but it’s less place-based. You can choose whom to live with. You can cook your own meals or eat in the dining hall. You’re getting ready to be out in the world as an adult.”

Offering students different housing options at different stages of their undergraduate career makes sense to Rhimes. “For me, the person I was when I came in as a freshman is completely different from the person I was as a junior. In the beginning you’re finding your way. By your junior year, you’re pursuing the goals that are going to work for you after you graduate. So I think a different kind of housing is necessary.”

The building’s amenities respond directly to input from students, gathered through surveys and discussions, and Rhimes has been actively engaged with the project architects to incorporate design elements that cultivate community, creativity, and wellness. 

For example, a ground-floor living room, inspired by campus spaces such as the Top of the Hop, will provide a welcoming, cozy, and flexible space for the entire 400-student neighborhood to meet and make community. In addition to comfortable furniture that can be adapted to a variety of social uses, the space will feature a grand piano—a detail Rhimes suggested. 

A wellness studio—a top student request—will allow students to meditate or do yoga or light cardio individually or in small groups. There will be a bicycle maintenance and repair area and indoor, secure bike storage, as well as seasonal storage for skis. And a variety of soundproof spaces of different sizes will be available for practicing music, recording podcasts, or other activities that might be disruptive in more public spaces or require uninterrupted focus. 

Rhimes, who played oboe at Dartmouth, encouraged building designers to place these soundproof rooms adjacent to each other and to the common living room to make it easier for students with creative interests to find each other and collaborate, Keniston says. 

“The architect heard from Shonda that she wanted a creative area where you could run into your peers who are doing similar things,” Keniston says. “She’s been pushing us to think about how to make spaces that have nooks and crannies where you can have some of these unplanned interactions that actually lead to something creative.”

“The way that President Beilock is looking at housing for the future is going to fundamentally change how people exist on campus,” says Rhimes. “It’s expanding housing that embraces the maturity of our students and recognizes the value of our faculty and our graduate students. It also provides more ways to engage in community. When everybody can have a home on campus, the campus starts to feel more like home.”