The Loj, a New Hampshire retreat operated by the Tufts Mountain Club (TMC), may soon receive a significant upgrade: a new building.
The Loj is a seven-room cabin located in Woodstock, New Hampshire about 120 miles north of Tufts' Medford campus. Many students stay at the cabin during skiing trips or group retreats.
The new structure will provide separate spaces for those who want to wake up early for trips and those who wish to stay up late, according to junior Dan Buonaiuto, the TMC president. The building will be known as the "trips cabin."
"Basically, at the Loj right now, there's only one building, so there's always a conflict between people who want to hang out and meet new people and those that want to go to sleep early to go on trips the next day," Buonaiuto said.
"You [will not] have to worry about sharing a lot," said sophomore Katie Bond, public relations director for the project. "They can have fun without having to be hushed at certain hour and without the tension."
According to the proposal, a quiet hour similar to the one that exists in dormitories will be in place in the trips cabin. The new structure will have two rooms - one for sleeping and one for gear and equipment storage - according to a proposal for the project compiled by senior and Trips Cabin Director Ed Warren. The club hopes construction will begin in either late summer or early fall.
While it will be a separate structure, the trips cabin will not have plumbing. This will save money while facilitating interaction between guests in both cabins, Buonaiuto said.
"It will be connected to the existing structure in the sense that it won't have bathrooms or a kitchen," he said.
The cabin is necessary from a legal standpoint as well as a convenience one. According the proposal, the Loj is only allowed to host 26 guests. But on a typical weekend, the retreat often hosts more than 40 guests. During special events, the Loj may even play host to as many as 79 visitors.
The new trips cabin will add 18 beds, increasing the legal capacity of the Loj by 70 percent. The extra storage room will also lower the chance of visitors losing their gear when it is mixed with other guests' belongings.
Currently, the project is only in its initial stages. The biggest barrier to the project is money. The TMC has not yet collected the funding necessary to hire an architect to create renderings for the new structure.
"The finances will be the biggest obstacles to overcome," Warren said. "We'd love to have a TMC alum to come back and do an [architectural study] for us."
The current proposal does include Computer Aided Design (CAD) diagrams rendered by Tufts alumni of what the proposed trips cabin would look like. But the CAD diagrams are not official and cannot be used for construction. No financial estimates for the project will exist until after such a study is completed.
The TMC will not be alone in raising the money. The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate and the administration will likely be donating money to help in the project's completion.
It will be a "three-way joint financing effort between our own financing, the Senate and the administration," Buonaiuto said.
According to Dean of Students Bruce Reitman, it is essential that all three organizations be involved in the project to ensure its success.
"Last time there was a Loj [construction] proposal ... it was the product of the collaborative effort of the Mountain Club and the administration and the Senate, so those were the three stakeholders and the three that actually came up with the funding," Reitman said. "That's probably the only way it can happen again."
He said the administration has a vested interest in the project due to the extensive student use the retreat gets.
"The Loj has been very successful and has been used not just by TMC members. That kind of use gets my attention," Reitman said.
TCU President Neil DiBiase agreed with Reitman, saying that it is the Senate's duty to contribute to projects such as the trips cabin construction.
"This is what Senate is supposed to do," said DiBiase, a junior. "When a student organization needs to make something happen, the Senate needs to be there. [The trips cabin project is] something that students want, and something we'll work hard to do."
While the whole Senate did not weigh in on the question of funding, DiBiase said he discussed the idea with TCU Treasurer Scott Silverman, a sophomore.
"We are reviewing [budgeting], and we will hopefully set up some meetings ... to try and figure the best way to make [the project] happen," DiBiase said.
Warren met and discussed the project with Reitman and DiBiase. Although they support the project, no funds have yet been committed.
The TMC will also conduct fundraising drives. "We'll be starting as soon as we get a green light from the administration," Warren said.
Such an approval, Reitman said, will only come after a professional study has been conducted on the property.
"We want to make sure that if we want to spend a lot of time, [we should] consider [whether] what's going on is feasible," Reitman said.
Reitman suggested that the administration might be willing to donate the funds to conduct such a study.
Though no timeline has been set and funding has not been collected, the TMC hopes construction will begin either in late summer or early fall and extend into the next school year when many guests will want to use the Loj. The project is not expected to interfere with guests wishing to stay at the existing structure next semester.
"It shouldn't have any impact," Warren said. "Most of our volume goes up on the weekend when there wouldn't be any construction."
Though the Loj is operated by the TMC, it is actually a university-owned property. Thus, the building, its renovations and eventually the trips cabin project will fall under the realm of Facilities.
This project will be one more step in the Loj's eventful history. According to the TMC Web site, the original Loj, which was purchased in North Woodstock in 1942, was destroyed by a fire. Subsequent structures have been paved over by the state of New Hampshire or condemned. This will be the fifth structure built or purchased by the TMC.
Though no timeline has been set for the project, everyone involved appears to be looking forward to its completion.
"We're all really excited about it. Big things are happening," Bond said.
