College breaks ground on Battell Park

Article originally published by the The Middlebury Campus | October 2, 2025

Construction of the park will be carried out in three phases, the first being the addition of a sidewalk spanning from the edge of New Battell into Battell Beach, followed by the installation of a swing set, fixed hammocks, and three five-foot sun couches. The equipment, which will be purchased from the manufacturer Kompan, will be built from wood-framed installations chosen to complement the surrounding nature. 

The equipment is set to arrive on Nov. 6, and the project’s estimated time of completion is the end of this semester. 

Last year, Barbara McCall, associate vice president for student health and well-being,  reached out to various student groups to ask about the places that they saw as important for community mental health. 

“They named spaces like the Adirondack chairs, the swings at Twilight, and the picnic tables outside of Proctor,” McCall said. With this feedback, the concept of Battell Park, an outdoor space catered to the needs of the student body, was formed. 

Head Horticulturalist and Visiting Lecturer Tim Parsons was approached last fall by the Director of Facilities to help guide this project, which has ultimately become student-led. 

“My goal as a landscaper has always been to make the outside part of your experience here,” Parsons said. “I think this school has a great reputation for outdoor experiences elsewhere …we have beautiful grounds with no place to sit outside and enjoy the weather,” he added. 

Parsons took the project as an opportunity to involve his students, allowing his landscape design class to decide the most optimal locations for this park. Parsons noted that the swings at Twilight were in constant use; the class decided that placing the park on Battell Beach would allow students to enjoy activities like these in a more centrally-located area. 

One student in this class, Mica Bodkins ’26, took her involvement one step further, collaborating with Parsons to create plans for this park as her J-Term independent project. 

Bodkins addressed the uncertainties regarding the construction on Battell Beach. 

“It’s hard for students to see their beloved Battell Beach getting ripped up, I think getting students to see what is actually going on is really important,” she said. 

The design process began with sight analysis and sketches to determine where there was concentrated student movement in the space, and where existing gas and power lines were running underground. The conceptual design phase came next, followed by collaboration between McCall and the Student Government Association (SGA) to create schematic designs for what students would actually like to see implemented. 

“Middlebury has a lot of beautiful spaces … but the idea of this area was that it would be student-owned, a place that students have a responsibility for,” Bodkins said. 

Parsons noted the improvement of this area of campus overall. 

“When you think of this in concert with the … Battell museum, you see we are really starting to develop Battell beach,” he said. 

Battell Park will not only offer Middlebury students a space that they can feel ownership and responsibility over, but it also strives to make Battell Beach, one of Middlebury’s open outdoor spaces, more usable. 

Phases two and three are contingent on approval from the Board of Trustees and additional funding from the Center for Health and Wellness, but current plans include the addition of more hammocks, a pavilion, hill seating in an amphitheater style, a fire pit, and two sand volleyball courts down the hill from Pearsons Hall. 

Parsons, Bodkins, and McCall all expressed a desire for these subsequent phases to be increasingly student-led. The ability to continue this project relies on approval from the Board of Trustees and the ability to acquire more funding from the Center for Health and Wellness.