Watterson Towers, a student residence hall at Illinois State University, is one of the tallest dormitories in the world.[1] Located in Normal, Illinois, at the corner of Fell and Beaufort Streets, it was completed in 1967. The 28-story complex holds over 2,200 students and stands at 91m (298.5 feet).[2] Watterson Towers was named after Arthur W. Watterson, a popular professor and chair of the ISU Geography Department, who taught at the University from 1946-1966. The building was designed by Fridstein and Fitch Architects in Chicago.
Externally, the most noticeable feature of the building is that it consists of two separate towers. From the outside an observer sees that the two towers are connected at several points by breezeways (a misnomer, as they are not exposed to the outside in any way). However, to the residents, this division into towers goes almost unnoticed, as what is far more important is the internal division of the building into houses. Watterson is composed of ten of these houses, (five in each tower), and each is considered—in terms of campus governance—to be its own residence hall. The houses are named after the first ten Secretaries of State of the United States.[3]
Each "house" consists of five consecutive floors of a tower. Houses at the same level are paired both physically (in terms of access, see below) and in terms of student governance. For example, the bottom five residential floors of the South Tower comprise "Smith House," and the bottom five residential floors of the North Tower comprise "Jefferson House." Collectively, these are referred to as "Smith-Jefferson," and some governance functions, such as Residential Assistant oversight, are organized on this paired level.
Within a house, most floors are divided into four "suites" consisting of six rooms each. The suites include four double occupancy rooms, a triple room, and a single occupancy room. However, on the middle (third) floor of each house, there are only two suites, as the area for the other two suites is taken up by other things, including the connecting breezeways and some study lounges.
North Tower Houses
From top to bottom
South Tower Houses
From top to bottom
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Watterson's unique design prevents it from having traditional elevator service, that is, the eight elevators that operate in the building do not stop at every floor.
Watterson Towers, now more than 40 years old, is currently in the midst of a complete restoration, which will be completed using the houses as stages.[4] The food court renovations were completed in 2010.
On Halloween Weekend 2011 a 45 year old woman attempted to climb the 28 story building by using the scaffolding (being used for renovations) on the East side of the building. Reports say she leaned back on the scaffolding and plummeted 200 feet to her death in front of hundreds of spectators. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The woman was not a student, and it is still to be determined why she attempted to climb the building, especially with the cold, wet, and windy conditions. [5]