Towers Hall
Encyclopedia
Dormitory
A dormitory, often shortened to dorm, in the United States is a residence hall consisting of sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students...
accommodating 310 students at Loughborough University
Loughborough University
Loughborough University is a research based campus university located in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, in the East Midlands of England...
, Loughborough
Loughborough
Loughborough is a town within the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England. It is the seat of Charnwood Borough Council and is home to Loughborough University...
, Leicestershire
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, it is located on the 'East Park' of the University's campus
Campus
A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls and park-like settings...
.
Design and construction
Towers was designed by Gollins Melvin Ward & Partners Chartered Architects of London in 1963, who were also designers of much of University of SheffieldUniversity of Sheffield
The University of Sheffield is a research university based in the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It is one of the original 'red brick' universities and is a member of the Russell Group of leading research intensive universities...
, the British Airways
British Airways
British Airways is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom, based in Waterside, near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. British Airways is the largest airline in the UK based on fleet size, international flights and international destinations...
terminal
Airport terminal
An airport terminal is a building at an airport where passengers transfer between ground transportation and the facilities that allow them to board and disembark from aircraft....
at John F. Kennedy International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport is an international airport located in the borough of Queens in New York City, about southeast of Lower Manhattan. It is the busiest international air passenger gateway to the United States, handling more international traffic than any other airport in North...
, New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and the Royal Military Academy
Royal Military Academy
The Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers...
building. The building was originally the proposed by John Bridgeman, the Principal of the Loughborough Teacher Training College. Bridgeman retired in 1963, and the building was completed in the time of the next principal, John Hardie.
Built during 1964-5 by William Moss & Sons Ltd, based in Loughborough, the construction process was not without event as the building began to subside
Subsidence
Subsidence is the motion of a surface as it shifts downward relative to a datum such as sea-level. The opposite of subsidence is uplift, which results in an increase in elevation...
at 8 storeys high as a result of a marsh which lay where Butler Court, a more recent Hall of Residence, now sits, so building work had to be postponed while concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
was pumped into the foundations of the structure.
The building is 210ft (64m) high in total; The East tower is about 157ft (48m) and the West about 183ft (56m).
Although the building was finished in 1966 Towers was first used for accommodation in September 1967.
The building is a Locally Listed Building of important interest, its description on Charnwood Borough Council's record states that it is a severe ‘modern’ high rise block comprising 2 towers of 22 and 18 storeys linked by a central access tower and is significant for its cold, grey modular pre-cast concrete construction.
Usage and Layout
In 1967 the rent per academic year (including meals) was just £310 pounds. In 2007 the equivalent cost was £4,063 for 35 weeks. From the academic year beginning September 2009, Towers Hall (and bar) will be closed for major refurbishment. Students applying to be in Towers will be transferred to Old Elvyn rooms, which are smaller. A 35 week let will increase in price by £300 above last year, however, to £4,545.80. Many other student halls in Loughborough are changing their tariffs to longer 39 week lets; Towers is expected to follow suit after refurbishment.Initially the hall was segregated by gender when it opened in 1967 - with the east tower allocated for men, and the west tower to women. In 1977 the College of Education amalgamated with the University. Shortly after this time, from September 1978 the separation became more relaxed.
Other subsequent changes have been the removal of the rooftop laundry room from the 21st floor and the enclosure of the base of the tower. (It was originally possible to walk right under the structure from one side to the other.)
The physical layout of each tower differs.
The East tower has 17 floors, each containing 6 bedroom (A-F), a small kitchen, a shower and a toilet. This tower is made up of concrete modules based on a distinctive six sided plan. All the bedrooms thus have six walls. The door to each bedroom - located opposite the window - opens into a central shared hallway. An access route to the central hallway from the lift and stairs - and also the facilities - are accommodated in two further similarly proportioned modules. Eight modules in total fit together symmetrically - in a ring - to form each floor of the East tower.
The larger West tower floors have 11 bedrooms (A-L), two bathrooms, two toilets and a larger kitchen on each of the 20 floors that accommodate students. The extra rooms are created by regularly interspersing the same modules (as used in the east tower) with - additionally - four "squarer" bedroom modules. Each bedroom opens onto an annular corridor hallway, which encircles the facilities. Thus eight "6 sided" and four "squarer" modules - twelve in total - fit together symmetrically in a ring to form each floor of the West tower.
The building has lifts in the centre core serving both towers. The lifts on the east side stop at even numbered floors, and the west side lifts stop at odd floors. There are also a number of student storage rooms located around the hall.