Great times, as the 4th floor was a bunch of sophomores plus the few new freshmen that got slots that were open, so everyone was a year ahead and grudgingly yet willingingly let us join the family.
Here's a write-up, since they blew the place up (or imploded it, actually, and that link is below).
From the website: http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/rick-smith-the-short-history-of-a-tall-building
RICK SMITH: The short history of a tall building
Rick Smith
5:56 PM, Oct 25, 2009
5:58 PM, Oct 26, 2009
SAN ANGELO, Texas - One of my Facebook friends said it best: “There goes a third of the skyline!”
Love them or hate ’em, Angelo State University’s twin high-rise dormitories have been San Angelo landmarks for four decades.
When the original building, first called the Women’s High-Rise and now known as University Hall, comes tumbling down this morning, it will mark the end of an era.
I figure our first high-rise dorm deserves an obituary. Here’s a short history of the tall building:
* Aug. 7, 1966 — A story in the Standard-Times announced Angelo State College “officials are firming up plans for a new classroom building, twin high-rise dormitories and food service and a new science building as work progresses on the new $1.5 million library.”
* Sept. 29, 1966 — University officials predicted an enrollment of 7,500 students by 1978, with 5,000 of the students living in dormitories. The campus master plan, developed by architects Max Lovett and Gene Sellars, called for eight high-rise dormitories in all.
* June 1967 — The last of $3.5 million in bonds to pay for the new high-rise dormitory were sold in New York.
* July 1967 — Workers began digging the building’s basement.
* August 1967 — Locus Construction Co. of Abilene, the building’s contractor, completed the last of the foundation piers for the dorm.
* Dec. 15, 1967 — A photograph in the Standard-Times showed a skeletal frame of a 10-story freight elevator at the work site. On top of the framework perched a frost-covered Christmas tree.
* Feb. 5, 1968 — Alan Hatler, a 29-year-old construction worker from Garland, fell seven stories from the dorm and was pronounced dead on arrival at Shannon Hospital.
A spokesman for Locus Construction Co. said the worker “lost his footing” while doing concrete form work on the building.
Peace Justice O.L. “Pop” Miller ruled the death accidental.
* February 1968 — ASC held a pre-construction conference with architects, builders and others to discuss the construction of a second high-rise dormitory and a new food service center. Projected completion date for the food center was set for September 1968. Completion date for the men’s dorm was a year after that.
* March 1968 — Working “full speed ahead,” McDonald Brothers of Fort Worth began attaching precast marble wall panels on the south and north walls of the dorm. A crane hoisted the panels into place on the concrete skeleton of the building.
* April 1968 — Despite spring rains and difficult winter weather, contractors said the dorm was “about two-thirds complete” and “right at schedule” to be completed by Sept. 1.
* April 1968 — The university accepted bids for 2,775 square yards of carpet for the women’s dormitory. Carpet for the dorm’s formal lounge “will be top quality carpet,” the bid specified, while carpet for the living areas must be “highly stain resistant and easily cleaned.”
* Sept. 9, 1969 — A black and white photo in the Standard-Times showed the lights glowing on every floor of the completed building.
The lights, the caption said, “give a ‘big city’ look to the San Angelo skyline at night.”
* Sept. 10, 1968 — ASC President Lloyd D. Vincent squelched rumors that the new dorm would not open by the time fall registration began on Sept. 23.
* Sept. 18, 1968 — Board of Regents officials and other officials inspected the building and gave it their approval for occupancy.
* Sept. 19, 1968 — Workers, laboring 10 hours a day, seven days a week, continued installing draperies and carpet.
* Sept. 20-21, 1968 — Last-minute clean up and touch-up work continued. Details included the planting of shrubbery and St. Augustine grass around the outside of the dorm.
* Sept. 22, 1968 — At 2 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon, the dorm’s doors opened to the first residents, who began moving into the new building.
* Sept. 29, 1968 — Construction began on the Men’s High-Rise Dormitory.
* September 1969 — Angelo State University’s long-range planning committee indicated the high-rise style of construction for dormitories could be discontinued.
“The possibility of moving away from the high-rise concept came as a surprise because six to eight similar dorms are planned,” a Standard-Times reporter wrote.
* Fall 2004 — The Women’s High-Rise, renamed University Hall, was vacated after studies showed renovating or converting the building to other uses would be cost-prohibitive.
* Oct. 25, 2009 — If all goes as planned, ASU’s first skyline-altering “big city” building will drop from the sky shortly after sunrise.
Rick Smith is a local news and community affairs columnist. Contact him at rsmith@gosanangelo.com or 659-8248.
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