The Main Building (known colloquially as The Tower) is a structure at the center of the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

campus in

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ...

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The Main Building's tower has 27 floors and is one of the most recognizable symbols of the university and the city.

History

1882–1934

Main Building of the Texas State University, Austin, Texas (close up)

University of Texas at Austin August 2019 39 (Main Building)

The old Victorian-

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

Main Building served as the central point of the campus's forty-acre site, and was used for nearly all purposes beginning in 1882. However, by the 1930s, discussions arose about the need for new library space, and the Main Building was razed in 1934 over the objections of many students and faculty. All that remains of the Old Main Building are its old chime bells (called the Burleson Bells), which are now exhibited as part of a permanent display outside the university's Bass Concert Hall. The modern-day Main Building and Tower were constructed in its place.

1935–present

Originally, the university planned to use the Tower as a library space, using a

dumbwaiter A dumbwaiter is a small freight elevator or lift intended to carry food. Dumbwaiters found within modern structures, including both commercial, public and private buildings, are often connected between multiple floors. When installed in restau ...

system to carry books from the upper floors to the students requesting them in the circulation room on a lower floor. Library employees were stationed on every other floor; students filled out paper book-request slips, which were sent upstairs by a

pneumatic tube Pneumatic tubes (or capsule pipelines, also known as pneumatic tube transport or PTT) are systems that propel cylindrical containers through networks of tubes by compressed air or by partial vacuum. They are used for transporting solid objects, a ...

. The books were sent down to the students using an 18-story dumbwaiter. This proved ineffective, and the dumbwaiter is no longer used for that purpose. The building now mainly contains administrative offices, though it does still house a three-floor

life sciences This list of life sciences comprises the branches of science that involve the scientific study of life – such as microorganisms, plants, and animals including human beings. This science is one of the two major branches of natural science, th ...

library and the Miriam Lutcher Stark Library of early and significant editions of English

Romanticist Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

works. Two separate sets of elevators serve the building; one in the front, one in back. In the floors above the stacks and below a few top-floor offices, several floors contain the university herbarium (Plant Resources Center). U.S. Census data are compiled and analyzed on some of these floors. Lastly, two secure elevators provide access to all 27 floors of the Tower while an elevator on the 27th floor provides access to the 28th-floor Observation Deck. There is also a book elevator in the stacks that serves floors 2 through 17. The 307-foot (94 m) tower was designed by

Paul Philippe Cret Paul Philippe Cret (October 23, 1876 – September 8, 1945) was a French-born Philadelphia architect and industrial designer. For more than thirty years, he taught at a design studio in the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylv ...

. Completed in 1937, the Main Building is located in the middle of campus. At the top of the Tower is a

carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoni ...

of 56 bells, the largest in Texas. The carillon is played daily. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, an

air raid siren A civil defense siren, also known as an air-raid siren or tornado siren, is a siren used to provide an emergency population warning to the general population of approaching danger. It is sometimes sounded again to indicate the danger has pa ...

built by the chief communications engineer for the University, Jack Maguire, was placed on top of the Tower to notify Austin residents of incoming air attacks. As there was never an air attack on the city, this siren was only tested and never truly used. The decommissioned siren was superseded by four electronic warning sirens that were installed in early 2007.

1966 massacre

On August 1, 1966, Charles Joseph Whitman, an

architectural engineering Architectural engineers apply and theoretical knowledge to the engineering design of buildings and building systems. The goal is to engineer high performance buildings that are sustainable, economically viable and ensure the safety health. Archi ...

student at the university, barricaded himself in the observation deck of the tower of the Main Building with a scoped

Remington 700 The Remington Model 700 is a series of bolt-action centerfire rifles manufactured by Remington Arms since 1962. It is a development of the Remington 721 and 722 series of rifles, which were introduced in 1948. The M24 and M40 military sniper ...

deer rifle and various other weapons. In a 96-minute standoff, Whitman killed 14 people and wounded 32 more (including 1 who died 35 years later of his wounds). Two police officers and a deputized manager from the co-op from across the mall climbed to the top of the tower and shot Whitman to death.

Suicide site

Following the Whitman incident, the observation deck was temporarily closed from August 1966 until June 1967 and then closed again in 1974 following nine suicide jumps. On November 11, 1998, the Board of Regents of the UT system approved the recommendation of Student Association leaders and of then-president

Larry Faulkner Larry Ray Faulkner (born November 26, 1944) is an American academic and businessman. He served as the twenty-seventh president of The University of Texas at Austin from 1998 to 2006, and as the president of the Houston Endowment Inc. from 2006 ...

to reopen the Tower's observation deck to visitors. After the installation of security and safety measures, the observation deck reopened to the public in 1999. Additionally, the observation deck was closed in 2002 and 2003, due to the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

, and was reopened in 2004 with added security.

Tower Girl

A female

peregrine falcon The peregrine falcon (''Falco peregrinus''), also known as the peregrine, and historically as the duck hawk in North America, is a cosmopolitan bird of prey (raptor) in the family Falconidae. A large, crow-sized falcon, it has a blue-grey bac ...

nicknamed Tower Girl first attempted nesting on top of the tower in 2018. The University of Texas Biodiversity Center placed a

webcam A webcam is a video camera which is designed to record or stream to a computer or computer network. They are primarily used in videotelephony, livestreaming and social media, and security. Webcams can be built-in computer hardware or peripher ...

in order to monitor her, as a successful nesting attempt would expand the documented breeding range of the species in North America.Falcon Cam
/ref>

Lighting

The Tower usually appears

illuminated Illuminated may refer to: * "Illuminated" (song), by Hurts * Illuminated Film Company, a British animation house * ''Illuminated'', alternative title of Black Sheep (Nat & Alex Wolff album) * Illuminated manuscript See also * Illuminate (disambi ...

in white light in the evening, but is lit in various color schemes for special occasions, including athletic victories and academic accomplishments. To mark more somber events, such as the passing of a former president of the university, the Tower remains darkened with a soft grey glow through the night. Carl J. Eckhardt Jr., head of the Physical Plant in 1931, supervised the construction of the Main Building Tower. Eckhardt devised a lighting system to take advantage of its commanding architecture to announce university achievements. Beginning in 1937, orange lights were used to symbolize important events at the university; by 1947, standard guidelines for using the orange lights were created, and these have been updated since. Today there are many different options for lighting, including a darkened tower to signify solemn occasions. An orange tower with office windows lit to form the numeral "1" is used for national championships in

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

sporting events.University approves new policy for lighting UT Tower
''On Campus.'' Accessed December 1, 2005. During Gone To Texas (welcoming new students to campus) and commencement ceremonies, the Tower windows are lit up to form the year (e.g. a 12 for the Class of 2012) of the class being honored.

References

External links

Official website

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070212135506/http://www.engr.utexas.edu/about/traditions/tower.cfm ''Lighting the Tower'', an account of Carl J. Eckhardt Jr.'s work
Littlefield Fountain, including placement with the Old Main Building

{{University of Texas at Austin 1937 establishments in Texas Bell towers in the United States University and college buildings completed in 1937 Carillons Clock towers in Texas Paul Philippe Cret buildings Skyscraper office buildings in Austin, Texas Towers completed in 1937 University and college administration buildings in the United States University of Texas at Austin campus