iPedia Free Information Center

Information about Main Building Of The University Of Texas At Austin

Enlarge picture
The Main Building Tower in the foreground.
The Main Building of The University of Texas at Austin is a structure at the center of the University of Texas campus in Austin, Texas that houses the university's administrative offices. The Main Building's 305-foot (95-meter) tower, often referred to as "The Tower", has 32 floors and is one of the most recognizable symbols of the University.

History

Enlarge picture
The University's Old Main Building in a 1903 photo.
Enlarge picture
The facade of the Main Building. The inscription reads: "Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free".
The old Victorian-Gothic Main Building served as the central point of the campus' forty-acre site, and was used for nearly all purposes. However, by the 1930s, discussions rose 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 carillon bells (called the "Burleson Bells"[1]), which are now exhibited as part of a permanent display outside the university's Bass Concert Hall. The modern-day tower and Main Building were constructed in its place.

Enlarge picture
The crowded stacks at the Life Science Library.
Originally, the University planned to use the tower as a library space, using a dumbwaiter system to carry books from the upper floors to the students requesting them on the ground floor. Library employees were stationed every other floor and students on the ground floor filled out paper book request slips, which were sent upstairs by pneumatic tube, similar to bank tellers. The books were sent down to the students using an 18-story dumbwaiter. This proved ineffective, and the dumbwaiter was removed to place network and other computer cabling in the same shaft. The building now mainly contains administrative offices, though it does still house a three-floor life sciences library and the Miriam Lutcher Stark Library of early and significant editions of English Romanticist works. A small three-story elevator is now used to move books between floors. Another small elevator in the center shaft provides access to the lower 18 floors in the tower building. Several professors' offices and department offices are located near the top of the tower. In the floors above the stacks and below the offices, several floors contain life sciences labs and studies, as well as data serving the state and national governments. U.S. Census data analysis is compiled and analyzed on some of these floors. Lastly, two secure elevators provides access to the entire 27 floors of the tower, including the professors' and departmental offices, the observation deck, and access to the carillon room.

The 305-foot (95 m) tower was designed by Paul Philippe Cret. Completed in 1937, the Main Building is located in the middle of campus. At the top of the tower is a carillon of 56 bells, the largest in Texas. Songs are played on weekdays by resident carilloneur Tom Anderson, in addition to the usual pealing of Westminster Quarters every quarter hour between 6 AM and 9 PM.[2]

During World War II, an air raid siren 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 attack. As there was never an air attack on the city, this siren was only tested and never truly used. In addition, the decommissioned siren was superseded by 4 electronic warning sirens that were installed in early 2007.[3] [1]

Lighting


The tower is lit white with an orange cap for most athletic victories.

The tower is lit entirely in orange for special victories, such as winning the Big12 conference.

The Tower in orange after the 2005 Texas Longhorn football team won the National Championship at the Rose Bowl. Littlefield Fountain is in the foreground.


The tower usually appears illuminated in white light in the evening, but is lit in various color schemes for special occasions, including athletic victories and academic accomplishments, such as commencement, preferably white and orange.

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 sporting events.[4]

Tragedies

Main article: Charles Whitman
On August 1 1966, Charles Whitman, an architectural engineering major at the University, barricaded himself in the observation deck of the tower of the Main Building with a sniper rifle and various other weapons. In a 96-minute stand-off, Whitman killed 14 Austin residents and wounded many more. Following the incident, the observation deck was closed until 1968 and closed again in 1974 following a series of suicide jumps. On 11 November 1998, the Board of Regents of the UT system approved the recommendation of Student Association leaders and of then-president Larry Faulkner to reopen the tower observation deck to visitors.[5] After the installation of security and safety measures, the observation deck reopened to the public in 1999.[6][7]

See also

References

1. ^ The Carillon The University of Texas. Accessed 29 March 2006.
2. ^ The Main Building The University of Texas. Accessed 1 December 2005.
3. ^ Turner, Tommy. "Tower Sounds Air Raid". The Daily Texan. November 17 1942. Accessed 19 January 2006.
4. ^ University approves new policy for lighting UT Tower On Campus. Accessed 1 December 2005.
5. ^ Board of Regents Meeting Minutes November 1998. Accessed 29 March 2006.
6. ^ Tower Tours Offer Glimpse of UT History The Daily Texan. 10 August 2004 Accessed 29 March 2006.
7. ^ Tower Tours Schedule Fall 2005 The Texas Union. Accessed 1 December 2005.

External links

University of Texas at Austin
Academics
Athletics
Campuses and locations
Student life
Traditions
The University of Texas at Austin (often referred to as The University of Texas, UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a doctoral/research university located in Austin, Texas.
..... Click the link for more information.
City of Austin

Nickname: Live Music Capital of the World[1]
Location in the state of Texas
Coordinates:
Country United States
State
..... Click the link for more information.
1 foot =
SI units
0 m 0 mm
US customary / Imperial units
0 yd 0 in
A foot (plural: feet or foot;[1] symbol or abbreviation: ft or, sometimes, ′
..... Click the link for more information.
1 metre =
SI units
1000 mm 0 cm
US customary / Imperial units
0 ft 0 in
The metre or meter[1](symbol: m) is the fundamental unit of length in the International System of Units (SI).
..... Click the link for more information.
Victorian architecture can refer to one of a number of architectural styles predominantly in the Victorian era. As with the latter, the period of building that it covers may slightly overlap the actual reign of Queen Victoria after whom it is named.
..... Click the link for more information.
Gothic Revival was an architectural movement which originated in mid-18th century England. In the nineteenth century, increasingly serious and learned neo-Gothic styles sought to revive medieval forms, in distinction to the classical styles which were prevalent at the time.
..... Click the link for more information.
acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and US customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre.

One acre comprises 4,840 square yards or 43,560 square feet.
..... Click the link for more information.
additional references or sources for verification.
* It may need copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling.

Please help [ improve the article] or discuss these issues on the talk page.
..... Click the link for more information.
Pneumatic tubes, also known as capsule pipelines or Lamson tubes, are systems in which cylindrical containers are propelled through a network of tubes by compressed air or by vacuum. They are used for transporting physical objects.
..... Click the link for more information.
A bank teller is an employee of a bank who deals directly with most customers. In some places this employee is known as a cashier.

Tellers are considered a "front line" in the banking business.
..... Click the link for more information.
physical layer is level one in the seven-level OSI model of computer networking as well as in the five-layer TCP/IP reference model. It performs services requested by the data link layer.
..... Click the link for more information.
Biology (from Greek: βίος, bio, "life"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge"), also referred to as the biological sciences, is the scientific study of life.
..... Click the link for more information.
The term English literature refers to literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; Joseph Conrad was Polish, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe
..... Click the link for more information.
Romanticism is an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated around the middle of the 18th century in Western Europe, during the Industrial Revolution. It was partly a revolt against aristocratic, social, and political norms of the Enlightenment period and a
..... Click the link for more information.
Paul Philippe Cret (October 24 1876, Lyon, France – September 8 1945, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was a French-American architect and industrial designer.

Education and early career


..... Click the link for more information.
The Westminster Quarters is the most common name for a melody used by a set of clock bells to strike the hour. It is also known as the Westminster Chimes, or the Cambridge Chimes from its place of origin.
..... Click the link for more information.
Allied powers:
 Soviet Union
 United States
 United Kingdom
 China
 France
...et al. Axis powers:
 Germany
 Japan
 Italy
...et al.
..... Click the link for more information.
worldwide view.


A civil defense siren (also referred to as an air raid siren, tornado siren, or outdoor warning siren) is a mechanical device (modern day sirens are electrically-powered) for generating sound to provide warning of
..... Click the link for more information.
Big 12 Conference, BCS National Champions
2006 Rose Bowl, 41-38
Conference Big 12 South
Ranking
Coaches #1
AP #1
2005 Record 13–0 (9–0 Big 12)
Head Coach Mack Brown
Offensive Coordinator Greg Davis
..... Click the link for more information.
Texas Longhorns
(12-0)

41
Mack Brown
2
Coaches Rank: 2
2 2006 Rose Bowl
Bowl game
Texas Longhorns at USC Trojans USC Trojans
(12-0)

38
..... Click the link for more information.
Littlefield Fountain is a monument by Italian-born sculptor Pompeo Coppini, located on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas.

The fountain was built with money from a $250,000 trust established by Major George W.
..... Click the link for more information.
Not to be confused with lightning.
Lighting includes both artificial light sources such as lamps and natural illumination of interiors from daylight.
..... Click the link for more information.
Texas Longhorns

University University of Texas at Austin
Conference Big 12
NCAA Division I
Athletics Director DeLoss Dodds
Location Austin, TX
Varsity Teams 18
Football Stadium Darrell K.
..... Click the link for more information.
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA, often pronounced "N-C-Double-A" or "N-C-Two-A" ) is a voluntary association of about 1,200 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the
..... Click the link for more information.
Charles Joseph Whitman (June 24, 1941 – August 1, 1966) was a student at the University of Texas at Austin who shot and killed 14 people (including those who later died as a result of their injuries) and wounded 31 others from the observation deck of the University's Main
..... Click the link for more information.
August 1 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events


..... Click the link for more information.
19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1930s  1940s  1950s  - 1960s -  1970s  1980s  1990s
1963 1964 1965 - 1966 - 1967 1968 1969

Year 1966 (MCMLXVI
..... Click the link for more information.
Charles Joseph Whitman (June 24, 1941 – August 1, 1966) was a student at the University of Texas at Austin who shot and killed 14 people (including those who later died as a result of their injuries) and wounded 31 others from the observation deck of the University's Main
..... Click the link for more information.
An architectural engineer applies the skills of many engineering disciplines to the design, construction, operation, maintenance, and renovation of buildings while paying attention to their impacts on the surrounding environment.
..... Click the link for more information.
sniper rifle is frequently applied to rifles used to ensure accurate placement of shots at greater ranges than other small arms. A typical sniper rifle is built for optimal levels of accuracy, fitted with a telescopic sight and chambered for a military centrefire cartridge.
..... Click the link for more information.


This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
Herod_Archelaus


page counter