Warren Towers

Warren Towers
Warren Towers during sunset.
General information
Address	700 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts United States, 02215
Coordinates	42°20.945′N 71°6.215′W / 42.349083°N 71.103583°W / 42.349083; -71.103583
Website
http://www.bu.edu/housing/residences/largedorms/warren/

Warren Towers is one of the three Boston University dormitories traditionally intended for underclassmen, the others being The Towers and West Campus. The building is located at central campus, next to the College of Communication (COM) and across from the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS). Housing approximately 1800 students, it is the second-largest non-military dormitory in the country, behind Jester Center at The University of Texas at Austin. The closest MBTA stop is Boston University East on the Green Line "B" Branch, located directly in front of B and C Towers, in a center reservation on Commonwealth Avenue.

Originally, the building’s name was simply "700", in reference to its 700 Commonwealth Avenue address. Its three towers were simply called, from east to west (left to right in the above photo), A Tower, B Tower, and C Tower. The building was first occupied in 1966; residents lived in A and B Towers while construction of C Tower was completed (this fact gave birth to the student "legend" that C Tower was constructed of spare parts from A and B towers). The third tower was completed and occupied in 1967.

In 1976 the building was rechristened "Warren Towers" as a tribute to three generations of the Warren family at Boston University: William Fairfield Warren (the University's first president), William Marshall Warren (a Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences; son of William Fairfield Warren), and Shields Warren (a famous physician; son of William Marshall Warren and grandson of William Fairfield Warren). Additionally, each tower was renamed in honor of one of the men; A Tower is now "Fairfield Tower", B Tower is "Marshall Tower", and C Tower is "Shields Tower". Bronze plaques in the main lobby commemorate the three men. Although these are the formal names of the towers, it is rare to hear anyone refer to them in this way; the A/B/C convention is far more popular.

The facility opened before the introduction of coeducational housing at BU, and as such A and B Towers housed women, and C Tower men. This reflected the high female-to-male ratio, a statistic that BU is still known for today. Although the building is now coeducational, some floors remain exclusively female. When in use by the university's summer programs (Academy of Media Production, High School Honors, Summer Challenge, Upward Bound, Upward Bound Math Science, Visual Arts’ Summer Institute, Summer Theatre Institute, Program in Mathematics for Young Scientists), one tower is exclusively male, while a second is exclusively female.