By Marshall Swanson

Whenever he comes back to Columbia, Chris Bledsoe makes it a point to drive by USC's Towers residence halls to reminisce about what he describes as “one of the best times of my life.”

That would be his freshman year at Carolina in 1990-91 when Bledsoe lived in Room 602 of Snowden in the dorm complex also known as the Honeycombs or the Veilblocks at Blossom and Sumter streets.

“Living in Snowden, there was always something going on, always,” said Bledsoe, a Greenwood resident who received his bachelor's degree in criminal justice from the University in 1995.

Bledsoe never walked through the dorms on any of his return visits to Columbia. But he'd like to one last time before this summer when the Towers are scheduled for demolition to make way for a new residence hall for first- and second-year honors students.

“I'd love to see the buildings again before they're gone,” he said. “I'd love to see my old room.”

Earlier this year when he heard the Towers were nearing the time when they would pass into history, Bledsoe contacted the University Housing Office to see if he could buy the door to his old room for conversion into a coffee table.

His query was part of an outpouring of memories and emotions by thousands of alumni reminiscing about one of the most memorable coming-of-age venues of their lives.

Built in sets of two from 1958 through 1965, the Towers were designed by famed New York architect Edward Durrell Stone. They were the first semi-high rise buildings on campus, and represented an architectural award-winning design recognized for its innovative construction that was considered to be light years ahead of its time.

The veilblocks that cover the outside of the buildings made the structures more energy efficient, enabling them to use only 60 percent of a normal building's energy requirements. (Today at West Quad, USC's new “green” dorm, light shelves provide shade from the sun for a similar energy-conserving function.)

The Towers also were a key component of Carolina's expansion to accommodate Baby Boom students in the late 1950s and early 1960s, said Harold Brunton, then dean of administration who oversaw their construction.

Before two of the buildings were demolished several years ago to make room for the Graduate Science Research Center, the Towers housed about 1,200 students. The four remaining buildings housed about 935 students.

Through the years, they have been home to at least 50,000 alumni and are familiar to thousands more who visited the complex during its 48-year life span. “If you've been to USC and you refer to the Towers, people know exactly what you're talking about,” Bledsoe said.

The dorms were the incubator for Hootie and the Blowfish, the all-USC alumni band whose, 1994 album, Cracked Rear View, went platinum several times over and won the group two Grammy Awards. And the buildings are remembered by countless others for the beehive of activity that characterized the freshman year for so many alumni.

“There was always something to do,” said Bledsoe, who remembered the dorms' constant parade of people, friends, activities, pizza parties, high jinks, and other non-stop happenings “good, bad, and indifferent.”

“The rooms were kind of small and weren't luxurious,” he said, “but I liked them anyway. I had a roommate and a lot of friends I liked. There were always people coming and going, visiting, and people in the lobby doing stuff.”

Mark Bryan, Hootie's guitarist, credits that “camaraderie of dorm life” in the Towers to the band's creation. “That's where it all started in the fall of 1985.”

Bryan met Darius Rucker in the Moore building and the two jammed together before adding Dean Felber, who also lived in Moore, and Brantley Smith, who lived in Douglas. Jim “Soni” Sonefeld succeeded Smith in 1989 after living in Bates.

The group would practice in Smith's room in Douglas and in the Towers' lobby areas adjacent to the conference rooms, said Bryan, who remembered the feeling of independence that came with life in the Towers, but also the sense of being closed in by their veilblocks.

“At the same time, though,” he said, “I was comfortable with that and knew that was the right place for me to be.”

University housing director Gene Luna acknowledged that when alumni see pieces of their campus history go, it engenders an emotional response on their part. But he noted the Towers have outlived their useful life as student housing. In fact, the University's master plan for campus development actually called for their replacement more than 10 years ago.

Renovating them wasn't economically feasible and their style of student accommodation—including large community-style bathrooms—was dated, Luna said. Moreover, their demolition will make way for a new residence hall that will enhance the University's southwestern gateway to the campus and serve as an important recruiting tool for honors students.

“I'm sad about the Towers coming down for sentimental reasons, but I think for practical reasons it's probably a good idea,” Bryan said.

“That's where my college career started and where the band met. But at the same time, I think it's time for them to go because when you consider their structure, you know there could be a more suitable dormitory for incoming students.”

The new Honors College residence hall, which will begin construction this summer in time for occupancy in fall 2008, will have about 700 beds in a blend of private and two-person bedrooms in clusters of 12 students. The residence hall, whose overall design is still being worked out by architects Scott Garvin and Associates of Columbia and Sasaki & Associates in Boston, also will be a U.S. Green Building Council-certified structure.

As such, Luna said, the tradition of the Towers conserving energy while providing a home for thousands of future Carolina students to begin their University life will continue.