The Vanderbilt West End Tower

Vanderbilt University's West End Tower Nashville TN.
The West End Tower - with its collegiate red brick and pointed arches - has become a landmark. The tower is part of the greater complex that replaced the Carmichael Towers. At their peak capacity, the Carmichael Towers were home to 1,200 students. The demolition of the Carmichael Towers made way for four new residential college buildings: E. Bronson Ingram, Nicholas S. Zeppos, Rothschild and the unnamed Residential College C. This plan is driven by the university’s initiative, known as FutureVU, that intends to make Vanderbilt a better place to live and learn. The tower is 305 feet tall, making it a new university landmark and one of the city’s tallest structures. The West End tower is 20 stories. The lower five floors house student rooms during the school year as part of Zeppos residential college. The middle portion is housing for visiting faculty or guests of the university. The upper floors are used for conferences. The Collegiate Gothic subgenre of Gothic Revival architecture was popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for U.S. and Canadian college and high school buildings. Of note, the Vanderbilt tower is the second-tallest Collegiate Gothic/Gothic Revival building in the United States, trailing only the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning (535 feet). It is also 31st currently for tallest building in the city of Nashville TN.