Today the Ames skyline will undergo a significant alteration. By 10:01 a.m. today, Storms and Knapp, the oldest of the suitcase-shaped Towers, will be imploded. To the cheers, and perhaps tears, of the crowd, the approximately 12 story-high dormitories will be reduced to 40-feet-high piles of debris.

The last few weeks have been full of nostalgic storytelling by the Towers’ former residents — stories of parties, pets, pranks, 2 a.m. fire drills, elevator stunts and water fights.

To outsiders, Towers may seem like Iowa State’s version of “Animal House,” but for the 42,000 former residents of Knapp and Storms, Towers was their home, a true community, and the place where they met life-long friends and some, even spouses.

Why did Towers have to go? According to the Department of Residence, the cost of renovating these buildings exceeded the cost of demolishing them.

To keep them usable, the dorms would have required new wiring, pipes, boilers and windows; the rust-stained concrete exterior of the buildings (with occasional falling pieces that necessitated fences and covered walkways) also needed repair.

The heart of the problem, however, was not the university’s reluctance to make repairs, but the reluctance of students to live in such dorms. Towers may not have been lacking in the intangibles — traditions and camaraderie — but they were certainly lacking in the tangibles — air conditioning, bigger rooms, private bathrooms and proximity to campus.

So if anyone is responsible for knocking down Towers, it is us. We put a premium on privacy and space above community and closeness.

We’ve been moving out of traditional dormitories and into the suite buildings, Frederiksen Court and dozens of new apartment buildings springing up all over Ames.

In one sense, the demolition of Towers is simply the by-product of a process that should be pleasing for us — the Department of Residence is actually listening to student preferences and building the type of housing that we are demanding.

The prevailing feeling isn’t unmitigated pleasure, though; it is bittersweet. The excitement of seeing two buildings crash down upon themselves is mixed with the sadness of knowing that this is the beginning of the end of college-living in the form generations before us knew.

Hearing the reminiscing of former Towers residents should cause us to question whether, in the quest for bigger, better and newer housing options, we are unknowingly giving up something more valuable.