When it was constructed, Knapp Hall was considered a top-of-the-line residence hall. Now the building no longer offers the perks students are requesting in student housing, and administrators are closing Knapp’s doors.

Knapp will close after this semester to save the university approximately $200,000, said John Shertzer, resident life coordinator for the Department of Residence. Knapp was already scheduled to close at the end of spring semester in the Department of Residence’s Master Plan, but students and faculty were notified of the early closure just days before the beginning of the Fall semester.

Knapp has been home to thousands of students since it was built in 1966. What once was a vision of the future will now become a memory of the past.

Charles Frederiksen, a former director of the Department of Residence, said while Knapp was once a great building, time has taken its toll.

“Thirty-seven years later, [the towers] have served their time, and it’s time to look at something else,” he said. “I’m realistic enough to know that they need to be replaced.”

Frederiksen, who served as director of residence from 1967 to 1996, remembers when the tower was first built during a time of expansion at Iowa State.

“It was [built] because of the enrollment projection and the need for housing,” he said.

In the early 1960s, plans were made to build several dorm complexes after a prediction that there would be an enrollment spike, Frederiksen said. Sure enough, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, students began to pour into Iowa State, he said.

The building of Knapp Hall was part of a plan to erect six towers on the south end of Welch Avenue, according to “The First 100 Years of Residential Housing at Iowa State University” by J.C. Schilletter. Storms was built in 1965, then Knapp in 1966, followed by Wallace in 1967 and Wilson in 1969.

The university did plan to include another complex, but plans were discarded after projections of an enrollment decrease in the 1990s, Frederiksen said.

Each tower was constructed to house 600 residents, although Frederiksen said when the first two were completed, many more people resided in the buildings due to temporary housing during the major influx of students. “We had temp housing in the basement and every space available, so the demand was there,” he said.

Students were attracted to Knapp and Storms because of the buildings’ modern living atmosphere, including the high-rise design, lounges on each floor and elevators, Frederiksen said. Storms and Knapp were the first residence halls to have carpeted hallways, and originally the Knapp-Storms complex had its own reference collection run by the university library.

“They were very nice — they were viewed as very attractive,” Frederiksen said.

In 1970, Knapp became the first co-ed hall on campus, which demonstrated a realistic approach to living and helped end the sex-separated atmosphere on campus.

“We needed to give students the opportunity to have males and females in student governments and housing,” Fredriksen said.

Knapp was once considered a top-of-the-line living facility, but today with security fences around the walls to protect students from its fickle facade, the facility isn’t what it used to be, Frederiksen said. He said students have altered their view of what a college dorm should include, and Knapp simply doesn’t have what it takes.

“As time has changed, the size of the room … has been a negative,” he said. “The general maintenance of the elevators has been a frustration. I don’t think that ever has the location been seen as a plus.”

Ben Chamberlain, former hall director of Knapp, agreed the building isn’t what it used to be, and many students are deterred from living in it because of its distance from campus.

“Perception is reality in a lot of people’s minds … and there was a perception that it was far from campus,” he said. However, “once students got there, they really seemed to like it a lot.”

Kristi Mitchell, sophomore in pre-advertising, is one Knapp resident who enjoys living in the tower. “I just like the atmosphere; everyone is always friendly, [and] there’s always someone to hang out with,” she said.

Along with all residents currently housed in Knapp, Mitchell will choose a room in another dorm to move into next semester.

Frederiksen said the decision to close Knapp and Storms was made with the university and students’ interests in mind. “[Knapp and Storms] had a useful life and it’s time for something new,” he said.

Chamberlain said it is always hard to let go of something with a history, but he understands why it must be done.

“Any time that you close a building that has this kind of history it’s sad … but at the same time I know it’s what Iowa State has to do,” he said.

Knapp is scheduled for demolition in 2005, according to the Department of Residence’s Master Plan. No plans have been made for the vacated land Knapp Hall will leave.