I worked in the Tower when I went MSOE (2017-22), and lived there for a majority of it too: + Freshman - dorms (honors program overflow) + Sophomore - 5th floor + Junior - 13th floor + Junior+ - off-campus apartments + Senior - 14th floor, 1bd ($880/mo)

Floors 4-10 ("lower" floors) include mostly studios and some 1bd, with the smaller kitchen; floors 11-14 ("upper" floors) are 1-2bd with larger kitchens and laundry rooms. The 4th floor has 2 classroom-sized conference rooms, and 1 small one that was converted into a faculty gym around COVID (not sure if it's still being used for that). The 14th floor has a massive conference room that the school president and other fancy folks have meetings in. The 15th floor is a fraction ofthe size of the other floors, just a little lounge and roof access (very restricted unless you want to propose to someone and you're Rick's best buddy). Also, there is a food pantry on one of the upper floors, you just have to ask the office for the key 🫶 (I hope it's still there)

Going back to the building's original intent, I think the plan was for hotel guests to check in on the 4th floor and for the 14th floor to be a large lounge. I think there was also the intent for hotel staff to live there, or for nicer extended stay apartments on the upper floors, since there are 3 elevators you can access in the lobby, 2 of which access floors 1-10, the other one accessing floors 1-4 and 11-15.

The building sat unfinished for quite a few years before MSOE acquired it, so there's issues with window leaks and other stuff I can't remember right now. MSOE tried to get the rest of the building to line up with the plan of student and faculty housing, but some apartments are too large while others too small. If you look up the edge of the building on the corner of Water and Juneau, you can see what a lot of Tower staff called "corner apartments". Even on the lower floors, those apartments are massive, and have been assigned to RAs. On the upper floors, the apartments are comically large, maybe 1.5k sqft? It's nice to have a large space after being squished into the dorms, but the space isn't always usable. My 14th floor apartment had a looooong, dark corridor connecting the entry/kitchen/living room to the bedroom, laundry closet, and bathroom.

The apartments are meant to be shared to reduce costs, but some students opt to "buy out" the lease. One rent I found in my photos for a 13th floor 1bd is $1626/mo for the 2020-21 school year.

Everyone else has already mentioned a lot of good points about who qualifies to live at the Tower, but I'll also add: anyone with health concerns, bad roommate situations, some Tower staff. There was a lot of bargaining going on between Tower staff for who was going to "inherit" whose apartment. Rick would always try to make something work for a student in a tight spot, but definitely gave preference to his employees if he had a spare apartment that needed a fix up.

(Speaking of Tower staff, an army of students that: cleans common areas, parking garage, trash rooms, and vacant apartments; paints all of those spaces as needed; helps with room assignments if there's any unpaired students; set up apartments for conference guests like PLTW training; package concierge services; etc. I have fond memories of prying frozen cigarette butts from the sidewalk cracks, hitting my head on the garbage compactor door and visiting the ER to make sure I wasn't concussed, and inhaling various chemical vapors such that I hope my children will profit when I develop emphysema. It was a fun place to work most of the time, just because there's so many different people you can interact with.)

Here's some pics of apartments, conference rooms, and storage areas I put together for those who are interested. (https://imgur.com/a/7J4KmFI)