Video: A Tour of Warren Towers

Allyson Imbacuan (CAS '23) gives a thorough tour of Warren Towers and shows what the large residence has to offer. Here she wears a leather jacket in front of Warren Towers in Boston MA. Photo by Cydney Scott for Boston University Photography.
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Video: A Tour of Warren Towers

A peek inside BU’s largest student residence, home to nearly 1,800 students

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Video: A Tour of Warren Towers

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Video: A Tour of Warren Towers

April 13, 2022
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Everyone knows Warren Towers. It’s hard to miss. Comprising three towers, each 18 stories high (with 14 residential floors), it’s BU’s largest dorm, home to 1,795 students (most of them underclassmen).

When the building first opened in 1966 (Tower C wouldn’t be completed until a year later), the complex was commonly referred to as “700,” a nod to its address, 700 Comm Ave. Built in the days before coed housing, A and B Towers were originally for women only, and Tower C was reserved for male students. 

A decade after opening, the dorm was renamed Warren Towers, a nod to BU’s first president, William Fairfield Warren, his son, William Marshall Warren, a dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, and Shields Warren, a prominent physician and William Fairfield Warren’s grandson. 

In this video, Allyson Imbacuan (CAS’23), a Tower B resident assistant, provides a tour of the iconic building. She takes us inside the Warren Towers Dining Hall, which serves up 4,000 meals a day, shows off some of the dorm’s many study lounges, the rec room, and laundry rooms. She even gives us a glimpse of her own dorm room and offers some fascinating historical tidbits. Who knew that Warren Towers is the second-largest nonmilitary dorm in the country, second only to Jester Center at the University of Texas at Austin? 

Have a favorite memory of life at Warren Towers? Share it with us in the Comment section below. 

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Video: A Tour of Warren Towers

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  • Kreiver Zhou (ENG’23)

    Kreiver Zhou (ENG’23) Profile

    Kreiver Zhou (ENG’23) can be reached at kreiverz@bu.edu.

  • Cydney Scott

    Photojournalist

    cydney scott

    Cydney Scott has been a professional photographer since graduating from the Ohio University VisCom program in 1998. She spent 10 years shooting for newspapers, first in upstate New York, then Palm Beach County, Fla., before moving back to her home city of Boston and joining BU Photography. Profile

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There are 19 comments on Video: A Tour of Warren Towers

  1. A comprehensive tour would have shown a wider variety of living spaces? Perhaps that quad on the 5th floor with a stunning view of the Mass Pike? ;-)

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    1. I totally agree! Unfortunately, we didn’t find students at the time who were comfortable letting us film inside their dorms. But will definitely keep that in mind for the next tour!

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  5. Wow! Great tour……! Lots of changes since I lived there in 1977! The study areas and food areas are amazing….Not like the single large cafeteria we had back in the day that served a single entree . Living there was quite the experience…..Kudos to BU for keeping this special place UTD!

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  6. I have a 2-generation history with Warren (just “700” in my day). Lived on 14th floor of C Tower from Fall ’69 – still fairly new – while my son roomed on 18th floor of A Tower from Fall ’07. Was able to witness the evolution – frankly, some room features were better in ’69 and the lobby area was more open and communal, but the dining upgrades are excellent.

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  8. Thank you Allyson. I lived in Warren Towers for a year shortly after it opened. I was an AIT in the 2nd semester of 1967 and then an RA in 1968 but at West Campus. Just taking a peek with you, there have been a lot of change since I was there. But, I had some wonderful experiences as an RA at West Campus and it certainly helped finance my education during that time in a way that didn’t interfere with my studies. —Bruce Tepper CAS ’68

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  10. Looks like Warren Towers hasn’t changed too much since I lived there in 1991. The big excitement that year was when the fire alarm went off in the middle of the night in October and we couldn’t get back into the building for several days. Apparently there was a chemical reaction while they were resurfacing the parking garage and that lead to toxic fumes that tripped the system. Definitely a night (or three?) to remember! Other than that, I had a great experience living at Warren Towers as a freshman. Thanks for bringing back some great memories!

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  11. Wow! I lived there when it was called “700” and often referred to as “The Zoo”. Good to see the inside again—far better looking when I lived there. I was in awe of the cafeteria (where I worked part-time)—so many choices!

    I, too, would have liked to see what the double rooms look like these days.

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  12. Warren Towers used to be called “700”. I graduated in 1972 from the Scool of Nursing. So interesting to see how things have changed!

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  14. CLA ’89 ENG ’98. I see Warren hasn’t changed inside. The other day I was telling my teenage kids about all the different pranks and escapades on the Life Sciences floor 12A (mostly by the moochers in the quad). I remember no hot plates allowed, drinking age just changed to 21, and piled into our RA’s room watching news of the Challenger. We creatively decorated and displayed messages on our windows to our B tower neighbors. My favorite times were studying together in the common room since we all had the same Bio and Math classes. A good experience for my 1st year of college.

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  16. I’ll never forget the night of the last game of the 1986 World Series. The Red Sox vs the Mets. It was also the weekend when all freshman‘s parents were visiting the college. We had just finished watching the game along with a lot of other families. All of us Red Sox fans watched in horror as Bruckner let the ball slip through his legs to lose the series. After the Red Sox lost, we went back to Warren Towers. The city kind of went nuts, Fans were over turning Pizza Pad trucks in Kenmore Square. And a major Red Sox fan in Warren Towers made a recording on a loop and kept playing it over and over out of the window in Warren Towers that said “New York sucks and so do the Mets.” Everyone in at least two towers could hear it. And no one stopped it for quite a long time. For a freshman in Boston, living the first time in a city, it was sensory overload and exhilarating, and summed up the mood of Red Sox fans at the time.

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  17. I lived at “700” my junior year at BU (1969-1970). It was a great experience. In those days the cafeteria was standard fare, no food stations. There weren’t any restaurants at the ground floor.
    I remember “record man” at the entrance to “700” selling record albums for $1 apiece.
    After the terrible tragedy at Kent State in early May, 1970, there were numerous bomb scares at “700” resulting in frequent evacuations of all 3 towers.
    Glad to see that “700” (Warren Towers) has been upgraded and remains a centerpiece at BU.
    Great job Allyson, and thanks for the stroll down memory lane.

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  18. I lived in all three towers, A, B and C during my residence in 700 from September 1974 through June 1977, including summers.

    I also stayed for a night In a room two doors from my original room (which was 1705B) in a reunion In 1994. 1705B was occupied. That really brought back memories.

    It’s good to see the floors haven’t changed much.

    I recall the room of computer terminals, IBM selectrics, in the basement, through which one could access the IBM 370 mainframe via the BU RAX (remote access) timesharing system. I spent much time there programming for the numerous computer courses I took.

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