Rhodes Tower

The James A. Rhodes Tower (formerly University Tower) is a 21-story, 363-foot skyscraper in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is owned by Cleveland State University. It is the second-tallest educational-purposed building in the United States (behind the Cathedral of Learning.) It currently houses the university's main library on the first eight floors and administration offices for many of the university's academic departments on the upper level floors. It previously held classrooms on the first two floors. It is the tallest structure on the Cleveland State campus, followed by Fenn Tower and the tallest academic building in Ohio. The tower was named after former Ohio Governor James A. Rhodes who is responsible for signing the legislation that created The Cleveland State University on December 18, 1964.

Construction

CSU Rhodes Tower was built between 1968-71. The Brutalist structure was designed by the Cleveland architectural firm of Rode, Guenther, and Bonebrake. This style was very prevalent in the 1960's and 1970's in Cleveland and can be seen in the housing projects made in Central and Hough, the Cuyahoga County Justice Center Complex the Cleveland Museum of Art, and AT Tower. It was built at a cost of $21,700,000 including the 2001 renovation. It is a steel structure, clad in white precast concrete panels. There are 2140 separate panels that make up the facing of the massive square tower. When the tower was built, there was controversy over floors shifting; the shifting was caused by bad bolt fasteners imported from Japan. These bolts had to be replaced with bolts made in the US.