BYU starts demolition of dorm W

PROVO — The beginning of the end arrived Tuesday for seven Brigham Young University landmarks.

And it turned out the last was first.

Denied a permit last week to implode two of its seven Deseret Towers student dormitories over the Christmas break, BYU decided not to wait any longer. A crew began to tear down W Hall with a trackhoe Tuesday morning.

Completed in 1978, W Hall was the last of the Deseret Towers. BYU plans to begin knocking down V Hall, built in 1969, next week. The two towers have been vacant since August.

The other five towers were completed in 1964 and are still in use. They will be vacated in August 2007 and eventually razed, university spokeswoman Carri Jenkins said.

BYU wanted to implode W Hall and V Hall to minimize the impact on the campus, Jenkins said. Planners hoped to bring the buildings down and clean up the debris while students were gone for Christmas break, Dec. 22-Jan. 7.

The Utah Division of Air Quality board denied BYU's request for a permit to implode the buildings. Jenkins said cleanup now won't be completed until mid-February.

Jenkins said using a trackhoe and wrecking ball will cost about the same as implosion would have, but she did not disclose the amount.

BYU has not decided what it will do with the Deseret Towers area after all of the towers are demolished. The university is working on two pilot programs that will help it understand the needs and desires of students before the administration completes its housing master plan.

One program is chartered housing. BYU has signed charters with two off-campus apartment complexes — Alpine Village, which is under construction on Freedom Boulevard, and Centennial Apartments. The two complexes have agreed to accept only BYU students.

The other pilot program involves an on-campus housing complex, Wyview Park. The university converted half of the married student complex to single-student use this year. The rest will be converted for single students in July.

The two programs allow BYU to study student reaction to apartment-style living in on- and off-campus settings, Jenkins said.

Students nationally and at BYU have shown a growing lack of interest in dormitories like Deseret Towers, though Jenkins said Helaman Halls on campus continues to draw well.