Tech Tower

The Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans Administration Building, commonly known as Tech Tower, is a historic building and focal point of the central campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Located at 225 North Avenue NW in Midtown Atlanta, it was erected in 1888 as the Academic Building, with classrooms to complement the hands-on training in the adjacent shop building. It was the second edifice completed on the Georgia Tech campus and it is the oldest surviving one. Tech Tower has achieved local, cultural, and historical significance. Monuments and plaques commemorating philanthropy towards Georgia Tech adorn the building and surrounding landscape. The red brick, Victorian-style building is the architectural anchor of the Georgia Institute of Technology Historic District, a landmark of tradition and school spirit, and the present-day administrative hub of the Institute. It has been the site of many ceremonies and important events, including a visit by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and its dedication in honor of Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans, "Tech's greatest benefactor." Lighted signs spelling TECH hang on each of the four sides of the seven-story central tower, dominating the building's facade and visible from many parts of the Georgia Tech campus and surrounding area. Georgia Tech students have several times stolen the letter 'T' from one of these signs, a prank once tolerated but now strictly forbidden. History of Georgia Tech In 1887, the state of Georgia acquired of land from Atlanta pioneer Richard Peters that would form the original campus of what was then called the Georgia School of Technology, as well as the site of its first two structures. The state hired the well-known architectural firm Bruce & Morgan to design an Academic Building, containing "ample accommodations in halls, offices, apparatus rooms, recitation and lecture rooms, free hand and mechanical drawing rooms, library and chapel," as well as a Shop Building, in which "boiler and engine rooms, wood shop, machine shop, forge room and foundry" were located.