Divided into 5 five-story "houses"; the elevator only stops at the 3rd floor of each house, so students on the first & last 2 floors of each house must take the stairs to the elevator.

Starting from the bottom and working up, the houses are named Jefferson, Randolph, Pickering, Marshall and Madison (in the North Tower) and Smith, Monroe, Adams, Clay and Van Buren (in the South Tower).

This is the tallest dormitory in Illinois, and one of the tallest in the United States.

The building comprises a central core and two wings: the North Tower and South Tower. When built, there was open space separating the towers from the core between enclosed bridges. Today the entire core area has been enclosed.