Wheatshocker Apartments

When Wheatshocker Apartments opened in 1965, they were on the cutting edge of a brand-new trend in student housing. Instead of boring college dorm rooms, the Omaha-based University Housing development company was giving students a choice of versatile apartment-like settings, all within one building. Over the decades, the building, located practically on the WSU campus, became rundown and an eyesore, with many passers-by assuming the privately owned building was owned by the university. In the fall of 1994, WSU President Eugene Hughes proposed buying the apartments to "make a new building out of an old building." With an investment of about $11.6 million in revenue bonds, the university gutted the six-story, U-shaped building and replaced virtually everything. The first phase of renovation was completed by the fall 1996 semester. It is a housing option for sophomores, married students and single parent students with no more than two children.