Fluor Tower, vacant since March 2020, to be demolished

When Ally Wei moved into Fluor Tower her freshman year, she had no idea she would be one of the last people to ever live there.

“Fluor Tower was one of those suites that had eight people, so it was a big change compared to living at home,” said Wei, a junior majoring in  media arts and practice. “But I had a really good roommate and I had a ton of friends living across from me. I lived on the eighth floor, so I also had a nice view.”

Her experience, cut short in March 2020 by the coronavirus pandemic, will never be relived; Fluor Tower is scheduled to be demolished after having been left vacant for almost two years.

“Demolition inside the building is scheduled to start in mid-February, and the structure itself will start coming down after commencement in May,” the University wrote in a statement to the Daily Trojan. “The demolition project will be complete prior to the start of the fall semester in August.”

In its statement, the University gave no specifics as to the reason for the demolition, saying only that it “is part of the university’s capital construction plan.”

In October 2019, a few months before the closure, a fire sprinkler flooded the sixth floor of Fluor Tower and forced hundreds of residents to evacuate.

“People were just really confused,” Wei said about the incident. “Then, all the rumors started about there being water on one of the top floors, and I was like, ‘Oh no, all my stuff is in the dorm, why did I leave without it?’…  We had midterms the next day.”

Thirty two students whose suites sustained extensive damage were relocated to the New North and South Residential Colleges.

Among those students was Jacob Castro, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering.

“They moved our stuff without telling us,” Castro said. “It was a complete mess.”

By the time Fluor Tower was cleared for the remaining students to return, racist rhetoric spread on social media, targeting El Sol y La Luna, a special interest Latinx community whose freshman members lived on the sixth floor where the flooding had originated.

One meme posted on social media included the message, “You can’t make tamales at 3 a.m. and then forget to turn off the microwave.” A since-deleted Change.org petition called for the eviction of the residents, according to reporting by FOX11. The petition’s title included the room number of the suite that flooded and the description read that it “had become clear … that there are enemies among us.”

“Coming from a community that’s mainly Latinos, [the comments were] not something I was not used to,” Castro said.

The incident was reported on by a writer from FOX11 who visited Fluor Tower and interviewed some of the residents. FOX11 also tracked down the individual who started the petition for an interview. While their identity was not revealed in the video segment uploaded the next day, Castro said he recognized them.

“We all know who it was; we could tell from what they were wearing,” Castro said. “And to my knowledge, [they] didn’t get punished whatsoever.”

“It just felt like [the University was] definitely not on our side,” Castro said.

Ernesto Ortiz Zamora, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering, said the University’s response to the incident was inadequate.

“There’s a certain aspect of being a minority; when you feel othered, or attacked, in what you thought was a safe space,” Zamora said. “It reveals a lot about the character or the agenda of where you seek to call home. We saw that there was probably an insufficient response from the University.”

Despite the incident, former residents said they remember their experience at the Latinx Floor fondly.

Selene Castillo, a junior majoring in international relations and Spanish, said the community made her “experience at USC so much better.”

“Coming into USC was definitely an intimidating experience,” Castillo said. “But living on the floor with people that looked like me, with people that shared similar experiences, definitely made [the] transition into college easier.”

Castro was one of only a few people from his area to attend USC. 

“I didn’t really know anyone coming,” Castro said. “Being accepted and living [at the Latinx floor], I was greeted by pretty much lifelong friends — they’re my ride-or-dies.”

Zamora, who was also a student worker at Fluor Tower, recalled the building as having “a vibrant community,” and said the news of the demolition was “bittersweet.” He had hoped to return to work at Fluor his junior year to relive his “incomplete first-year experience,” only to discover that the building would never open its doors again. 

“Fluor Tower has provided me with a lot of highs and lows, and, for that reason, I can’t remember it for being anything but memorable,” Zamora said.

The University said that while there is no determined plan as to the “ultimate use” of the space after the demolition, it “is considering options for a new structure in that location.” 

The Latinx Floor for freshmen is now located in Pardee Tower. Sophomore members reside in Century Apartments.