Home Sweet Home

RIP: Techwood Dorm

By Joanna Xiao, Aerospace Engineering Student

In 1992, the Yellow Jacket football team was celebrating its 100th anniversary, BellSouth Mobility was selling a Tech-themed blue and gold Motorola phone, and Peter Stewart, CE 96, was wandering through campus in search of McDaniel Dormitory. He had chosen his freshman dorm arbitrarily, scrolling down the list until he found one with a name that “sounded good.”

When he approached a group of upperclassmen for directions, they started laughing, “Oh, you mean Techwood?” They pointed him across the street to a large U-shaped building surrounded by barbed wire fences, and that was when Stewart knew he was about to get a “rude awakening.” What he would come to find out, however, is that he was also about to join one of the most exceptional communities at Georgia Tech.

Last Residents Let Loose

McDaniel Dorm, more commonly known as Techwood Dorm, was part of a larger complex called Techwood Homes, the first federally funded housing project in the U.S. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Atlanta to officially dedicate the site, and people began to move in the following August.

In preparation for the 1996 Olympics, Techwood Homes—and along with it, Techwood Dorm—was set to be demolished and replaced with athlete and other, mixed-income housing. When the 1992 Techwood residents heard they were going to be the last people living in the dorm, they decided they were going to make the most of it.

Stewart remembers, “All the rules flew out the window. We had one of these RA meetings where everyone shows up one evening, and they said, ‘Guys, we have news. This whole thing is getting torn down next year.’”

Some residents took to the halls to play soccer, football, or Frisbee. Others decided to speed up the demolition process, tearing down the walls between rooms to form giant suites. As long as the electricity and plumbing remained intact, the residents were free to do what they liked.

Although residents of years past couldn’t get away with quite as much, Techwood students had built up a longstanding culture of fun. In 1976, residents banded together to raise $4,000 for the Muscular Dystrophy Fund by playing 1,176 hours of Monopoly. Many Techwood parties featured an indoor pool, which they created by taking a door off of one of the bathroom stalls, blocking the entrance to the shower, and turning on all the showerheads at once. Scott Wilkinson, EE 90, PhD EE 96, remembers coming up with fake names for every resident to submit to the Blue Print, with his alias being “Bright Eyes.”

“When you put 400 people together with essentially nothing to do, they get very innovative. And we came up with all sorts of interesting things there,” Wilkinson laughs.

Club Techwood

Techwood famously had a built-in backdoor entrance to Junior’s Grill, the restaurant where Wilkinson used the code “dress two cheese side” to order a cheeseburger with two patties and a side of fries. Blair Meeks, assistant vice president of External Communications at Georgia Tech, lived at Techwood from 1984 to 1985 and still thinks fondly of Junior’s French toast coated in cinnamon sugar. Unfortunately, by the time Stewart moved in, Junior’s was in the process of moving to the Bradley Building near Tech Tower, and the shortcut wasn’t used as frequently.

Luckily for Stewart, Junior’s wasn’t the only restaurant that Techwood residents had a special connection to. Techwood was the closest dorm on campus to The Varsity, which Meeks says came in handy when the campus went on “V-runs.”

“Late at night, they would send out this message about a V-run and you try to get over to the Varsity,” Meeks explains. “We were, I mean, the closest people to that place. So, we could sometimes beat the crowd to get there.”

Stewart and his friends came up with their own Varsity tradition, visiting the restaurant during “dead week” (the week before finals) to pay for their meals using giant bags of pennies. According to Stewart, the restaurant staff would take the payment at the declared value, never bothering to count the coins.

When 1993 rolled around, Stewart and the rest of his cohort were offered rooms in the newly constructed Undergraduate Living Center (ULC), now known as Nelson-Shell Apartments. When the ULC opened its doors, its first residents fell into two categories: college athletes and former Techwood residents.

Stewart says that once everyone moved into the ULC, no one wanted to leave. He ended up spending all four years at Georgia Tech living with the same group he moved in with and remained very good friends with his roommates and the people who lived next door. In 2023, they even had a 25-year reunion celebration.

Stronger for it

When asked if they would want to live at Techwood again if given the choice today, Stewart, Wilkinson, and Meeks gave a resounding “No.” Stewart responded that he’d probably settle for being friends with all the Techwood kids, and Wilkinson joked, “I have standards now. I didn’t have any standards then.”

From left: Move-in day in 1986. Wilkinson, pictured in his dorm room, remembers that students were responsible for building their bed frames themselves at Techwood.

Despite that, all three expressed gratitude for their experiences. Meeks emphasized how living on the outskirts of campus solidified the group’s “band of brothers” camaraderie. He gave a special shoutout to his RA, Ken Buxton, IE 89, for being “the nicest, most supportive and helpful guy.” Wilkinson, who has been a guest speaker with the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering several times since he graduated, notes how Tech has changed since he attended. He praises the attention that has been given to students’ well-being. Although Tech had fewer support programs for students in the ’80s, Wilkinson says that “Techwood was a heck of a community” and that many residents found a reprieve from the intensity of Institute life there.

Stewart believes that his time at Techwood was a character-building experience and that it helped him and every other resident build resilience.

“It was a point of pride to make it through Tech,” Stewart says. “And it was a point of pride to make it through Techwood.” As Stewart reflected on his experience, he had one big takeaway: “That which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

Home on the Road

Ann Mac’Kie, CS 24, racked up credits and miles simultaneously as she completed her Online Master of Science in Computer Science while traveling across the country.

By Kristin Baird Rattini

Ann Mac’Kie, CS 24, took remote learning to heart after starting Georgia Tech’s online master’s program in computer science in fall 2021. With her husband, Vince Caldwell, and puggle, Buddy, as travel companions, Mac’Kie logged 28,000 miles, visited 20 national parks, and stayed in 20 Airbnbs while she simultaneously completed her online degree and worked remotely as a data scientist and machine-learning engineer.

“During the pandemic, I heard about digital nomads and was envious,” Mac’Kie says. “I wanted to travel more than just two weeks a year.” She and her husband switched to remote jobs in June 2022. They took off soon afterward with Buddy in their sedan from their home in Jupiter, Florida, for the first of three four-month road trips. “I felt so free,” she says. “I thought, ‘Why have I not done this more?’”

Mac’Kie completed her assignments while Caldwell drove. “The asynchronous program was fantastic,” she says. “I could do school anywhere.” Their first loop took them out West. They took off-road vehicles down sand dunes in Idaho, took a 20-mile hike in Grand Teton National Park, and stood in awe at the rim of the Grand Canyon. She attended the virtual memorial service for her grandfather while in Yellowstone National Park, which they’d visited together when she was 8. “It was transcendental to be in Yellowstone then, a place where I have such special memories with him,” she says.

Their most memorable Airbnb, in Hildale, Utah, near Zion National Park, included not only lodging but a farm, yoga studio, and school. “I attended a professor’s office hours for network science while the school kids were running around in the front yard,” she says.

On their second loop, along the East Coast up to Pennsylvania, they learned to ski and snowboard in the Poconos. Their third loop, through California, started with a rattle: a 5.1 earthquake centered just 4 miles from their shared lodging in Ojai. “The hosts really looked after us,” she says. They meditated at sunrise in Joshua Tree National Park and were amazed by the scale of the trees at Sequoia National Park. “I realized my homework or worries of the week are not that big or that serious in comparison,” she says.

Mac’Kie celebrated her graduation in December 2024 with family at an Airbnb in Dahlonega, Georgia, a town known for its Christmas decorations. She’s looking forward to a trip to Acadia National Park. “I used to always put things off,” she says. “But now, I prioritize adventure.”

The House on 10th Street

For 43 years, Miller Templeton’s apartment building was almost exclusively rented out to Yellow Jackets.

By Daniel P. Smith

Near the intersection of 10th and Center Streets, on the northern edge of the Georgia Tech campus, sits a two-story white frame house.

Once upon a time, a magnolia tree rested out front, adding a touch of Southern charm and flair to an otherwise unassuming and unexceptional residence. Today, as in many years past, the multi-unit property seamlessly blends into the Home Park neighborhood like hundreds of other dwellings.

But to Miller Templeton, 469 10th Street NW is anything but ordinary.

For 43 years, Templeton, Phys 61, MS ANS 63, owned the property and for nearly three decades (1995–2023) he called 469’s Unit #3 home. The one-bedroom apartment afforded Templeton shelter, of course, but so much more.

High Character, Low Rent

Templeton, then Tech’s assistant dean of students, purchased the property in 1980 for $110,000. He says the home was constructed around 1916 to house workers at the now-defunct Atlantic Steel, an industrial site later transformed into the Atlantic Station retail development.

The four-unit apartment building housed generations of Tech students. They overlooked the underwhelming accommodations because the location and Templeton’s below-market rental rates proved too enticing to ignore.

“Ends didn’t meet until I moved into Miller’s house,” says Randy McDow, IE 95, MS PP 03, who lived in two different units at 469 from 1998 to 2004.

Templeton, after all, was far more interested in empowering human lives than maximizing rental income.

“Plus,” he jokes, “it wasn’t like staying at the Ritz-Carlton.”

In 2013, John Michael McCaffrey, ME 22, remembers paying $120 a month for a room at 469, an attractive rate for a first-generation college student pinching pennies. When McCaffrey fractured his arm in a cycling accident, Templeton—completely unprompted—gave McCaffrey a multi-month break on rent.

“That’s Miller, as big a heart as you’ll ever find. He has this unbelievable way of figuring out who needs a hand and reaching out,” says McCaffrey, whose older brother, William Grant McCaffrey, ME 13, lived at 469, too.

Templeton, who owned multiple properties around the Home Park neighborhood, eschewed leases and security deposits, almost exclusively renting to people he knew personally. For strangers, Templeton insisted on a high GPA and a personal recommendation from someone he trusted.

“Birds of a feather usually flock together,” says Templeton, who always maintained a waitlist of prospective tenants.

(Top L-R) James Clawson, Phebe Clawson Connors, Jacob Adams, Catie Newell, Tahirah Elliott, Travis Elliott, David Reid, David Connors, (Kneeling) Drake Tolliver, (Bottom L-R) Miller Templeton, Chris Baucom, Anna Fincher Pinder, Justin Crowell, Karen Feigh, Gary Yngve. Pictured on the porch of 469 10th St. in the early ‘90s.

The Landlord Life

Though patient and understanding, Templeton nevertheless faced challenges as a landlord at 469, namely maintaining a property built when Woodrow Wilson inhabited the White House. Templeton, who encountered constant plumbing and electrical issues and uninvited vermin, was grateful for a multi-talented handyman and speedy exterminators. He also made investments to modernize the property, including devoting a sizable sum to central heating and air.

As college students go, though, his tenants rarely stirred up problems.

“Parties weren’t the vibe of the house,” McCaffrey confirms.

Most issues Templeton faced were minor, if not a bit endearing or even comical. During Tech’s annual ME 2110 Design Competition, for instance, students would be tasked to build mechatronic robots, and 469, home to many mechanical engineering students over the years, would be consumed by electrical cords and the hum of motors.

Though he prohibited pets, Templeton recalls one tenant begging to keep the dog he rescued from a local shelter. Templeton obliged and Addie became a staple at 469.

And sometime around 1996, someone hand-painted an 8-by-4-foot mural of the Atlanta cityscape in Unit #1. The mural remained untouched for decades.

A few times, Templeton recalls visiting apartments late at night to quell musical jam sessions. Occasionally, he issued a warning about garbage or noise or packing the basement with “random stuff.”

The Perks of Owning 469

Over his 43 years owning 469 10th Street, Templeton estimates he hosted over 200 tenants. He engaged regularly with most of them, jogging, enjoying dinners at Rocky Mountain Pizza, and steering them to Tech programs and resources.

“Associating with young people keeps you young,” says Templeton, who retired from Tech in 1998 after 30 years, the last 13 as director of the Office of International Education. 

In 2023, Templeton sold the property and moved into a retirement community. It was time to go, he says.

Still, Templeton, now 85, remains in touch with many of his former tenants. Some have stayed in the Atlanta area, others have moved around the country and even the world, graduating from 469’s cramped quarters into homes of their own. They’ve become parents, even grandparents, and have captured professional success in varied fields—engineering, technology, academia, business, and more.

Templeton relishes knowing them when the relationships, not the rents, enriched his life.

“I loved having this reservoir of really interesting human beings to interact with, and 469 gave me that,” he says.

Tech Breaks Ground on New Residence Hall

By Kristen Bailey

For the first time in 20 years, Georgia Tech is building a new residence hall. The Curran Street Residence, to be located on the west side of campus, will include eight residential floors, communal indoor and outdoor spaces, and a “front porch” area to connect with campus.

At the March 5th groundbreaking, students and campus leaders celebrated the milestone for campus growth. President Ángel Cabrera, MS Psy 93, PhD Psy 95, noted the role campus housing often plays in the student experience.

“I travel across the country talking to alumni and the one place they all start in reflecting on their time at Georgia Tech is their first-year dorm,” he said.

The new housing facility is intended for first-year students and will rise along Northside Drive between Eighth and Ninth streets. The 191,000-square-foot building will contain around 860 beds with rooms configured for double occupancy. The project is scheduled for completion in 2026.