It’s Friday night at Bobb-McCulloch Hall, and as usual, it’s loud: music blasts down the hall, freshmen mix miscellaneous beverages in their dorms, girls in tiny tank tops flock to the frats in single-digit weather. There’s rarely a silent moment in the dorm that never sleeps.
For better or worse, Bobb is a Northwestern classic. One of the largest dorms on campus, it houses over 400 students. But starting this summer, the ivy-covered and mold-ridden 70-year-old dorm is getting a long-overdue makeover. The building will be partially closed over the next two school years, Residential Services announced in February.
For many, it feels like the end of an era. Thousands of students have passed through Bobb’s cinder block halls over the past decades, and many say living there was a formative experience.
“Living in Bobb is something you love while you’re doing it, and then you never want to do it again,” Medill fourth-year Saul Pink says.
Pink lived in Bobb his freshman year — or technically, he lived in McCulloch. The two dorms, conjoined since 1980, will both be undergoing renovations over the next two years: the Bobb side first, then McCulloch, which will remain open while Bobb is under construction.
These renovations have been a long time coming. In 2015, Bobb was slated to be demolished in 2020. But the dorm is still standing. The upcoming construction is aimed at improving the student experience, according to the February announcement. Renovations include adding kitchenettes and laundry rooms to each floor.
While the renovations may change how it looks and operates, Bobb — and its culture — are here to stay.
Ride or Die
Bobb has always been a social hub, a place where people meet their best friends and sometimes even future spouses. While current students flinch at the outdated facilities, it wasn’t always considered one of the filthier dorms on campus.
When J.T. Thompson (Weinberg ‘85) lived in Bobb as a sophomore, the dorm was coveted. He could walk right out of the building and be on the beach. Back in 1982, there was no parking garage, no Henry Crown Sports Pavilion and certainly no Ryan Fieldhouse. Bobb was right on the lakefront.
“In my day, Bobb-McCulloch was considered to be one of the better dorms to try to get into,” Thompson says.
Aside from the great location, Thompson remembers Bobb as a very social dorm. He often had friends come over to his room and hosted cocktail hours. Today, he’s still in touch with the friends he met at Bobb.
The dorm’s social culture remained alive and well throughout the 80s. In February 1989, Bobb’s executive board began publishing monthly newsletters called The Bobb-McCulloch Connection. Within colorful blue, yellow and pink pages, the board advertised upcoming events such as Tuesday movie nights, dorm Olympics and a booze cruise on Lake Michigan.
The March 1989 issue encouraged residents to attend social events to foster “a close knit community.” It also announced some important news: 1988-1989 Bobb-McCulloch shot glasses on sale for just $2! Even then, Bobb residents liked to party — that reputation remains.
While Pink lived in McCulloch in 2021, he spent many late nights in the “McLounge,” what he and his friends called the McCulloch 4th floor lounge. He says it was the best freshman dorm experience he could ask for.
Pink formed bonds with his hallway neighbors, friends he’s still close with today. He loved the social atmosphere of the dorm, where it’s always loud, people are always happy to chat and the rules are a bit looser.
“It’s a bummer that next year’s freshmen will not have the full Bobb experience,” Pink says.
Room for Improvement
Walking into a Bobb bathroom, one might find vomit, hair dye across the sinks or a meal from Lisa’s spilled all over the floor. Residents say it’s a true wild card.
McCormick first-year and McCulloch resident Roselyn Attipoe says she thinks the filth is a result of students neglecting the already worn-down facilities.
“I feel like everybody has a better bathroom than us,” Attipoe says.
If Bobb was nicer, Attipoe says she thinks students would treat it better.
For many, the Bobb bathrooms are its most problematic feature. With so many people sharing the space, the facilities often don’t meet students’ needs.
“There was a solid two week period during Fall Quarter when [hot water] was a hit or miss thing, or we had two showers blocked off out of the three,” Weinberg first-year and McCulloch resident Reed Zimmerman says.
For Zimmerman, the laundry situation isn’t ideal either. She lives on the fourth floor and the two laundry rooms are in the basement, with just 12 total washers and dryers for hundreds of residents.
In the same room, just a few feet away from the laundry machines, are the Bobb kitchens. The old ovens and crumbling cabinets make them unusable for Zimmerman.
“I wouldn’t cook there,” Zimmerman says. “You might get food poisoning.”
Both Zimmerman and Attipoe say the new kitchenettes will be a game changer for future residents.
While Pink agrees that renovations will certainly improve the quality of life, he also says the dorm’s less-than-ideal cleanliness is part of its charm, and even its culture.
“People bond over being somewhere that’s not nice,” Pink says. “If Bobb was a nice, fancy dorm, like Lincoln or Shepard, I don’t know if the same atmosphere would be there.”
The Master Plan
With Bobb closed next year, Northwestern will re-open 1835 Hinman, recently renovated to house over 200 students with expanded kitchenettes and communal lounges. Located across Sheridan Road from East and West Fairchild, Hinman closed in 2018 for renovations.
The Bobb construction is part of a 2018 plan that also outlined potential 2025 renovations of Sargent, East and West Fairchild.
Residential Services was expected to release its new Housing Master Plan report during Winter Quarter, but has not published it yet. It contains a plan for the next 10 years of on-campus housing and dining, created with input from over 400 students, faculty and staff, along with thousands of student survey responses, according to the Residential Services website.
“Completion of the plan has been delayed as we work to ensure that it provides viable guidance in the current budgetary climate,” a University spokesperson told North By Northwestern in an email.
According to the University, the main goals of this new plan are to improve the condition of residential housing and dining, and enhance student community and belonging. It’s more comprehensive than the 2018 plan, as it also includes visions for dining and graduate housing.
As for the Bobb renovations, a Residential Services official says construction on the Bobb side is set to be complete by June 2026 and McCulloch by Fall 2027. Besides new kitchenettes and laundry rooms, it’s unclear what exactly the renovations will improve.
Next year, the Bobb hallways will lie vacant as construction gets underway. Incoming freshmen will have to find their pregames elsewhere. Even so, at the end of the day, many residents agree: Bobb’s not as bad as people say.
“I’ve met some of my closest friends in Bobb,” Zimmerman says. “Having them be only a couple doors down is really, really nice.”
Print design by Kyra Doherty.