The tower was originally known as Elrond College, an experiment in a new model of student housing. Elrond College, associated with Queen's University, was designed as a non-profit student run co-operative. The brutalist style structure was built to house the college in 1972, and was the first high rise constructed in the historic city of Kingston. The building had 184 apartments and was designed to hold 400 students. The students would pool their labour to keep the building maintained, and would pay towards the substantial mortgage the co-operative took out to build the structure. The residence was named after Elrond, a character in J.R.R. Tolkien's works. In the books, Elrond's home Rivendell is an idealized place of safety and respite.