UT purchased Shelbourne Towers, an apartment building constructed in 1951 adjacent to the campus at 820 Twentieth Street, for $8 million. Various uses were proposed for the eight-story building, with 190 units, but the costs of renovation and structural strictures posed by its construction made retention of it unfeasible. The building was razed in 2014 to provide a site for a new residence hall, as part of the plan to replace the Presidential Court residence halls with modern living accommodations.
Shelbourne Towers was built and owned by a Glazer Steel partnership that included brothers Louis and Guilford Glazer. In 1994 the building was sold to Grace Development of Nashville, and Grace sold it to UT.