IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The University of Iowa has opened its newest and biggest residence hall to meet its student housing needs for the next few years. The Catlett Residence Hall officially opened Friday, in time to serve students for the fall semester.

The 12-floor, 1,049-bed residence hall is named after world renowned sculptor and printmaker Elizabeth Catlett, a university graduate who was one of the nation’s first students to earn a Masters of Fine Arts degree.

Catlett came to Iowa City in the late 1930s. She lived off campus because university housing was unavailable to African Americans until the desegregation of Currier Hall in 1945. Catlett, who is black, was influenced by Grant Wood, the Iowa painter who urged students to portray the subjects they knew best.