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Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

independent.com

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Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#191

Post by VRay »

mschuster91 wrote: post #62
praptak wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We really need a way to protect ourselves against what the rich are doing to the rest of us.

The easiest way would be to do it like in most of Europe and fund universities properly with tax money so that they do not need to waste half their professors' time chasing grants and depend on wealthy donors to fund basic operations.

How much funding are we giving our universities, and how much is Europe giving them?

I ask because in-state tuition in California and Washington is so high that you could afford a full time PhD student tutor with it.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#193

Post by nisegami »

theroqwpeo wrote: post #75
daniel-thompson wrote: post #24

Munger also did the same thing for the University of Michigan's graduate residence building^; 95% of the rooms have no windows. ^ https://housing.umich.edu/residence-hall/munger/

Reviews of this residence: https://www.veryapt.com/ApartmentReview-a7222-munger-graduat...

A lot of those reviews seem to be posted in late November 2019. Seems suspicious to me. Granted, I'd probably be fine living there.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#194

Post by wpietri »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #137
mindcrime wrote: post #91

From my point-of-view as a former firefighter, I would say this: A building meant to house 4500 students, with only two entrances? There's a word for that: deathtrap. Building this is setting UCSB up to be the site of the next Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire[1], Station Nightclub fire[2], or Hamlet Chicken Processing Plant fire[3]. At a first glance, based only on the information provided in the article, I'd say tha…

Those are factories, so it's a bit different, but I agree with you. In my state every room in a home that could be used as a bedroom or for regular occupancy (ie not a closet) has to have a window large enough to get a person out. For damn good reason. How the fuck was this project compliant with local fire code? I don't even understand how this was seriously considered in the first place. Apparently the project has…

> How the fuck was this project compliant with local fire code?

UCSB employs 10k people in a town of 90k. This is a $1.5 billion project that the University is desperate to have. It seems totally plausible to me that they could find a compliant inspector and/or get a variance for the building.

Whether or not it's actually safe, you can bet that the companies making millions off this will have a plausible story about safety. With lots of documents and presentations and software models. What's a small-town fire safety inspector got to put against that?

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#195

Post by foolfoolz »

proteal wrote: post #183

I think I understand where they’re coming from by designing such a large, on-campus dorm. There’s limited space at UCSB to physically house kids nearby. If you look at the map, there’s only one walkable community to UCSB and that consists of rented single family homes (2,000 sqft shacks) that you cram 20-30 students in. I would argue that living in the dystopian mega dorm might make more sense for lots of students wh…

iv is not many single family homes. it’s most duplexes. there’s some larger buildings in the back. it’s a highly dense party town. it scares parents and donors. ucsb has one of the lowest rates of greek life attendees in the entire uc system. why? because maybe you need to pay to join a frat if you want to party elsewhere. at ucsb you will have more than enough parties to attend even if you never set foot in a greek house

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#196

Post by aristophenes »

baggy_trough wrote: post #19

I’d rather have no roommate than a window.

You’d have seven roommates and would also have no window. Looking at the layout, it’s like sharing a tiny apartment with 7 other people. This is the worst part, if you have one disruptive person out of eight, they are going to make everyone else miserable. Hard to get sleep, hard to study.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#198

Post by pseudalopex »

gbronner wrote: post #148
indodima wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do not need to be an architect to see that living in windowless boxes (not rooms) will damage young adults psychologically. Just put yourself into this room and try to study for 6 hours a day. It looks worse than a prison cell. This old fart probably has his own ideas about how poor students need to work and live in order to "earn" an education. Not to mention anything regarding virus spreading...

The goal is to get the students out of their bedrooms. There's plenty of common space, and lots of really nice places to go study and socialize out of your bedroom. This is intended to promote real-life socialization, which is the only real reason to go to in-person college these days. Plus, everyone gets a single! My college roommates had blackout curtains on the small windows in our rooms. Not sure how this is diff…

Your roommates chose to have blackout curtains. And they could choose to open them.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#199

Post by vmception »

yaacov wrote: post #187
vmception wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

False dilemma. They could make the first floor have food courts and gyms, while having windows or simply not having a 97 year old billionaire donor dictate taste with zero input just because money. You are assuming a lot about whether the safety designs exist, or are adequate .

> just because money Money is really important, probably the single most important constraint for state universities.

yes, I understand the perverse incentives that led to greenlighting this. its also not an excuse. they should reject the $200 million donation and hope Munger sends another with no restrictions. that's where we are at.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#200

Post by mindcrime »

maxcan wrote: post #125
mindcrime wrote: post #91

From my point-of-view as a former firefighter, I would say this: A building meant to house 4500 students, with only two entrances? There's a word for that: deathtrap. Building this is setting UCSB up to be the site of the next Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire[1], Station Nightclub fire[2], or Hamlet Chicken Processing Plant fire[3]. At a first glance, based only on the information provided in the article, I'd say tha…

Its exceedingly likely that that number does not include fire escapes and emergency exits.

Maybe so. This article elides a lot of details... in fact, they don't touch on fire safety aspects at all as far as I can tell. So maybe there are sufficient accommodations made in terms of fire safety. It's hard to say.

But... if the design really was done by an amateur architect who probably has little or no background specifically related to fire/life safety issues vis-a-vis building design, and it truly hasn't been modified from his design... I don't know. I'll just say "color me skeptical" for now.

If I'm ultimately proven wrong, then I would actually be very happy. I'd much rather suffer the indignity of having to admit I was wrong about something on HN, than watch a news report detailing hundreds of student deaths on campus.

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