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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

#201

Post by falcolas »

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.

His money represents less than 10% of the final cost of the dorm, while retaining 100% of the design rights.

Something's happening here that's more than just the money.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#202

Post by kpmcc »

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...

Note that many of the positive reviews are from pre-covid times and the two that coincide with the pandemic note how ill suited it is to such conditions.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#203

Post by wpietri »

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…

Sure, we get the goal. It could even be an interesting experiment. Maybe some people would like it. Maybe lots of people. Or maybe it causes lasting psychological harm. But this is going to get built and used for decades regardless of the results of the experiment.

> My college roommates had blackout curtains on the small windows in our rooms. Not sure how this is different.

You and your college roommates had a choice. Did everybody in your dorm do that?

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#204

Post by phone8675309 »

ceejayoz wrote: post #153
phone8675309 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he wasn't sucking at the US Government's teat for funding for SpaceX, tax breaks for Tesla, and evading income taxes then I might admire the guy, but as it is, he's the same corporate grifter in a new set of clothes.

I mean, compare SpaceX against, say, SLS, and it looks like a pretty cost-effective form of government spending.

There wasn’t the political will in Congress to make SLS a success because it’s not a voting issue for most of their constituents. This is the fate of any ambitious tech development unless that technology can be used to incinerate half of the world in nuclear-fueled hellfire (moon race), spy on the American people without a warrant, kill brown people in the third world, or be give secondhand to the police to fight the war on drugs.

However, never underestimate Congress's undying political will to give bucketloads of American taxpayer dollars and money the government borrowed to rich people with no accountability.

Really makes you think…

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#205

Post by fasteddie »

colinmhayes wrote: post #127
gt565k wrote: post #28

Glad he had the balls to step down and call them out. The other committee members and people in charge of the project should be embarrassed as they failed to represent the best needs of the university and its students. Windowless dorms, crazy 97 year old billionaire amateur architect and a bunch of corrupt university staff and committee members who would do anything to save a few bucks. What could go wrong? Humanity…

What I don't understand is how this shithole costs so much? 1.5 billion for 4,500 residents comes out to 333,333 per resident. It feels like they could probably build normal dorms for that price.

A new small apartment in San Francisco cannot be built for less than $800k these days, so coming in a $333k per resident is not too surprising to me in a similar high-cost city with a building with a ton of amenities.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#206

Post by mapmap »

lvass wrote: post #156
colinmhayes wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I don't understand is how this shithole costs so much? 1.5 billion for 4,500 residents comes out to 333,333 per resident. It feels like they could probably build normal dorms for that price.

This looks so insane to me, I wonder how much building a normal apartment would cost in that area. I'm building a 7000sqft high-standard house in South America for around 200K USD.

$29 per sq ft is amazing! Have you documented your project? Interested to learn more.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#207

Post by hnlmorg »

Belphemur wrote: post #145
yashap wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100%. Sure, the billionaire is probably an asshole, but he’s also 97 and not an architect. The real problem here is the leadership at the university deciding to move forward with this monstrosity just to get a big donation.

Maybe they're betting on the donor dying before having to start the project, and hope to keep the money ?

If the donor is attaching terms to the donation then I'd expect there will be some sort of contract in place to ensure his terms are met.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#208

Post by ceejayoz »

phone8675309 wrote: post #204
ceejayoz wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, compare SpaceX against, say, SLS, and it looks like a pretty cost-effective form of government spending.

There wasn’t the political will in Congress to make SLS a success because it’s not a voting issue for most of their constituents. This is the fate of any ambitious tech development unless that technology can be used to incinerate half of the world in nuclear-fueled hellfire (moon race), spy on the American people without a warrant, kill brown people in the third world, or be give secondhand to the police to fight the…

SpaceX seems to have quite a bit of accountability; I'm a big fan of how Commercial Crew and Commercial Cargo projects were run (fixed costs, especially, which is biting Boeing in the ass right now...), and hope NASA uses it as a baseline for future projects.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#209

Post by ajross »

vmception wrote: post #168
ajross wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely building codes mandate a comprehensive evacuation design. There are clearly aesthetic complaints many people will have here, but realistically safety shouldn't be a problem. This is simply not a "large" building by skyscraper standards, and those can be built safely. Honestly... I think this is very much a taste thing. Is it so weird that I don't think this looks so bad at all? Yeah, yeah, no windows. But dens…

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 .

> You are assuming a lot about whether the safety designs exist, or are adequate.

Uh, yes. Because there are laws governing how we can construct buildings in a safe way, and on the whole (c.f. the number of deaths in building fires over time) they work well. So I trust them.

As far as the putative logic flaw, I don't see it. Everything is a tradeoff, even "because money". Saving money on the dorm means lower tuition, more scholarships, more facilities elsewhere, maybe a few new endowed professorships, etc...

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#210

Post by testplzignore »

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/

That building holds 630 residents. The proposed building holds 7x more.
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