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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

#491

Post by dang »

musingsole wrote: post #344
loeg wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please elaborate on how that's responsive to my comment. Again, not really sure a possible 2 year pandemic is especially significant in the 50 year design life of a building. Even if it sits empty for 4% of its life with 100% probability (generous), you still get 96% (48 years) of use out of it.

Nah, you're right. Nothing to learn from the events of just a few hours ago, so go ahead and board them up. What do I care? They're only humans.

Please don't break the site guidelines like this, or like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29038609. We're trying for something quite different here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#492

Post by mindcrime »

morpheuskafka wrote: post #487
mindcrime wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

North Carolina for me.

Interestingly, NC's requirement for student housing is actually done internally by the UNC System rather than by any code authority. The last unsprinklered dorms at UNC were torn down a few years ago. As far as I know, building codes do require sprinklers in new residences just judging based on the 2010s era complexes around campus. I had assumed this was standard everywhere now, but maybe not. The place I live in no…

Interestingly, NC's requirement for student housing is actually done internally by the UNC System rather than by any code authority. The last unsprinklered dorms at UNC were torn down a few years ago.

Interestingly enough, I believe at least some of that was in direct response to the UNC Phi Gamma Delta fire back in 1996.

https://www.wunc.org/news/2021-05-12/unc-chapel-hill-phi-gam...

and do not evacuate with any urgency, if at all.

Yeah, there's an unfortunate "thing" about automatic fire alarms - the "boy who cried wolf" effect. Many automatic alarms go off a LOT and more often than not the reason is either a straight up fault in the system, or at best, a "real, but non fire" reason like smoke from cooking. I listen in on Chapel Hill FD dispatch a lot and I can tell you, CHFD goes to the various dorms around campus all the freaking time for alarm activations, and rarely is the cause any kind of actual active fire. So people get conditioned to treat those alarms as "nothing-burger". It's unfortunate.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#494

Post by dang »

altacc wrote: post #31
Saint_Genet wrote: post #4

"The idea was conceived by 97-year-old billionaire-investor turned amateur-architect Charles Munger, who donated $200 million toward the project with the condition that his blueprints be followed exactly." Absolutely amazing

Classic example of somebody becoming rich and thinking that makes them an expert on everything and the most qualified to solve any problem they cast their mind to. See also: just about every other billionaire on the planet.

"Please don't fulminate."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#495

Post by dang »

canaus wrote: post #397
altacc wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classic example of somebody becoming rich and thinking that makes them an expert on everything and the most qualified to solve any problem they cast their mind to. See also: just about every other billionaire on the planet.

Wait until you hear about programmers who frequent tech forums.

Please don't take HN threads further into flamewar.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#496

Post by dEnigma »

thehappypm wrote: post #439
k8si wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Introvert's nightmare. Also, who can study in a common area with all the noise?

I would imagine an introvert would do far worse in a shared triple room with no common areas at all, in this dorm, they have a private room.

Why is the alternative automatically a triple room with no common area, and not simply a single room with at least a window (plus a common area)?

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#497

Post by kwhitefoot »

thehappypm wrote: post #435
tomtheelder wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually lived in a room remarkably similar to this one year in college. It was marginally bigger than what is pictured, but the space was used far less efficiently (lots of annoying free-standing furniture) so functionally it was probably smaller. Aside from the lack of a window making it awfully hard to wake up in the morning, it was no big deal. It was actually my favorite dorm room I had in college. The single-…

Yeah, I feel like most folks here are wildly out of touch with what it's like to be a college student, including the architect. I, and just about everyone else from my college, would trade just about every creature comfort for a private room to sleep. In fact my college had suites like these and they were fought over tooth-and-nail in the room draw process. I think one of the most bizarre things we accept in life is…

> I think one of the most bizarre things we accept in life is college kids being forced into doubles and triples.

I went to uni. in the 70s in the UK. I never had to share. A few students at the same uni. did but it was almost always possible to move to a single room later in the year.

Do so many US students really have to share rooms, and if so why?

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#498

Post by bumby »

colinmhayes wrote: post #322
wpietri wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, some of the quotes here: "Good luck surviving seasonal depression or maintaining your slowly failing eyesight, especially during a pandemic and you should not be spending long periods in common spaces, when 95% of the rooms in Munger have NO WINDOW" "It can be a huge problem for people to live in because normally people would feel very uncomfortable living in a room without windows, and you don't even have a saf…

I wouldn't say the housing market in Ann Arbor has a fair bit of choice. The vast majority of undergrads live in frat style 7+ bedroom houses. There really aren't a huge number of 1 or even 2 bedroom apartments available, and what does exist is either incredibly run down or 2k+ a month in a high rise building that grad students can't afford. North campus has better 1/2 bed options, but only engineering and art studen…

Is your claim based on the assumption that it has to be within walking distance of campus? It's been awhile since I lived in the area, but I never had issues finding a reasonable student apartment if you were willing to bus/bike/commute in

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#499

Post by hemloc_io »

Hijacking the thread a bit, but I'm not sure people understand how predatory student housing is in aggregate.

At many colleges you don't even have a choice to live in the dorms or not as an undergrad, living on campus for 1-2 years is tied to enrollment.

On top of this lots of financing for college housing is wonky, because some colleges do not pay property tax. (So you can have the college hold the land and some third party company finance/build the building students are forced to live in.) This is a significant part of ACC's business model.[0] Student loan money is used to pay rent on these buildings, so it's indirectly funded by taxpayers.

The power colleges have over students lives is concerning regardless of if this dorm design is good or bad. If UCSB put in one of these requirements students could be forced to take part in a social experiment designed by a billionaire. UCSB, or another campus w/ a Munger dorm, doesn't have this requirement today but could have it tomorrow.

0: https://www.americancampus.com/

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