Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm • Hacker News Board

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#671

Post by PebblesRox » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 11:31 AM UTC

slownews45 wrote: post #505

hemloc_io wrote: post #499

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 thi…

To be crystal clear, at least in California on-campus housing is generally where students want to live. With berkeley on campus housing can rely on FA awards, much more flexible in terms of reasons to cancel (ie, you withdraw from school), big issue with group leases off campus when one person flakes. What's interesting is that there is a view that we can't try out things like this in the US. There are so many critic…

If you're going to try something out, better to do it on a small scale first. Build weird housing for a couple hundred students before scaling up to 4k+.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#672

Post by salawat » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 11:34 AM UTC

LegitShady wrote: post #608

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All a layman knows if that he should not die in his sleep because the building caved in, you can't expect a homeowner to debate you on the exact details of structural engineering. However I can comment on the culture of negligence - and I think it's getting worse. Of course in every job, there is constant pressure from management to cut corners, junior colleagues or peers that mess up, deadlines to meet. It is very e…

> All a layman knows if that he should not die in his sleep because the building caved in, you can't expect a homeowner to debate you on the exact details of structural engineering. If said homeowner is trying to 'score points' by pointing out things they don't themselves understand, then they don't deserve any sort of benefit of the doubt. >However I can comment on the culture of negligence - and I think it's gettin…

>If said homeowner is trying to 'score points' by pointing out things they don't themselves understand, then they don't deserve any sort of benefit of the doubt.

The hell kind of attitude is this? Someone goes through the effort of doing research to wrap their head around something with which many people don't even bother to acknowledge, and challenge you with a question that you as the professional are reasonably expected to be able to answer, and that's your response?

I hope you never work with me. We would not get along at all.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#673

Post by salawat » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 12:13 PM UTC

anonuser123456 wrote: post #616

mikestew wrote: post #77

I'm absolutely serious when I say that the second illustration of the "suites" bares a striking resemblance to the layout of the county jail I briefly stayed in in Anderson, Indiana. There a few differences I'll note: 1. The rooms in the jail were larger, but I did have a roommate, so I'm not sure which has the larger amount of personal space. 2. In jail, at least there were windows. 3. In jail, I only had to share t…

Said jail wasn't located in Santa Barbara, situated in arguably one of the best climates in the world, and inmates aren't allowed to leave at their leisure to go enjoy said climate.

If your answer to a claim of crappy building is "go outside", you've admitted defeat in an architecture fight. Architecture is about making enclosed spaces work for you to obviate the need to go/have somewhere else.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#674

Post by salawat » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 12:19 PM UTC

leafmeal wrote: post #584

OkayPhysicist wrote: post #541

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that was the problem then the UCs could just cut down their international student admissions to compensate. No, the problem is that the UC system as an organization is fundamentally broken, corrupt to the bone, and has all but lost sight of their intended purpose of creating and proliferating knowledge.

This is a strong claim, without any evidence to back it up. There may be some truth here, but against most metrics, UCs are among the top research institutions in the world with amazing contributions to science, medicine, etc. etc. Could you explain where you're coming from?

I thought the poster was quite clear. If the UC system can't support the top 9% of their high school population in-state, and exacerbate the problem with overadmissions, then it seems clear there is a systemic failure somewhere that someone doesn't want to admit.

I'd say follow the money.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#675

Post by salawat » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 12:23 PM UTC

depaya wrote: post #329

ctdonath wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are such laws necessary? if you want to not live there, don't.

We need laws to save people from themselves and from being taken advantage of. If fire codes were not a thing, developers would build terrible fire traps and people would rent them. There would inevitably be many deaths; this has happened all throughout history prior to modern building codes (and of course still happens today[1]). The free market is a lie and impossible; you cannot expect the common person to be an e…

>you cannot expect the common person to be an expert on everything

Not with that attitude.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#676

Post by salawat » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 12:37 PM UTC

aurizon wrote: post #286

I see a lot of criticisms by people with a long history of wood buildings(which burns), painted(which burns), wooden furniture with foam(which burns). Is this building made totally out of non combustable components which will not create toxic fumes if intentionally doused with gasoline. This means all furniture, floor covers, lights etc simply will not burn. Then they have sprinklers as well. Windows, Bill Gates has…

How would you like to have a screen of a warm sunny day in June to look at on a dreary January day?

It'd drive me nuts tbqh. Just one more way to become unhinged from reality.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#677

Post by mlyle » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 7:29 PM UTC

nucleardog wrote: post #647

accountofme wrote: post #603

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this assuming that you keep the voltage low? Say at 12V? Wouldn't we push the voltage to maximise the power pushed and minimise the resistive losses?

The comment about powering a few anemic lightbulbs on 60W was assuming 12V, but otherwise it's all pretty independent of voltage. You could get the current 1800W of energy out of a branch circuit with 15A at 120VDC and all the limitations/massive wires I described. If you wanted to run 1800W DC as we run current power (14/2, hundred foot+ runs, etc) you'd be looking at something like 720VDC at a couple amps. There's…

> You could get the current 1800W of energy out of a branch circuit with 15A at 120VDC and all the limitations/massive wires I described.

15A at 120VDC wouldn't require massive wires. I'm not sure why you think it's drastically different from 120VAC for wire sizing. If dropping 10% of the AC voltage is OK, dropping 10% of DC is presumably OK, too, and either is I * R. About 96 meters to drop 12V, or 48 meters out and back.

It's not a good idea for plenty of other reasons, but...

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#678

Post by kbelder » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 8:51 PM UTC

jefftk wrote: post #373

capableweb wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. From the linked articles above: > Because the doors to the stairwells and exits were locked – a common practice at the time to prevent workers from taking unauthorized breaks and to reduce theft – many of the workers could not escape from the burning building and jumped from the high windows. > Various historians have also ascribed the exit doors being locked to management's wanting to keep out union organize…

"Because the doors to the stairwells and exits were locked – a common practice at the time..." Your quote is from a fire in 1911 . This is no longer at all common practice, and would get the university in serious trouble during regular inspections.

I don't think modern fire doors even have a locking mechanism.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#679

Post by some_random » Sun, Oct 31, 2021, 10:53 PM UTC

anonuser123456 wrote: post #625

some_random wrote: post #557

Watching old people solve the "problem" of young people not socializing enough by turning their living quarters into a prison is exactly the sort of thing I've come to expect.

Munger is more interested in figuring a way to not heap mountains of debt on students. The cost of building everyone’s dream college experience is one of the reasons people are paying 50-70k/ year for college. If this design shaves off 10k/year in costs that’s a down payment on a condo. Maybe that tradeoff seems unreasonable to people. But the ability to see and make those kinds of trade offs is… just maybe… one of t…

As someone else said, universities now require one or two years of living in dorms. These dorms vary wildly in quality, but from what I've seen prices are usually about the same, and I have no reason to think that it would be any different here.

For context, here's a summary of the last three years of uni for me:

1: Lived in a dorm without AC, crammed in with three other people, sharing a bathroom with the male half of the floor. This was the most I paid in rent.

2: Lived with those same three people in a townhouse with AC, my own room, a kitchen, sharing two bathrooms between four people. About half the price of the dorms.

3: Lived by myself in an apartment with AC, a kitchen, and my own bathroom. Still a bit cheaper than the dorms.

Even if students are given a cut in rent that reflects the reduced price of the dorm, I sincerely doubt that the university will pass up another opportunity to bleed students dry.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#680

Post by wpietri » Mon, Nov 01, 2021, 1:53 PM UTC

thehappypm wrote: post #437

wpietri wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 choic…

If you want to talk about "choice", this is not the hill that matters. So many colleges force their students to live on campus, and then squeeze them into forced doubles or even triples in conditions far worse than what's being built here.

Whether this is worse is exactly what's at question here. You can't just assume the answer.