Do you see how this statement is not equivalent to “the purpose of this design is to crush individuality and force people to get used to living under oppressive conditions.”
“The purpose of this design is to crush individuality and force people to get used to living under oppressive conditions” is a cartoonish statement to make, based upon the available evidence. Unless you have something more that would reveal such nefarious intent, it absolutely is hyperbole.
Maybe he is an entitled self absorbed ass - but again - its his money. And he isn’t spending his money to shoot himself into space. That would be the actions of an entitled self-absorbed ass. Instead he’s given over a billion dollars to higher education in the past fifty years. And before this, many people didn’t know who he was. That doesn’t seem like the actions of an entitled self-absorbed ass.
Surprised no one has linked this yet - the somewhat similar construction at U Michigan gets mixed reviews, not terrible. However, each bedroom has its own bathroom, which for better or worse seems like a significantly different design than the UCSB building.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/02/business/munger-residences-michigan-windowless/index.html
Actually, it totally does seem like the action of an entitled self-absorbed ass. He wanted people to know who he was. And now they do.
He doesn’t seem particularly gracious in the CNN article, either. Not that it really matters - the quality of the design and the effect it will have on residents is what matters, not whether “Charlie” has a nice personality or not. I’m with the “he’s an asshole” crowd. But then, I’ve never understood why people want to have buildings named after themselves. It seems incredibly conceited to me - if I had fantastic wealth to throw around, I would definitely use it for significant philanthropic purposes. But I’d never demand a building named after me, in fact I would actively forbid it. Apparently I’m weird.
He’s never been gracious, that isn’t Munger - he’s a 97 year old cankerous old man. But if he wanted to be a self absorbed ass, you’d have Munger named buildings on college campuses all over the country - a billion dollars buys a lot of name recognition if that’s what he wanted. Its only because the architect quit and made a stink that you are aware of this one.
Actually, I think he’s proven his assholery by other (and worse) means than littering the country with buildings with his name attached. He’s proven he’s an asshole by insisting on no changes to his design, despite the fact he’s not a trained architect.
Though again, the extent of his personal charm, or lack thereof, shouldn’t be confused with the quality of the building. Except insofar as his arrogance has a direct impact on it, which it seems that it does.
Nobody responded to this, but the university is hemmed in by Devereux Lagoon on the west, Goleta Slough Marine Conservation Area on the northeast, existing retail and warehousing on the north as well as existing housing (San Joaquin Villages Santa Ynez Apartments), and a small puddle called the Pacific Ocean to the south and east. There are some pretty nice residence halls on the east and south side of campus overlooking the ocean and the campus lagoon but it looks like Munger Hall would be at the north center area of the campus where Transportation Services and Harder Statium are now, north of Caeser Uyesaka Baseball Stadium and the campus substation, south of the Santa Barbara Department of Public Safety, and just to the west of the County of Santa Barbara Community Hazardous Waste Collection Center.
So, maybe you don’t actually want any windows or ventilation after all, although windows on the north face will have a view of the airport runway to watch the planes take off. It is surprisingly far from the academic buildings, probably necessitating a regular shuttle or building some additional bike/walk paths as I don’t think they’d want students walking long the busy Mesa Road or Ocean Road.
Stranger
Okay, this is hilarious:
Again, they can turn down the money.
An important concern here is not only backup generators, but backup EVERYTHING. What happens if some critical system goes down - and the necessary repair part or the cleanup takes days. What do you do with the students in the meantime?
The most important takeaway from all this is that the college should not be committing itself to this plan in any way whatsoever when there are so many better alternatives.
The same thing that happens when dorms all over the country have issues - flooding, fires, etc. Other arrangements are made. And again, if they don’t want this alternative, they can turn down the money.
Er, like the number of students discussed here? All at once?
I had a huge dorm at the University of Iowa.
Sure. UCSB can turn down the money. That fact doesn’t counter any of my statements, does it? It can simultaneously be true that Charlie Munger is an arrogant prick who is insisting that the school follow his questionable design to the letter despite his lack of architectural training, and UCSB has the option of not taking his cash.
That gives me an idea; why not just buy a couple of older cruise ships and moor them to the south? A couple of the larger ones would give them as much or more capacity and I’ll bet that would cost less than the insane $1.5 billion price tag on this boondoggle.
And than you for the information on the site.
Plus, it will give students a leg up in experience for the post-apocalyptic “Waterworld” of tomorrow.
Seriously, cruise ships are expensive to maintain, and the logistics of shuttling students back and forth would be prohibitive, but I’m sure it would look great on the brochure!
Stranger
And this would violate the building codes in NYC, which is accustomed to dealing with builders trying to pack people into tight spaces. NYC requires each bedroom and living area (except hallways, bathrooms, and kitchenettes) to have a window.
My town’s building code also requires a bedroom to have a window.
I’m not the one who said that. Perhaps the person who said it believes it to be literally true.
I do think he’s an arrogant ass, but I don’t know that that matters. What matters is whether taking this money with the strings attached is good or bad for the university. I think it’s bad.
So in the off chance that a major system failure occurs, they might have to experience one slightly uncomfortable morning before getting out. Let’s leave that consideration to the building code regulators, then.
Apparently the largest dorm in the US is Bancroft Hall which houses about 4,000 midshipmen at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis Md. It is more spread out and definitely has more exits than Munger’s design. Of course midshipmen live a completely different life than the typical college student.
It looks more like a museum from the outside.
Does anyone have more information on the Michigan dorm Munger designed? He claims everyone loves it. The weird part is looking at an interview of Munger, he appears to be not long for this world and probably would not live to see this implemented. I could be wrong of course but it is odd how he wants to do this “experiment”
Okay. Maybe I’ll choose to live in places where building code regulators require windows – which seems pretty common, actually. I’m curious what your municipality’s building code says on the matter.
It’s probably okay for some people. Not everyone is sensitive to sunlight, and some people have awesome immune systems that survive without fresh air. I don’t. I would become ill if I lived there. And with that many students crammed in, a lot will have no choice.
Did you read the linked article about the kid who was trapped in a smaller munger dorm because she had to quarantine due to covid? Things like that happen. Students aren’t always free to leave their dorms.
Nah, he’s going to live forever. Secret provisions in this dorm design ,has a bunch of trap doors leading to an HH Holmes style murder dungeon in the concealed subbasement with a row of exsanguination booths and a fresh blood pipeline directly to Munger’s home. A spate of ‘unfortunate student drownings’ in Goleta Slough with rapid decomposition sufficient to cover blood consumed and if anyone even notices them missing it’ll be attributed to getting lost in the nearly identical maze of rooms. The Dorian Gray-esque revitalization of Munger will be explained by his investments in Silicon Valley anti- senescence technologies that for some reason aren’t open to market.
Stranger