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Are you referring to a UCSB dormitory proposed back in 2021. Here are the highlights of the design. I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader as to whether the
by teachrdan 3y ago
Are you referring to a UCSB dormitory proposed back in 2021. Here are the highlights of the design. I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader as to whether the students and faculty were right to shut this project down.
"Charlie Munger, a 97-year-old billionaire and Warren Buffett's right-hand man, gifted UCSB a casual $200 million to build the dorm under one condition: he gets to make all of the design decisions."
"Because it's Munger's way or the highway, he has decided that 94% of the bedrooms (which, by the way, are only 7x10") will not have windows. Instead, only some of the common areas will have windows, in an attempt to get students out of their bedrooms to socialize."
"In addition to the whole no windows thing, Munger's design requires eight students to share one bathroom. The entire building also only features two exits. For 4,000 people."
https://www.buzzfeed.com/madisonmcgee/billionaire-builds-windowless-dorm-ucsb https://www.buzzfeed.com/madisonmcgee/billionaire-builds-win...
- acomjean 3y ago> eight students to share one bathroom Ha. Orchard Hill @ umass, 4 identical 7 story building around a circle of grass. We had windows, but they were a very small part of the back wall (they did let air/light in). I can't recall looking out, though it wasn't really scenic. I think it was 30 people per bathroom (2 bathrooms per floor). Each floor had 2 "study lounges" with tables and wall to wall windows and a balcony. To date myself, we had newly installed network access: 9600 baud to the computers on campus. There was an icecream bar vending machine in the laundry room, which was oddly cheap and memorable. It was serviceable, and being on top of a hill, your fitness improved. Its still there (the dorm, vending machine is probably long gone..), probably almost 40 years old at this point. https://www.umass.edu/living/residence/orchard/dickinson https://www.umass.edu/living/residence/orchard/dickinson
- teachrdan 3y ago> I think it was 30 people per bathroom Was that 30 people per bathroom with multiple toilets and showers? For contrast, the article above makes it sound like the proposed dorm design was one toilet + shower for 8 students to share.
- acomjean 3y agoIt was 4 toilets/ showers per bathroom. They where pretty big.
- w0m 3y agoNo Windows sounds like the only real problem here I think. Well; and maybe emergency evac unless there's enough fire escapes or something.
- justin66 3y agoWhere do you live such that a 7x10 room doesn't sound awful by comparison? A supermax prison?
- mrguyorama 3y agoA college "Single" dorm being that size is perfectly fine. You really aren't supposed to spend 24/7 in it.
- justin66 3y agoPeople will spend as little time in it as possible, I'm sure. They'll want to get out into the yard to mingle with the other convicts. Work their job at the infirmary, helping victims of stabbings with their rehabilitation. Surreptitiously plan escapes in the library.
- skyyler 3y agoSo you're saying schools are like prisons? Okay, Foucault.
- ceejayoz 3y agoEmergency evacuation was indeed one of the sticking points. 4,500 students in one building, only a couple of main exits, bedrooms with only one way out. When I was in a dorm, we had to evacuate fairly regularly when someone'd set off the fire alarms burning popcorn... and that just disrupted a couple hundred of us at one time.