UCSB may build $200 million dorm, designed by Warren Buffett's right hand man Charlie Munger, where 94% of rooms have no windows

Also, everyone gets a private room in this dorm. I would've taken that in a heartbeat. In retrospect, I still can't believe I spent my freshman year sharing 150 square feet with a messy, nocturnal stranger.

And all the comments I've been reading about safety are totally off base. The building will still have to comply with all applicable building and fire codes.

I read the article and looked at renderings. It's a great idea. The biggest set back of modern society is the lack of relationships people currently experience. The design of this dorm promotes interaction.

8 people with their own bed and some privacy, but a shared common area is great.

This design is really meant to make the bedroom a place to read/sleep/change clothes. It is not meant to be somewhere a student spends a lot of time. The design encourages them to be in common areas and outside.

This is efficient and forward thinking, meant to foster the sense of community that has been largely eroded by modern technology.

I'll Take This One... wrote:

Proof that rich old white egotists want young minds to be accustomed to the drudgery of working their lives away in a cold sterile environment, free from distractions like sunlight, and forced to collaborate in cramped quarters with other similar lab rats. In effect, he is conditioning them at a young age to office life and the sort of world that billionaires want - serfs locked in rooms with nothing to do but work to enrich the billionaires.

^ Classism, ageism and racism in one post. And Charlie Munger is only one person, so why do you write "egotists?"

I add that I would fear the onset of depression from living in a windowless room.

I'd rather live in this building than share a roach-infested 2 bedroom with 5 guys or sleep in my car. If the city doesn't like it, they should get off their asses and permit more housing.

Ho Hum wrote:

I'd rather live in this building than share a roach-infested 2 bedroom with 5 guys or sleep in my car. If the city doesn't like it, they should get off their asses and permit more housing.

Exactly. Anybody who has had to scrounge for housing in a major city while having most of your money-earning hours gobbled up by college study knows that this isn't the worst thing in the world. I've had dorm rooms w/out windows, or facing a tree, or a factory wall. I've also had to go scrambling for housing in the most dangerous (and cheapest) parts of town while studying for my degrees. If any of these kids complain, I'm gonna tell them to GET OFF MY LAWN!

I believe it’s actual a $1.5 billion proposal for which Munger would contribute $200 million (is this like a down payment and then the university uses bonds or something for the rest?)

It used to be that the architects wore the black turtlenecks, now the donors wear them?

adfadf wrote:

I'll Take This One... wrote:

Proof that rich old white egotists want young minds to be accustomed to the drudgery of working their lives away in a cold sterile environment, free from distractions like sunlight, and forced to collaborate in cramped quarters with other similar lab rats. In effect, he is conditioning them at a young age to office life and the sort of world that billionaires want - serfs locked in rooms with nothing to do but work to enrich the billionaires.

^ Classism, ageism and racism in one post. And Charlie Munger is only one person, so why do you write "egotists?"

Progressive dopes, it's what they do.

This thing is a lot nicer than what I, or most people I know had Freshman year of college.

The nine UC campuses have at least $500B apiece in undisclosed US DoE, US DoD, CIA projects in unmarked or false facilities above ground and 25 miles underground and undersea across the State of California, Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico and Pacific Ocean. Why they don't they take the built in cost-plus margins to build undergraduate housing.

Munger's not 'one of Buffett's buddies;' he's the vice-chair of Berkshire, and has been Buffett's right-hand man in running it for 40-plus years.

He's an immensely brilliant and polymathic guy, but he can also be highly arrogant and incredibly stubborn about lots of things. (He's a life-long Republican, so that tells you he's working with some significant intellectual and ethical limitations, all by itself.)

His stubbornness and gargantuan ego sometimes lead him to say some pretty dumb and incredibly tone-deaf things, but he's also been *right* about some big things where he and Buffett distinctly disagreed --which is awfully impressive, as Buffett's an amazingly brilliant guy himself.

He likes to take up certain serious interests as 'hobbies,' and pursue them with near-religious zeal, and architecture and education are two examples.

In his very-old age, he's combined those interests with gigantic philanthropic efforts at a number of schools he's got personal connections with, and has used them to powerfully push his highly-controversial views on design for student housing.

He's already made similar efforts at several other institutions, with somewhat mixed reception, as far as I can tell.

I tend to think denying kids a window, or view, or fresh air is pretty stupid, but he's got a very particular vision, and he's basically promoting it as a great self-funded 'social experiment.'

He knows he'll be seen as an incredible a**hole for telling schools you only get my money if you build my bizzare and possibly super-offensive design,... and he really doesn't give a sh*t.

I'd think you could probably serve the same basic purpose without such extremes as cutting out all windows, but Charlie *likes* to be extreme.

I generally think he'd do better, and be much better-remembered and-regarded, if he was a lot less insanely dogmatic and arrogant about stuff, but that just ain't who he is.

It'd be interesting to see how his designs are viewed with 20 years of hindsight.

P.S. *One* of Charlie's highly controversial views in recent years is that Bitcoin is a gargantuan *scam*,... and he'll be proven dead right about that one.

would love to see how it is possible for this kind of design to pass fire codes, etc.

high school xc coach wrote:

would love to see how it is possible for this kind of design to pass fire codes, etc.

How so?

malmo wrote:

high school xc coach wrote:

would love to see how it is possible for this kind of design to pass fire codes, etc.

How so?

don't most municipalities have rules regarding bedrooms having windows and/or natural light?

I spent 6 months in an apartment in Manhattan where my window faced a brick wall that was only about 4 to 6 feet away. Riverside Park isn't as nice as Santa Barbara. I think I'd be able to live in this dorm.

Iron Bars wrote:

This is the most ridiculous, ass backwards design I've ever seen. Looks like a concentration camp from North Korea. Has this idiot ever lived in a dorm? No windows? In Santa Barbara (technically Isla Vista) of all places? What a joke. Arrogance, that is what it is.

Uh-huh. That’s why you work in a small office as a cog in the wheel, making $75k/yr…because you’re waaaay smarter than a billionaire. The irony is your mention of “hubris” in your critique.

high school xc coach wrote:

malmo wrote:

How so?

don't most municipalities have rules regarding bedrooms having windows and/or natural light?

You tell me?

What does that have to do with fire codes?

high school xc coach wrote:

would love to see how it is possible for this kind of design to pass fire codes, etc.

windows in a lot of high rise dorms cannot be opened any way so I doubt that is a problem.

Interesting to see that the common area has a window just the bedrooms do not. That makes it a lot more understandable. Heck I put up black out curtains in my bedroom and rarely have them not drawn. Probably also decreases heating and cooling costs.