Last year it was reported that Charlie Munger had designed a nearly windowless dormitory building for 4,500 students. This news attracted the attention of many people at the time.
Even though Charlie Munger is a well-known investor and the right-hand man of Warren Buffett, his design has attracted strong opposition from people. An architectural consultant on the project even resigned in protest, saying in his resignation letter: “It is impossible to support it from the perspective of an architect, a parent or a human being.”
Originally planned for UC Santa Barbara, the design for the “Munger Building” has been revised to accommodate 3,500 rooms over nine floors. But it now appears that it may have to undergo more revisions.
UC Santa Barbara convened an independent panel of faculty, external stakeholders, and industry leaders to review and discuss the design proposal for five months before presenting their recommendations this week .
“Investigation and analysis conducted by the team indicate that construction without significant modification to the design would pose foreseeable or would-be considerable health and safety risks to the University,” they wrote in their report.
Dubbed “Dormzilla,” the project was meant to address a housing crisis at universities amid growing enrollment and a lack of funding. It should be pointed out that Munger announced a donation of $200 million to the university in 2016.
Opposition to the design has been loud, however. last year. A group of architectural history professors at UC Santa Barbara filed a petition calling for the project to be halted because the residence hall is “full of small, windowless rooms that don’t get natural light or fresh air. , and can’t see the scenery of the outside world.”
In an interview with Architectural Record last year, Munger said he “knows college housing very well” through the experiences of his children and grandchildren. Although most of the dormitory rooms in his design have no windows, he doesn’t think that’s a problem. He also said: “It is very durable and especially well ventilated.”
But even with some tweaks to the original proposal, the independent panel believes the design still has some “significant risks and concerns” that the school needs to address.
Areas for improvement include: adding as many “operable windows” as possible to each suite and bedroom, increasing the size of each bedroom to match existing single rooms in other residence halls of the university, and reducing building volume and occupancy. student density.
The team also cited a number of other risk factors, such as the risk of transmission of diseases such as the new coronavirus, problems with safe evacuation routes, and mental health problems among students due to lack of fresh air and light.
In response, the team responsible for the project said in a statement that they were “actively working” to add additional windows where possible and add more ventilation shafts to improve ventilation in the building.
At the same time, the project team also said that revising the design based on the group’s feedback was a “significant challenge and required careful consideration”.
Fortune could not immediately reach Munger for comment. (Fortune Chinese website)
Translated by: Park Sung-gyu
Charlie Munger made headlines last year when news broke that he had designed a massive dorm building with almost no windows that could house 4,500 students.
It was an unusual move for the billionaire investor and Warren Buffett’s right hand man, which almost instantly invited backlash—a consulting architect quit in protest, and in his resignation letter called the building “unsupportable from my perspective as an architect, a parent, and a human being.”
Although that plan was modified to nine floors and 3,500 rooms, it appears that the University of California, Santa Barbara, where “Munger Hall” was scheduled to be built, may have more modifications to make.
An independent panel of UCSB faculty experts, outside stakeholders, and industry leaders reviewed and discussed the proposed plan for five months before delivering their recommendations this week.
“Research and analysis weighed by this Panel revealed significant health and safety risks that are predictable enough, probable enough, and consequential enough that it would be unwise for UCSB to proceed without significant modifications to the design,” the report reads.
Dubbed “Dormzilla,” the project was intended to solve the university’s housing crisis driven by an increase in enrollment, and a lack of funding. Notably, Munger announced a donation of $200 million to the school in 2016.
But opposition to the building has been significant. Last year, a group of architecture history professors at UCSB created a petition to halt construction, calling the proposed housing “small windowless cells, without natural light, natural air, or views of the world outside. “
Munger said he was “intimately familiar with university housing,” because of his experience with his children and grandchildren, in an interview with Architectural Record last year. He appeared to have no problem with the building being mostly windowless, saying: “It’s quite endurable , especially with good ventilation.”
But even with the adjustments to the original plan, the independent panel found “major risks and concerns” it wants the university to address.
Those include: adding “operable windows” to each multi-bedroom suite and as many bedrooms as possible, increasing the size of single bedrooms to match their current size of other singles within the university’s existing housing, and reducing the building mass and population density.
The panel cited the risk of COVID-19 transmission and other illnesses, safer evacuation routes, and less of a psychological strain on students linked to living in rooms without natural air or sunlight as a few issues that factored into their recommendations.
In response to the panel’s findings, the team responsible for the project said in a statement that it’s “actively working” to add additional windows where it’s possible and add additional ventilation shafts that will allow greater airflow.
However, the team said that modifications to the design based on feedback represent a “meaningful challenge and will require thoughtful consideration.”
Fortune was not able to immediately reach Munger for comment.
This article is reproduced from: https://www.fortunechina.com/shangye/c/2022-12/25/content_425081.htm
This site is only for collection, and the copyright belongs to the original author.