Massive US college dorm for 4,500 students dubbed a ‘psychological experiment’
- Critics bash proposed dormitory at the University of California, with ‘94 per cent’ of single-occupancy rooms lacking windows
- Billionaire investor Charlie Munger, who helped design building, is donating US$200 million to the university
Dormzilla. A ship on land. An experiment. These are some of the labels being levied on Munger Hall, a planned dormitory at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
The massive 11-storey, 1.68 million square foot building, which billionaire investor Charlie Munger has pledged US$200 million toward, would house more than 4,500 students in a structure with few windows and two entrances.
As a vice-chairman at Berkshire Hathaway, Munger is well-respected for his business acumen.
But he’s getting some resistance to his prowess as an amateur architect. Munger is not an architect himself, but he worked with architects on the UCSB project, he told The New York Times.
But the donation came with the condition that his blueprints be followed precisely, the Santa Barbara Independent reported.
Los Angeles architect Dennis McFadden, a consultant to the university for 15 years, resigned on October 5 over the project, calling the building “destructive” and “unsupportable from my perspective as an architect, a parent and a human being”, in a letter to the university’s design review committee.