Two doors, few windows and 4,500 students: Architect quits over billionaire s mega-dorm | The Seattle Times
Dennis McFadden, a Los Angeles architect and member of the university s design review committee of 15 years, wrote in his resignation letter that he was disturbed by the 11-story, 1.68 million-square-foot building with just two entrances. The massive dorm would house 4,500 students, 94% of whom would not have windows in their compact single-occupancy bedrooms. McFadden called the dorm the wrong answer to the need for more housing raising the question of how much authority wealthy donors have when it comes to planning the buildings their names are etched on.
As the vision of a single donor, the building is a social and psychological experiment with an unknown impact on the lives and personal development of the undergraduates the university serves, McFadden wrote in the letter, first reported by student-run newspaper the Daily Nexus and community outlet the Santa Barbara Independent.
Munger, who has no formal architecture training, says he s unfazed by McFadden s objections, telling The Washington Post that this is not some crazy idea. He said his plan has been in the works for years and compared virtual windows that would simulate sunlight in the dorm rooms to those in Disney cruise staterooms.
The $1.5 billion project, of which Munger is contributing $200 million, will proceed despite McFadden s letter, a university spokeswoman said.
It sounds like a nightmare to live in to me. Maybe Munger would agree to contribute the rest of the tab if it turns out down the line that kids really, really don’t want to live in his horrible hive. They’re humans dammit! Not insects!