FTFY…
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To the 97 year old psychopathic narcissist who designed the place?
He’d probably say he went without an asprin for a hangover once so he knows what it’s like to go without insulin in an emergency.
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Just to be clear – it’s not that windowless rooms are the only option, and we’re debating whether this cool maverick is being too brave or not.
Any competent designer could design this project to normal human standards (for $1.5billion (!!!)). The point is that this boob doesn’t know how to design a building, and the school has taken a huge bribe to not only pretend otherwise, but also shaft a bunch of innocent victims in service of his cosplay.
Most people don’t have $200million to spend on it, but many people have this same psychosis about architectural expertise. Since it’s just about deciding where walls go, which any fool can do, some fools feel insulted by the suggestion that someone else’s ideas outrank theirs. And they’ll be all “explain to me why your idea is better”, and it’s like, happy to, but it took several years of psychologically intense training to explain to me, how’s your calendar looking? And anyway it’s not that architects’ ideas are better, it’s that they account for a whole bunch of tiresome specifics you mostly aren’t interested in (e.g. where do the windows go).
This is a design question the way an oil spill is a controversy over whether oil is actually good for sea life. Even if it offends you that architects scolded someone, let’s not wander into making this about whether people really need windows, because believe me, once it’s OK for students, it will be OK to use parking structures as permanent low-income housing (etc).
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Jebus these rich fucks. Where’s the guillotine emoji when you need it?
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I assumed you were going to say this dorm was in unacceptable condition
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I went to graduate school in Fairbanks, Alaska. There were days in the winter when I would not see the sun. I would go to my building before it rose, be inside all day, and then leave after it set. It’s very strange and disconcerting. Of course, if the students can get outside, that will help, but SAD lights, no matter how adjustable, are not the same as a window to the outdoors.
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I really miss Adventure Time 
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Century old billionare thinking
FFS - from the CNN article
“I do expect this dorm will be copied four more times on the USCB campus and many more times than that on the other campuses on the UC system and I expect this to spread all over the country. It’s a better mouse trap.”
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The lack of windows, while horrifying, are not what scare me the most about this project. This building, when fully populated, would be in the top 10 densest populated neighborhoods on earth. There are 2 exits for the entire building. Can you imagine the number of kids that would be killed in crush incidents the first time the fire alarm gets pulled? Can you imagine the carnage if there is an actual fire? Or, being California, an earthquake? This thing has to be in clear violation of any number of local, state and national building statutes.
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I can’t help but remember:
A cousin of mine used to spend time there. It’s not some esoteric debate.
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There’s a bit too much heat and not enough light here, but I’ll just make the following comments…
- There are no windows in the individual rooms. There are plenty of windows and natural light in the common areas. It’s designed to encourage communal living and social interaction.
- The idea is you spend very little time in your pod, and much more time in the communal areas/.Perhaps a draconian approach to achieve this goal, but every well-designed building uses these sorts of nudges to achieve its ends.
- The way to fix the terrible cost of living in Santa Barbara is to increase density. Every urban planner in the world will tell you that.
- The dorm at UM seems to be highly rated by inhabitants. So there’s that.
- There is one architect panning it, very prominently. Which is fine, and he should be heard! And I’m sure others feel similarly. But there is a whole board of architects who DIDN’T quit over this project.
- I’m completely aware of the ridiculous amateur billionaire dilettante aspect of this. I just am not sure it’s a terrible idea.
- Points about structural resiliency and energy dependence. are well taken. I don’t know if this has been considered, but of course it should. Generators?
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Parents are advised to move their kids in with an emergency credit card and one of these:
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I was in a dorm my freshman year. Tiny (about 3’ between the 2 twin beds, no dresser, the closet rod was 2’ long), but every room had a window. It was the bathrooms and the common rooms that were on the inside of the building (plus staircases and elevators, of course). If you’re socializing with people, being able to look out a window isn’t quite as crucial. And the common rooms had multiple points of egress if needed.
There are ways to create a building complex that can house 4500 students that don’t include doing everything exactly wrong.
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Those are emergency exits only, and appear to go straight outside so they would not be usable normally (alarm will sound).
The mail room, market, mechanical rooms, and LAUNDRY room each have more windows than the dorm rooms do.
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I am replying to this post -
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