UC Santa Barbara created a mock-up version of Munger Hall — the proposed student dormitory designed by billionaire and Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charles Munger — in a warehouse in Goleta.
The dorm proposal has gained national notoriety for its unique architectural design, which boasts windowless student rooms.
The Nexus acquired photos of the university’s Munger mock-up through an anonymous source. The following photos show the individual rooms, shared common spaces and the built-in virtual windows as discussed in the Munger Hall design.
The current design includes eight houses per floor, eight suites per house, eight private bedrooms per suite along with nine floors of houses. The 11-story building also has a market.
According to Andrea Estrada, UCSB spokesperson, the university has had the mock-up built for years.
“The mock-up was developed and funded a few years ago as part of the design process and to provide members of our community an opportunity to experience the design features in a way that cannot be accomplished through renderings alone,” Estrada said in a statement to the Nexus.
Estrada added that the university hoped to make the mock-up available for community members earlier but that the pandemic slowed down the process. The university hopes to make it available for community members to see in the next few months.
“The University intended to have it available earlier, but COVID-19 slowed the process and prohibited us from opening it to campus community members,” Estrada said. “It has been under development for some time and has undergone changes as the design has evolved. We are working to create a way for campus community members to visit in the coming months.”
Despite the nationwide criticism the building has received for its design, the university stands by the project. Currently, the university is preparing an environmental impact report which they hope will be done by Spring Quarter 2022.
“The University is continuing to move forward on this critically important project that will provide more affordable on-campus housing options for our students with expansive amenities that are otherwise not available off-campus,” Estrada said.
CORRECTION [11/15/2021, 12:01 p.m.]: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the environmental impact report will be released in Spring Quarter 2021. The article has been corrected to say the environmental impact report will be released in Spring Quarter 2022.
A mock up delayed by Covid? How about a design that does not work in the era of endemic Covid? The way to put a swift end to this dystopian nightmare is for the regents to appoint a new chancellor. This project is a Yang-Munger kumbaya. Yang serves a the pleasure of the regents. Retire him.
What it’ll be like to like in Munger Hall at UCSB is no mystery. Talk to thousands of students who called Munger Graduate Residence at the University of Michigan. Year after year, it’s the most sought-after and best-reviewed student housing on campus. Wonderful common facilities encourage student community and single rooms provide quiet and privacy. Given the severe shortage of housing at UCSB, Munger Hall will go a long way in solving the housing problem.
UCSB’s housing problems are caused by over enrollment. Henry Yang attained the current numbers by tripling up dorm rooms all over campus. The Munger dorm in Michigan is a fraction of the size proposed at UCSB and is not accommodating undergraduates. Every shared a kitchen with eight people? Two bathrooms? There is an easy solution to the “housing problem”–cut enrollment.
UCSB doesn’t decide its own enrollment independently. The recent growth in the student population was ordered by the State, which also handed the University an (unfunded) mandate to build an equal amount of new student housing, which UCSB has been unable to fulfil. Here’s some excellent background:
https://www.independent.com/2021/06/30/as-ucsb-grows-it-falls-way-behind-on-building-housing/
a) The Michigan building is 100% for graduate students – people between ages 25 and 35, mostly. The UCSB building would be for undergraduates, who are significantly more vulnerable psychologically. The building is also a fraction of the size of the one being proposed for UCSB. b) Apartment ratings websites are not scientific; not everyone who lived in the dorm registered their opinion, so one cannot speculate about what percentage of people actually liked them. You might enjoy reading some articles where the journalist spoke to actual inhabitants, where it is clear that some people found them horrible: https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/02/business/munger-residences-michigan-windowless/index.html https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/11/22/nightmare-of-the-windowless-dorm-room… Read more »
The mock ups look great, I would love to live in such a setting as a student. UCSB needs the Munger Hall. It would be dumb to reject this idea. In the 1960’s Edwin Pauley approached UCSB and said he would like to build a basketball Arena, UCSB rejected the idea and requested for a track and field. Mr. Pauley did fund the track and field at UCSB, and went to UCLA to build the Pauley Pavilion. Ask the UCSB athletics if that was a smart idea to forego having Pauley Pavilion built at UCSB. If you reject this idea,… Read more »
Yeah and UCSB used to have a football team. Ask athletics if it was a smart idea getting rid of that. This is not UCLA. This is the pimple on the pacific. There is no room for this campus to grow both in terms of acreage and a surrounding community where the median home prices are beyond the capacity of new faculty and staff. UCSB needs to face the music . . . there are limits to growth at this location. Cut enrollment, build or expand on existing on-campus dorms. Build another UC Campus elsewhere and invite Munger to dorm… Read more »
Munger’s not going anywhere else, because he’s been pushing this sort of project at UCSB for five or six years now. If you want to build tenement housing, it’ll be cheaper to use an idea that won’t be a mental health and building code disaster than this mess.
The living accommodations share much with the architectural styling of Wasco, Delano and Corcoran… those are all prisons btw.
A model will not be able to tell you what it is like to be in a windowless, artificially ventilated space for more than the 30 minutes you’re visiting it for. We’re talking about LIVING in such a space, not visiting it. The model also won’t tell you what it feels like to inhabit such a space crammed together with other students at a much higher density than anything currently in IV. It also won’t tell you what an 11 story building will look like in the context of UCSB.
Yeah no, artificial windows seem like a terrible idea. The only thing that seems good is having a room to yourself but it’s honestly no different that living in a double or a triple, the rooms are so tiny. While the facilities look sleek and modern, it doesn’t mean everyone would feel positive. Although the bedrooms are singles, the apartment altogether will have 8 people, which is a lot if you ask me. Some of my peers who are in high school are skeptical about applying to Ucsb when the time comes out of fear that they’ll have to live… Read more »