A Dorm Without Windows: What is Munger Hall? Billionaire Charles Munger designed UCSB’s newest dorm and people are not happy with it. Should this be allowed? WORDS by ABBY KIM ART by CLAIRE TOLLES
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magine living in a small room with no windows, storage space, or adequate ventilation. While sounding fictional, this is the blueprint for Munger Hall, the newly designed University of California Santa Barbara dorm, that plans to hold 4,500 students. UCSB is a well respected college with a 37% acceptance rate, well known academics, and a desirable location next to the beach. Like many colleges, UCSB faced a housing shortage and had to build more dorms for their increasing student body. “To address this crisis, in a disorganized and halfhearted way, they decided to build this massive dorm and amazingly give the power and final say of the building to a billionaire,” said UCSB professor and Laguna teacher Dena Montague. “UCSB has had a housing crisis for several years.” The billionaire Charles Munger, a 97-year-old investor and Vice President of Berkshire Hathaway, donated $200 million to the new building. However, there was a catch. Munger, who has little experience with architecture, requested to design the new UCSB dorm in return for his donation. The deal was approved, and Munger took on the project. After its approval, Dennis McFadden, a consulting architect on UCSB’s Design Review Committee, resigned because he disapproved of Munger’s blueprint. McFadden’s resignation letter
and the dorm’s blueprints were leaked, sparking public outrage. Intense media attention focused on Munger and his blueprint for the dorms, which include small 10-footby-7-foot living quarters, rely heavily on artificial lighting, and have no windows. During an interview for the New York Times, McFadden expresses that he was “disturbed” by a design that cram students into a 1.7-millionsquare-foot, 11-story building. The majority of students would live in small rooms without windows, “wholly dependent on artificial light and mechanical ventilation,” McFadden said. Munger Hall blueprints show that a majority of rooms do not have windows. Because the dorms lack windows, there is also a lack of ventilation, an issue that is amplified due to COVID-19. Munger responded to public outcry by adding artificial
windows to the dorm layout, and ensured the public that a good ventilation system would be built. In an interview with MarketWatch, he said, “I think the building will be a huge
