The University of California, Santa Barbara is preparing to spend $1.5 billion on a new 4,500-person student dorm designed by a billionaire mega-donor whose layout so closely resembles that of a prison a consulting architect resigned in protest, according to the Santa Barbara Independent. From a report: The architect likened it to a “social and psychological experiment with an unknown impact on the lives and personal development of the undergraduates the university serves” in his resignation letter. The building in question is the planned Munger Hall on the university’s beachside campus, which the university’s website says “will fulfill visions for both UC Santa Barbara and the donor, Charles Munger,” a billionaire investor often described as Warren Buffet’s “right-hand man.” Munger has also financed the construction of graduate residences on the University of Michigan and Stanford campuses fashioned on his architectural ideas to promote collaboration and bonhomie. While the Stanford residences are essentially normal apartments, the Michigan hall resembles its UCSB sibling in that “most bedrooms don’t have windows,” according to VeryApt.com. The vision Munger Hall is fulfilling is alternately described two ways, depending on who is doing the talking. The universities that take his money — on condition they use it to build his designs to his exacting specifications, as he reportedly considers himself an amateur architect — describe such projects as having “a focus on providing ample interactive spaces for students” and “minimizing costs by maximizing the number of beds on a given site, employing the concept of repeatability…”

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Source: Slashdot – Billionaire Seeks To Build Largely Windowless Dorm In ‘Social and Psychological Experiment’