Former UC Campus Architects Slam UCSB’s Munger Hall Proposal
They outline their 'extreme concern and opposition' to the proposed dormitory building in letter to UC President Michael Drake
By Jade Martinez-Pogue, Noozhawk, December 1, 2021
A group of eight former campus architects within the University of California system slammed UC Santa Barbara’s proposed Munger Hall dormitory in a letter sent to UC President Michael Drake last month, calling the proposed building a “disaster in the making.”
“Unfortunately, the Munger Hall project fails to meet the high standards that the university has set for itself,” the letter asserts. “At best, this project as currently conceived is a sociological and psychological experiment that has the potential to cause great harm overtime to thousands of students.
“There is no telling the actual harm that could be engendered by this project.”
The 11-story, 159-foot-tall Munger Hall was designed by 97-year-old billionaire Charles Munger, who donated $200 million toward the approximately $1.4 billion project under the condition that his designs would be followed exactly. The project, which is intended to house 4,500 students and be completed by the fall term in 2025, has drawn criticism from local community members, architects, and students for its “jail-like” design and windowless rooms. As The Daily Nexus, UCSB’s student newspaper, first reported, the letter to Drake was signed by former UC associate vice chancellors and campus architects from eight of the 10 UC campuses, with a combined 122 years of experience.
The undersigned include Michael Bade from UC San Francisco, Don Caskey from UC Riverside, Ed Denton from UC Berkeley, Rebekah Gladson from UC Irvine, M. Boone Hellmann from UC San Diego, Thomas Lollini from UC Merced, Charles Oakley from UC Los Angeles, and Frank Zwart from UC Santa Cruz.
“We write to you to express our extreme concern and opposition to the UC Santa Barbara project known as Munger Hall,” the letter said. “We all have substantial experience in the planning, design, and construction of university facilities … We all continue to embrace the values of the university, having worked daily as campus architects to express these values in its built environment, to ultimately heighten the human experience for everyone.” Munger Hall, the letter said, does not meet the high level of standards that the UC system holds itself to.
The dorm building fails to meet “both the spirit and details” of several essential requirements and guidelines established in UCSB’s 2010 Long Range Development Plan and 2010-20 Capital Financial Plan and Physical Design Framework, the architects wrote. The letter goes on to point out that the LDRP describes itself as a “major advance in campus planning with a renewed focus on … increased emphases on both the natural setting and civic quality of campus buildings and civic and open spaces.” The focus of campus spaces and their patterns of circulation and use should be the “most highly valued of the campus” — its magnificent setting, the LDRP notes.
As the letter continued, the LDRP directs campus planners to locate buildings and spaces to take full advantage of the campus’ “extraordinary coastal beauty” and enhance views and increase access to the natural areas from the campus proper. “Munger Hall, in which over 90% of the student bedrooms have no windows, fails to make UCSB’s magnificent natural setting its focus,” the letter said.
The letter also pointed out that the proposed building height is more than double the 65-foot height limit for buildings on its site called for in the LDRP, and that the building would nearly equal the 175-foot height of Storke Tower in the center of campus. If constructed as currently designed, Munger Hall would be the tallest building in Santa Barbara County and 37% taller than the Granada Theatre in downtown Santa Barbara, the letter said. “As campus architects, we saw the thoughtful development of campus plans as a significant responsibility,” the letter writers said. “For the regents to accept a project that so blatantly ignores clearly-established development guidelines calls into question the purpose and value of the entire campus planning enterprise.”
There are some significant state building code standards that the university will be forced to compromise to attain a certificate of occupancy, the letter claimed.
The UC Board of Regents has the autonomy from typical building code requirements since the UC system is the “authority having jurisdiction,” the undersigned explained, meaning that the regents can approve what are called “alternate means of compliance.”
The building’s lighting and ventilation systems will have to be substantially modified to even try to achieve any alternative means of compliance rather than meet code requirements in regards to natural light and ventilation in bedrooms, the letter said. The code “workarounds” will also be highly energy-dependent and will be in direct conflict with the UC’s carbon neutrality goal, it continued. Given the current coronavirus pandemic, the undersigned called into question the wisdom of residential buildings relying on mechanical ventilation. However, UCSB claims that Munger Hall is in full compliance with the California building and mechanical codes, including requirements related to light and ventilation, university spokeswoman Andrea Estrada told Noozhawk.
"The project is not seeking an 'alternative means of compliance' or any 'workarounds,' as stated in the letter," the university said in a written statement Estrada sent to Noozhawk. "The project team has been working closely with architect of record VTBS to ensure the project is held to the highest standards possible, often above and beyond building code requirements." On top of the building’s questionable design feats, the project also poses “troubling” and “unavoidable” effects on student housing rates, the letter said.
Publicly released information for the building indicates that the project cost is over $330,000 per bed — the most expensive residential project in UC history. The letter writers compared Munger Hall to UCSB’s San Joaquin Villages student apartment complex, which at the time of approval in 2014 had a project cost of $166,830 per bed, or equivalent to $209,445 today.
“Munger Hall’s cost per bed is more than 50% greater than that,” the undersigned wrote. “The inevitable increase in housing rates will adversely affect the affordability of a University of California education.”
The university said that the characterization of cost per bed in the letter is misleading, as the design is not complete so the final number for construction has yet to be determined. "In due time, the university will be able to accurately apportion the costs directly attributable to housing and those costs attributable to other uses. When all is evaluated and the final numbers are calculated, the housing cost per bed will be very competitive with typical residence halls, if not a bit less," Estrada said in a statement.
"Ultimately, the goal for the project is to provide students a better housing experience at a lower monthly cost than they would find in Isla Vista."
While the pressure for student housing at UCSB is intense, the architects said that Munger Hall — “a social petri dish so foreign to the character of the Santa Barbara campus” and an “ill-informed attempt to warehouse students” — is not the answer. The letter goes on to say that a failed investment of that size is bound to ripple through the UC system, and that it is a “disaster in the making” if the project becomes a model for future student housing. “Our students and our campus landscapes all deserve better,” the architects wrote.
In tying up the letter, they pointed out that Munger has been widely quoted as saying “no two architects ever agree on anything,” but that this proposal has demonstrated quite the opposite: the architectural community across the nation is speaking out loudly against it. “We ask that you take a step back and embrace the values of a humane environment, one that fosters health, safety, and welfare, instead of one that may forever harm generations of young students,” the letter said. “We acknowledge the idea of the solution, but Munger Hall is not the answer.”
In response to the former campus architects' letter, the university "appreciates and understands" the concerns raised, but seeks to clarify some misconceptions about the project. "Munger Hall was uniquely designed to help UC Santa Barbara meet the demand for safe, affordable, on-campus housing that students desire while also fulfilling the university’s obligation to support previous enrollment increases that were mandated by the California legislature and governor," the university said.
Munger Hall designs presented to UCSB’s Design Review Committee on Oct. 5 show each residential “bedroom cluster” has eight 10-by-7-foot bedrooms that share a bathroom (with two toilets, two sinks, two showers), a small kitchen, and a “study” area with a long table and chairs. Each “house” has eight of these clusters (64 people total) sharing a larger communal kitchen, laundry facilities, and “great room” with long tables and chairs, according to the design renderings. Each residential floor of the building has eight of these houses, which would be about 512 people, according to the proposed floor plan. The designs proposed a first floor with reading rooms, multipurpose rooms, a convenience store, and fitness centers.
Students at the University of Michigan told Noozhawk about their experiences living in the Munger Graduate Residences, a 2015 dormitory for graduate students. That building is much smaller than the building proposed for UCSB, but features a similar design concept with windowless bedrooms.
They had mostly a negative view of the experience, former students told Noozhawk.
Source:
https://www.noozhawk.com/article/former_uc_campus_architects_slam_ucsbs_munger_hall_proposal.
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