UCSB is touting its giant and controversial Munger Hall project as the future of dormitory living and the best answer to a chronic shortage of affordable student housing.
The university has begun offering news media and others outside the campus community the chance to tour a mock-up of the project.
Housed in an old warehouse-type building off Los Carneros Road near the edge of campus, the mock-up gives visitors a taste of what it would be like to live in the towering, largely window-less structure that would house about 3,500 students.
Students, faculty and staff have been given tours of the mock-up in recent months — and surveyed for their reactions — but only recently has the university given outsiders a glimpse.
The nine-story project, which would cover three acres near Harder Stadium and the UCSB Police station, is not a done deal, and still requires approvals from the University of California Board of Regents and the California Coastal Commission.
An environmental impact report for Munger Hall is nearing completion, according to Gene Lucas, a retired UCSB executive vice chancellor who is helping shepherd the project.
The report then will go to the office of UC President Michael V. Drake for review and input, Lucas said, and be put out for public comment by the end of October.
The project could be approved as early as the summer of 2023, Lucas said. Construction would take about 40 months to complete, meaning the residence facility could be open as early as 2026.
Although the Coastal Commission has not officially reviewed any part of the plan pending completion of the environmental report, Lucas said the the university has been communicating with the commission staff from the outset.
Feedback from the commission staff, he said, is that they would prefer that buildings “go up rather than out” to preserve as much of the natural area as possible.
Munger Hall is the brainchild of billionaire Charlie Munger, the 98-year-old vice chairman of the Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate controlled by Warren Buffett. (Munger previously donated $65 million to build the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics Visiting Scholar’s Residence at UCSB.)
In 2016, Munger indicated he would donate $200 million towards a new housing project for the university. To be built at the site of existing dormitories on the main campus, the new residence halls were to be multi-story, with the typical cafeteria-style dining commons eliminated and replaced by apartment-style units for up to eight people who would share a kitchen and cook together.
Because many of the rooms would have no exterior exposure and therefore no windows, that plan also incorporated artificial “windows” with lighting that resembles sunlight to create the impression of a real window.
That proposal never moved forward, but evolved into the Munger Hall design.
Funding for the current project is still being finalized because construction ended up costing more than the original plan of $800 million, according to Lucas.
The final cost to build has not yet been determined, he said, but architects have predicted the price tag for the building would be around $1.4 billion.
Munger has insisted, as a condition of his financial support, that his unconventional and controversial design ideas be incorporated into the project.
In turn, many students and architects have criticized the design of the dorm, calling its windowless rooms “jail-like,” and raising questions about other aspects and its appeal to students.
Original plans for the structure had 11 floors, but that has been trimmed down to nine, Lucas said. That would make it taller than the Santa Catalina dorm twin towers in Isla Vista (the former Francisco Torres), but not taller than the university’s iconic Storke Tower.
Under the latest design, the complex would house 3,500 students instead of the previous plan for 4,500 students. None of them will be first-year students, Lucas said.
According to Lucas, this change was mainly due to sustainability reasons.
“It uses less resources in terms of water, power, less trash, and then also is a better fit from the airport’s point of view,” Lucas said.
The cost of living in Munger Hall is targeted to be 20% below market for the area, Lucas said. He gave a rough estimate for rent of between $850 and $900 a month by the time it opens.
The first floor of the complex will be a multipurpose center that will include a market, theater, restaurant, mail room and study room.
The top floor will include a gym, three reading rooms, a demonstration kitchen, a recreation center, a multipurpose classroom, and a market.
Unlike other housing for continuing students at UCSB, a meal plan will not be included for Munger Hall residents, although Lucas said they can opt to purchase a meal plan.
Instead, students will be expected to prepare their own food in the kitchens provided on each floor, which include multiple stovetops, refrigerators, microwaves, flatware and utensils, dishwashers and ovens.
On each of floors two through eight, there will be eight units called “houses.” Each “house” will have a kitchen, laundry room, game room and study room as well as eight suites, and each suite will include eight single rooms, two bathrooms and a kitchenette with two refrigerators and a sink.
According to Lucas, a resident advisor will live in each of the eight houses, so there will be one resident advisor to approximately every 62 students living in the facility.
While there are no windows in the single rooms or suites, there are lights in each room that are pre-programmed to mimic the light that shines outside and changes color throughout the day.
The mockup of the suites and related facilities was built six years ago, but was kept under wraps until recently. During that time, several changes have been made to the suites, such as taking microwaves out of the kitchenettes, and changing the furniture.
“We originally had microwaves planned for this kitchen, but microwaves beget burnt popcorn, burnt popcorn begets smoke, smoke begets fire alarms beget evacuation” Lucas said. “So we ended up taking the microwaves out of the design here. So all the cooking is done in a traditional kitchen where there’s adequate ventilation to get smoke out.”
Air will be filtered through the building at twice the required code, Lucas said, and will be pumped through the bedrooms at 25 cubic feet per minute.
“There’s no recirculated air in the building,” Lucas said.
Students would be allowed to keep a coffee maker in their suite but no other appliances, which is the same rule for other on-campus housing, Lucas said.
There are plans to have 12 exits in the building, and each floor will have access to two points to access a stairwell on the north and south regions of the building.
It will take 10 minutes to evacuate everyone from the building, according to Lucas.
Lucas said the north side of the building will have areas for ride-share pick up and drop off and food delivery.
There will be a bicycle path and sidewalk going south east around the building, and bike parking outside of the south and east regions of the building, as well as a bus stop located outside the north-west region of the building.
Students who toured the mock-up were surveyed by the university.
Before viewing the facilities, 80% of students reported negative feelings towards Munger Hall, Lucas said. After touring the mock-up, 50% of students felt positive toward the plans, 25% felt neutral and 25% were still unsure Lucas said.
Floor plans of the facility are available at UCSB’s Office of Strategic Management website. Videos of the building mock-up are available here.
— Noozhawk staff writer Grace Kitayama can be reached at gkitayama@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
