A U.C. Santa Barbara consulting architect has resigned in protest over the school’s massive new dormitory project, calling it potentially "destructive to the campus."
The colossal building – named Munger Residence Hall after billionaire investor Charlie Munger – is designed to be an 11-story dorm, housing 4,356 undergraduates and cover a whopping 1.68 million square feet.
Dennis McFadden, who had served as a consulting architect for the school’s Design Review Committee the past 15 years, obliterated the plan in his resignation letter to committee co-chairs on Sunday, obtained by CNN and as first reported by the Santa Barbara Independent.
"In the nearly fifteen years I served as a consulting architect to the (Design Review Committee), no project was brought before the committee that is larger, more transformationsl and potentially more destructive to the campus as a place than Munger Hall," McFadden wrote.
The architect outlined three "essential issues" with the plan.
First, he noted that much of the gargantuan building will be physically enclosed from the outside as 94% of the bedrooms and none of the shared living spaces will have exterior windows. The spaces instead are "wholly dependent on artificial light and mechanical ventilation."
He explained that there is "ample body of documented evidence" that shows access to natural light and views to nature improve both "the physical and mental wellbeing" of occupants. "The Munger Hall design ignores this evidence and seems to take the position that it doesn’t matter," McFadden wrote.
Similarly, he argued that the dorm will be detached from the physical setting of the school – widely considered one of the most beautiful college campuses in the country.
McFadden said the new hall is not designed specifically for U.C. Santa Barbara and could instead be built at any other college. He explained it "may as well be on the ground in the desert."
"The massive block is an alien world parked at the corner of the campus, not an integrally related extension of it," he said.
Finally, the architect ripped the size and density of the proposed structure. He compared it to Bancroft Hall at the U.S. Naval Academy, the largest single dormitory in the world, which houses 4,000 students and is "composed of multiple wings wrapped around multiple courtyards with 24 entrances."
In contrast, Munger Hall’s design is a single block that houses over 4,500 students and has all of two entrances. He said that means that a population the same as the entire Princeton University Campus will have two points of entry.
"The project is essentially the student life portion of a mid-sized university campus in a box," he said.
The mega-dorm is slated to open in fall 2025, pending approval and certification in 2022 by the California Coastal Commission, according to CNN.
School spokesperson Andrea Estrada told the Santa Barbara Independent that while the university was grateful for McFadden’s service to the committee, the project will move forward.
"The Munger Hall project and design is continuing to move forward as planned," she told the paper in a statement. "We are delighted to be moving forward with this transformational project."
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