In 2021, 97-year old billionaire Charlie Munger proposed a design proposal for the residence hall at the University of California, Santa Barbara. For over thirty years, Munger has donated millions of dollars to colleges and universities in exchange for his ideas to be accepted on the design of the buildings.

 

Munger has no formal training as an architect. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, it was revealed that Munger spends several hours a day designing new buildings despite never reading any books on architecture.

 

Munger did, however, developed a 22-acre gated

community of beachfront properties

in Montecito, California in the 1980s.

 

Also referred to as “Mungerville” by locals,

home prices in Sea Meadow

range from $3.2 million to $26 million.

​

​

 

The renderings of Munger Hall, the dorm building named after the billionaire following a $200 million donation, went viral on social media with many comparing the rendering of Munger Hall to prison due to the dorm room’s lack of windows.

​

​

​

 

 

 

​

​

 

 

​

 

 

 

​

 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tommy Young, a fourth-year economy and geography major, started a petition on Change.org to not move forward with Munger’s proposed design, writing “The proposed building is an architectural nightmare, entirely out of touch with Isla Vista and the needs of students, and the administration is moving forwards with the project, ignoring all criticism” in the petition’s description. As of May 2022, the petition has 14,517 signatures.

​

​

Munger defended the controversial design to architecture magazine Architectural Record by saying the use of fake windows was modeled after Disney Cruises and designed to give the illusion of soft light due to "programming the lights to copy the sun was too expensive" and an unexpected window shortage.

​

Munger’s proposed project caused Dennis McFadden, an architect with UC Santa Barbara for more than 15 years, to resign from his position on the UCSB Design Review Committee. In an op-ed published in the New York Times, McFadden rejected the design Munger created and advocated for windows and natural lighting to always be a staple in student housing.“An ample body of documented evidence shows that interior environments with access to natural light, air, and views to nature improve both the physical and mental wellbeing of occupants."

​

Despite the backlash, UC Santa Barbara is moving forward with the design.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Munger also created a windowless design plan for a graduate dorm at the University of Michigan after giving the university a $110 million donation. Munger attended the University of Michigan for mathematics before dropping out after one semester. Similar to the design of Munger Hall at UC Santa Barbara, Munger Alumni Residences was designed with windows only in shared common area rooms. 

 

 

Munger sketched these dorms with the hope that the windows being placed only in a  shared space would push freshmen out of their rooms and interact with one another in common rooms. While promoting social interaction through design is innovative and has the potential to “build community and make those bonds with peers,” according to Tilove, it should not have to come at the expense of a student’s experience on campus.