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Spekulatius

By Spekulatius
in Berkshire Hathaway

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spartansaver Collaborator

spartansaver

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Posted

I thought this was interesting. On this apartment website, the dorms he designed at UofM are the highest rated on campus dorms. 

 

https://www.veryapt.com/Apartments-L7646-ann-arbor-central-campus?loc=&price_0min=&price_0max=&price_1min=&price_1max=&price_2min=&price_2max=&price_3min=&price_3max=&screen=&lat=&lng=&minimize_finder=&show_map=&sort_by=user_rating

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adesigar Community Regular

adesigar

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The moment Munger said the artificial window is better than a real window you know he is just trying to justify his stupid design. The rest of the dorm design may be amazing but on that point he is just being stubborn and asinine. 

 

Edit: He made a mistake in his previous design (which he would  have defended like he is doing now) and after the complaints he is trying to fix it in this one with the artificial windows. The next version will have real windows.

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gfp Grand Master

gfp

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20 hours ago, adesigar said:

The moment Munger said the artificial window is better than a real window you know he is just trying to justify his stupid design. The rest of the dorm design may be amazing but on that point he is just being stubborn and asinine. 

 

Edit: He made a mistake in his previous design (which he would  have defended like he is doing now) and after the complaints he is trying to fix it in this one with the artificial windows. The next version will have real windows.

 

If the constraints say they only have a 161,600 square foot footprint of space available and are limited to 9 residential floors (11 floors total) in height and they have a need to house 4500 students and the number one thing they want is that every child gets a private bedroom, there is no way all 4536 rooms are going to have a real window.  You can sharpen your pencil and try to put in some atriums or something, where windows stare across at another window or a wall but atriums waste a ton of space.  The requirement was for density and private bedrooms and there is no extra space on the campus.  The windows on my dorm room were bolted shut to prevent suicides and smoking anyway.  Of course an artificial window isn't actually "better" than a real window - but a real window was never on the menu given the requirements.  You can't really compare a freshman dorm to a room at the 4 seasons and feel outraged that the freshman dorm is way worse.

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cubsfan Mentor

cubsfan

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20 hours ago, boilermaker75 said:

Thanks for those links GFP. So they have a Munger designed dorm with windowless bedrooms at U of Michigan and Munger says students love it and fight to get in it.

We have a very good friend, law student,  that lived in the Munger dorm at University of Michigan for 2 years.

She absolutely loved it and it's true that students fought to get in.

Same deal - I think it was 1 window - but the whole facility was awesome. 

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rkbabang Mentor

rkbabang

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On 10/31/2021 at 10:37 AM, bizaro86 said:
On 10/31/2021 at 5:48 AM, gfp said:

Oh it's not so bad.  Remember what a typical undergraduate dorm looks like.  Mine was a concrete cell with no privacy and double occupancy.  Restrooms shared for an entire floor, no kitchens, period.  Quite a bit of detail in this presentation:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IgEAYCEphg6x6WDQ8NQGuILqN31SA6LP/view?__source=newsletter|warrenbuffettwatch

 

Thanks for sharing that. I never lived in a dorm, but that looks at least as nice as many at the school I attended.

 

We also had no need for surfboard storage. It seems to me that indoor space might be less important in a climate where that is a valuable amenity.

 

 

That is a pretty nice dorm.  A lot better than where I stayed the year I lived on campus at WPI. (https://www.wpi.edu/about/locations/hackfeld-house)  I shared a room with another person that wasn't much bigger than the sleeping rooms you see in those plans.  It had bunk beds and room for 2 desks not 1.  No A/C.  No nice amenities. We had to walk across campus to get food or to get to a gym, etc.   They crammed 7 of us into the top floor 3 bed rooms  (3 in the largest bedroom and bunk beds in the smaller two bedrooms).  The RA had his own room on the 1st floor.  Which also had a small living room and kitchen.  I think Munger did a good job designing this.  There are plenty of windows in the common areas and the rooms are just for sleeping or doing work at your desk.   It looks like two bathrooms per 8 people, which is what I had and it wasn't a problem (I don't know if that would work for girls though).   

 

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Blugolds Rising Star

Blugolds

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16 minutes ago, rkbabang said:

 

 

That is a pretty nice dorm.  A lot better than where I stayed the year I lived on campus at WPI. (https://www.wpi.edu/about/locations/hackfeld-house)  I shared a room with another person that wasn't much bigger than the sleeping rooms you see in those plans.  It had bunk beds and room for 2 desks not 1.  No A/C.  No nice amenities. We had to walk across campus to get food or to get to a gym, etc.   They crammed 7 of us into the top floor 3 bed rooms  (3 in the largest bedroom and bunk beds in the smaller two bedrooms).  The RA had his own room on the 1st floor.  Which also had a small living room and kitchen.  I think Munger did a good job designing this.  There are plenty of windows in the common areas and the rooms are just for sleeping or doing work at your desk.   It looks like two bathrooms per 8 people, which is what I had and it wasn't a problem (I don't know if that would work for girls though).   

 

Agreed, mine was closer to a prison cell (hopefully the closest I’ll ever get!) I think they look pretty nice and I get the thought behind the design, really the room are primarily for sleeping, I also agree the primary experience is interacting with your cohorts, not spending time in your dorm room. 

 

Secondly, for myself and everyone I associated with…it was 1 year in the dorms…you can do anything for one year…after that everyone moved off campus. Although I went to a smaller school for undergrad, this dorm BLOWS AWAY the living conditions of everyone after the dorms..we all went to cheap houses one block off campus, different flooring in every room, ancient cabinets and appliances..when you’re that age you don’t care, it was mainly how close you were to a house full of girls and who’s your roommates were, they could have had dirt floors for all we care, spent most of our time in the front or back yard anyway. 

 

Additionally Ive seen reviews from some students who have lived in Munger designs and they liked them. So there are two sides to everything…How much criticism is because Charlie donated a bunch of money with the stipulation that he gets to call the shots…maybe a little bit of jealousy? Makes him a target? Never gonna please everyone and the university has the choice to not accept the money and build what they want…

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crs223 Proficient

crs223

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Posted

“If you don’t like the lack of perfect accounting in financial institutions… you’re in the wrong world”

 

Warren and Charlie are talking about how it’s tough for even honest financial institutions to report on exactly what they own:

 

 

 

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