Quote:
The project is utterly detached from its physical setting, McFadden goes on, and has no relationship to UCSB's "spectacular coastal location." It is also out of place with the scale and texture of the rest of campus, he said, "an alien world parked at the corner of the campus, not an integrally related extension of it." Even the rooftop courtyard looks inward and "may as well be on the ground in the desert as on the eleventh floor on the coast of California," he said.
This quote says everything you need to know about the guy. "Alien world"... My guess is that a lot of the other quotes contain some exaggeration and hyperbole... He can object to it on an architectural or design basis (as I would probably do the same), but to talk about the psychology, etc. is just him throwing a fit. To be built, of course sufficient exits and fire exits would be there.
Yes, that building seems extreme (and not sure how there are no windows in rooms if there are that many windows in the building, but that is no worse than the Commons rooms that I stayed in. The common areas would have been nice to have actually. It's no more prison-like than my basement dorm was. These students still have a private bedroom area, something you don't get in a lot of dorms.
Apartments were more fun, but in a world where everyone complains about the cost of higher education and the cost of living (primarily due to federally-guaranteed student loans), but this is a way to keep it down.