Letters to the Editor: A Reich ministry, a Soviet mega-hotel and other comparisons to UCSB’s dorm of doom

To the editor: The first thing that came to mind as I read about the proposed 4,500-resident mega-dorm at UC Santa Barbara was my own experience with the infamous Rossiya Hotel near Red Square in Moscow.

Completed in 1967, the Rossiya was the largest hotel in the world at that time, accommodating 4,000 guests. The rooms were small, the elevators worked only sporadically and there were very few exits, a design intended by the Soviet authorities to make it difficult for guests to enter or exit unseen by staff.

In February 1977, I was a tourist accompanying a UC Santa Barbara alumni group. About a week after we checked out, the wing of the Rossiya where we had stayed caught fire, killing 42 people. The paucity of exits was cited as a factor. I felt like we had dodged a bullet.

I hope the campus fire marshal takes a very hard look at a building housing 4,500 students, most in interior spaces with no windows, that has only two exits. Everyone involved should also upgrade their liability insurance should they pursue this design.

Stanley Hatch, Santa Barbara

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To the editor: As a UC Santa Barbara alumnus, I am more than distressed by the proposed mega-dorm. It’s one thing to pack in new students on campus as if they were items at an Amazon warehouse. It’s another thing when the campus does not sit in the middle of a flat desert devoid of beauty.

A building of that height should afford residents views of the ocean or the mountains; my residence hall did. To add to the insult, the building is just plain ugly in a place like Santa Barbara, which is known for architecture reflecting the Spanish heritage of the area.

My God, it looks like something Albert Speer would design for some Reich ministry in Berlin.

Scott Osborn, Burbank

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To the editor: UC Santa Barbara does not have to wait to see what housing 4,500 bodies in one massive building with mostly windowless rooms is like. The experiment is Hong Kong’s Chungking Mansions.

Built in 1961, the Mansions house 4,000 people in one 17-story block. Send campus administrators to Hong Kong, and they will see what the UC Santa Barbara dorm could become.

Anita Caplan, Redondo Beach

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To the editor: I hope this building fails all safety reviews before construction starts.

Having lived in the dorms at UC Santa Barbara and in the area surrounding it, I can imagine the potential for personal injury on a grand scale from even a false fire alarm, never mind an actual fire with the suppression sprinklers going off.

During the Northridge earthquake in 1994, the power to the entire county was severed at the Ventura County line at 4:30 on a January morning. An event like that, or even a smaller-scale power outage, would leave 4,500 teenagers evacuating in the dark with only two exits.

This is not a cruise ship, where people can put up with artificial lighting for a week for a cheaper room. There are serious hazards in this design that need to be addressed.

Julie Gray, Los Angeles

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To the editor: As an architect and a father, I am shocked that this project is under consideration anywhere, let alone in Santa Barbara, with its breezy ocean environment. This dorm must not be built.

I shudder to think about the consequences for an emotionally shaky student far from home, trapped in this immense, oppressive space.

Anthony Moretti, Lomita