The powerful land-speculation lobby (Monoplex owners) block every attempt at this. Munger Hall is the result. If you don't like that this is being built, your quarrel is with the suburban climate arsonists who hold up every development for extensive review until it dies.
I dont know how to solve for rising costs. I do know that if I cannot afford something nice, I have to settle for something subpar. I'm not sure how else to deal with the issue.
I would understand if someone crunched the numbers and after a long and detailed reasoning they would have come up with this solution as the only one which can potentially work. But as far as I understand that is not what happened here. The donor has aspirations to be an architecture too and stipulated that this is the only way his money can be spent. No deviations from the plan are acceptable.
For that price you can build a three bedroom condo with amenities.
This is a false dilemma. Little money is being saved here.
"Given the high construction cost everywhere, this is not surprising. I had a friend with a backyard slopping down a hill. He got some quotes to put in a deck and redo his yard. No one quoted anything less than 200k."
Both of these situations are in California. Construction costs are extremely high right now.
It's not because it would actually cost them 200 000$ in labour and material to build a deck and redo a yard.
Besides, for a billion dollar you're not dealing with local contractors, at that price you can even contract international companies, let alone bring in labour from the rest of the country.
Including the cost of land, for a full condo. It would correspond to a construction price of a condo of ~300 000$.
A dormitory room is going to cost less than a condo.
"When Los Angeles voters approved Prop. HHH in 2016, city officials predicted units would cost $350,000 to $414,000. In reality, prices have jumped to as much as $701,000 per unit, with 60 percent of the living spaces expected to exceed half a million dollars each."
You'll notice even the low end that was promoted to voters is higher than $330,000.
https://www.dailynews.com/2020/02/21/prop-hhh-projects-in-la...
This construction has to deal with NIMBYs and related delays, again UCSB doesn't have to bother with that.
And most of all these aren't single occupancy units. They are units for 2-3 people.
So yes, construction costs would be around the 350k mark when you take into account the land, for multi bedroom units, versus a single bedroom.
I don't care for Munger. With that said, there's a huge disconnect here with your argument unless you can show a reasonable solution. There are poor people now who need housing. We can just build something subpar and help lift people out of homelessness.