Are you talking about the U of Michigan graduate dorms? Those seem like a vastly different design and people have some thoughts on the whole windowless thing from COVID when they couldn't use the suite's common area.
For starters the units are much smaller and each suite of rooms has it's own little semi-public area instead of being a completely windowless block like his new design. The difference between the two is vast.
> the whole windowless thing from COVID when they couldn't use the suite's common area.
Here's a daring thought: maybe the problem isn't the windowless bedroom by itself, but the idea that it's acceptable to lock people inside their own residence, or even to forbid people to use the common areas of their own residence.
That's largely tangential from the issues with the UCSB dorm and there were complaints well before the COVID lockdowns so we shouldn't get mired in the unrelated morass of the pandemic response.
I think OP has confirmation bias. Lots of armchair criticism != only armchair criticism. I've lived in plenty of buildings that don't rate a rant and yet I would never live in again. And I've had friends who've lived in worse and I was so glad when they moved so I didn't have to visit their old shithole. Are we gatekeeping complaints from visitors?
Here's a daring thought: maybe the problem isn't the windowless bedroom by itself, but the idea that it's acceptable to lock people inside their own residence, or even to forbid people to use the common areas of their own residence.