Seattle, March 26, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LMN Architects is pleased to announce the completion and opening of the new Bill & Melinda Gates Center for Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle. The building establishes a new standard for the study of computer science designed to attract a broad and diverse student population, while also enhancing the School’s connections to the campus, community, and thriving tech sector.
The new building fulfills a soaring demand for Computer Science education in the Pacific Northwest, and through its design, aims to enrich the diversity of talent that is so heavily in demand across the globe. The Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering has experienced a dramatic rise in stature since 2003, when the existing 165,000 square foot Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering, also designed by LMN Architects, was completed. The design of the new Bill & Melinda Gates Center supports the School’s mission to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and offers a contemporary vision for the future.
The Gates Center greatly expands the current capacity of the school, providing critical research spaces, classrooms and lecture spaces, faculty offices, and a new home to the School’s undergraduate majors. At the heart of the building is a large central atrium that provides visual and physical connections to all floors, and acts as the school’s cultural hub. This daylight atrium is an important social incubator in this technology-centered environment, fostering connections between students, encouraging interaction among teams, and reflecting the department’s culture of innovation and collaboration across disciplines.
A roof-level event center will support a wide range of educational needs, industry collaborations, and outreach functions, and provides a signature experience with its sweeping views over the campus, Lake Washington and the Cascade Mountains beyond.
Hank Levy, Director of the Paul G. Allen School, comments: “The Gates Center isn’t just a building, it’s a statement about our vision of the future and how this building enables that vision. We have created a world-class Computer Science & Engineering program here, in part because of our focus on technology that helps to solve the world’s biggest challenges. This building enables us to grow those efforts and to tackle even bigger challenges.”
Mark Reddington, Design Partner, comments: “We have worked with the Allen School at the University of Washington for nearly two decades to craft this complex of learning, research, and community spaces to enrich the culture of the school and engage the broader campus community. The creative and collaborative spirit of the school’s leadership, students and faculty has inspired the design of this facility to be focused on a vibrant social environment.”
In a dense campus precinct surrounded by engineering buildings, the expansion site interacts with the existing facility across Stevens Way—a major campus corridor shared by cars, buses, pedestrians, and bicycles—requiring a holistic approach to integrating campus circulation into the two-building program. A pedestrian circulation path through the steeply sloped, forested site crosses Stevens Way as well as two service roads as it approaches the Burke-Gilman Trail, forming a critical axial connection between Drumheller Fountain at the center of campus and the athletic facilities on the East Campus.
Stephen Van Dyck, Design Partner, comments: “The new Bill & Melinda Gates Center has been designed to further the mission of the Allen School in enhancing the inclusivity of the department and attracting a diversity of students to the program. We conceived of the building as a strategic integration of topography, campus networks, and departmental aspirations to create a significant new campus hub. Throughout the building, every space has been designed to promote serendipitous interaction and reinforce the importance of community.”
Departing from the minimal, bare spaces typically associated with the technology sector, the UW Computer Science and Engineering buildings offer a warm, welcoming, and accessible environment for students, researchers, and faculty. The expansion building features a two-sided curving form that responds to the unique topography and flow of campus circulation. A richly detailed building façade system of terra cotta panels in four texture types juxtaposes against crisp, modern black glass and metal, providing sun shading while framing the intermixed nature of the program within.
The building is designed to enrich its surrounding district and foster a connection to the broader campus community. A cafe activates the primary entry at Stevens Way, transitioning between the exterior landscape to the sky lit central atrium with visual and circulation connections to all floors and program functions. The shared plaza continues through a series of stepped elevations offering building entries at multiple locations along the north side of the building, remaining porous with the open circulation of the atrium while fully remaking the existing pedestrian path with natural edges defined by boulders and lush vegetation.
LMN Architects is a leader in the design of higher education facilities across the United States. Other completed projects include the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington; the Voxman Music Building at the University of Iowa in Iowa City; the Anteater Learning Pavilion at the University of California, Irvine; and the Huntsman School of Business Addition at Utah State University in Logan, Utah.
About LMN Architects
Since its founding in 1979, LMN Architects has dedicated its practice to the health and vitality of communities of all scales. Internationally recognized for the planning and design of environments that elevate the social experience, the firm works across a diversity of project typologies, including higher education facilities, science and technology, civic and cultural projects, conference and convention centers, urban mixed-use and transportation.
LMN has successfully completed over 700 projects across North America, including the Voxman Music Building at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa; Tobin Center for the Performing Arts in San Antonio, Texas; Vancouver Convention Centre West in Vancouver, Canada; Sound Transit University of Washington Station in Seattle, Washington; and the new Hyatt Regency in Downtown Seattle.
Based in Seattle, Washington, LMN Architects is led by partners John Chau, Sam Miller, Walt Niehoff, Wendy Pautz, Mark Reddington, George Shaw, Stephen Van Dyck, and Rafael Viñoly-Menendez. The firm employs 150 talented professionals practicing architecture, interior design, and urban design, and the quality of the work has been recognized with nearly 300 national and international design awards, including the prestigious 2016 National Architecture Firm Award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
For more information on the work of LMN Architects, please visit lmnarchitects.com
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