William H. Gates Hall
[4] The Washington State Legislature, on two occasions, failed to provide the funds to expand the Condon building.
[5] Around 1996, when the project had conditional funding but no final approval, several critics, including academics and University District residents opposed the proposed building plan, arguing that UW was breaking its agreement with the city over how the UW campus should be developed, that it would remove one of the few remaining open spaces on campus, that it was a bad spending of educational dollars during a budget crisis, and that the project was "leapfrogged" over higher priority projects.
This decision prevented the destruction of a group of trees, and in the words of Sherri Olson of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "define[d] a new quad.
[7] Kohn Pedersen Fox, an architecture firm in New York City, collaborated with Mahlum Architects on the design of the building.
Visitors included Bill Gates, former U.S. Speaker of the House Tom Foley, Governor of Washington Gary Locke, and Dr. Joe Knight Jr., the appointed future dean of the UW School of Law.
[12] The opening of the William H. Gates building also allowed the law school department to increase in size.
[9] William H. Gates Hall is located south of the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture,[13] and north of Parrington Green.
[14] Gates Hall, located in the center of the University District, is off of "The Ave" and north of Downtown Seattle.
[7] Sherri Olson of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer said that William H. Gates "creates a stronger presence for the UW on the northwest corner of the campus and a more formal entrance along 15th.
[4] Sheri Olson, an architecture critic of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, said that "While the taut expanses of brick and metal detailing are modern, the architects use classic elements of composition,"[4] such as the building's inverted metal roof, which creates a "crisp cornice line,"[4] a "rusticated brick base,"[4] a group of triangular, narrow bay windows that are three stories tall, and a midsection that uses a series of windows and alternating projections of brick used to express a pattern and texture.
"[4] Olson argued that Kohn Pederson Fox "were neither blindly modern nor overly historicist in the design of the building's main facades on the west and north.
Olson said that the walls "create a Scandinavian modern sensibility appropriate to our northern climate where early dusk and overcast skies can be depressing for students who spend a lot of time indoors studying.
A 28-person computer lab is on the building's second floor, adjacent to the offices of the Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts.
The building also houses twelve study rooms, a remote learning laboratory,[1] a coffee shop and snack kiosk,[1][17] a student lounge, faculty offices, student organization offices,[17] private zones for nursing mothers,[4] female and coed toilets,[4][9] lockers,[17] and shower facilities for people who commute by bicycle.
[4] William H. Gates also houses a "crying room", a facility for parents so that they can bring their children to their classes and still fully participate in them.
[9] William H. Gates Hall includes the Marian Gould Gallagher Law Library on the L1 and L2 floors,[1] at a below grade level.
[4] It is named after Marian Gould Gallagher, who served as the director of the law library of the University of Washington.
[21] Sherri Olson, an architecture critic of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, said that the building "has wings that reach out, projecting a spirit of openness and inclusiveness.
