The Gates Foundation‘s new Lower Queen Anne campus opened to the public on Saturday, welcoming the community to the headquarters of one of the world’s largest charitable organizations.

Visitors formed a long, slow-moving line outside the entrance to go on self-guided tours held between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. The tour was restricted to Levels one and two of the North Building, and included walks through the Atrium, Share Your Wish dining area, conference center, the outdoor park and the Grantee Fair. Organizations represented in the fair were: Mercy Corps; Landesa; PATH; Washington Global Health Alliance; State Board for Community and Technical Colleges; Seattle BioMed; College Success Foundation; Building Changes; Thrive by Five; and United Way of King County.

The $500 million, 12-acre site across from the Seattle Center was designed to resemble arms reaching out to “the world’s most vulnerable people.” The organization has spent more than $24.8 billion on different causes throughout the world, with most of that spent on global health initiatives, according to the Gates Foundation Website.

A private party celebrating the opening of the three-year construction project was held on the evening of June 2, with Bill and Melinda Gates in attendance.

The foundation’s staff was spread out in five leased buildings throughout the South Lake Union area, but they’ve been moving into the new campus since early May. About 1,200 people are currently working at the center.

[Read more →]

Although some Queen Anne community members have concerns, SDOT says it prefers the so called “curved” option for 6th Ave North around the new Gates Foundation campus on Lower Queen Anne.  During last night’s meeting of the Queen Anne Community Council, SDOT laid out the pros and cons of both the curved option and the straight option.  It’s all part of the Mercer Corridor Improvement Project that will widen Mercer and convert it to a two-way operation going east and west.

The curved option for 6th Ave N (seen below) would go around the Gates campus instead of cutting through it. 

• Half signal at the intersection of 6th and Mercer
• Traffic on Mercer going west won’t stop at the intersection
• No left turn from Mercer onto 6th
• Protected lane barrier for drivers turning left from 6th onto Mercer
• No pedestrian crossing at 6th and Mercer
• Pedestrian crossings only at Taylor and Dexter
• 6.5% grade

The straight option (below), which SDOT is moving away from and is not supported by the Gates Foundation, would cut through part of the Gates campus and under one building.

• Full signal allowing all movements at intersection 6th and Mercer
• Pedestrian crossings at 6th, Taylor and Dexter
• 4.5% grade

Although the straight option may looking more appealing at first glance, SDOT says the costs will be much lower by going with the curved option.  Some members of the council and residents in the audience worried that SDOT is trying to “choke” traffic and make it more difficult for drivers.  They also expressed concerns about freight mobility, saying the higher grade of the road on the curved option might prove difficult for truckers. 

One other interesting detail came out in the meeting.  SDOT is considering an additional lane on Mercer Place all the way up the hill from Elliott Avenue, instead of the current quick merge into one lane at the bottom of the intersection.  One person urged SDOT to consider sidewalks on Mercer Place if that change is made.

SDOT will host an open house on the Mercer project on September 21 from 4:30 to 7:30pm in the Seattle Center’s Lopez Room.

What the completed curved option would look like (looking south toward downtown)

An estimated one million jobs a year in the future will require a science or technology background, according to Jeff Raikes, CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Raikes spoke Tuesday to a sold-out crowd of about 300 local businesspeople at the seventh annual Foundations of Science Breakfast.

Carol Kessler, Director of the Board of Directors for the Science Center, kicks off the event

Raikes, the event’s keynote speaker, urged audience members to donate to the Pacific Science Center, as well as support STEM education. He stressed the importance of increasing education in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), adding that a much needed resurrection and change in education was necessary.

Jeff Raikes, ceo of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, speaks to the crowd.

“We need the STEM movement if we hope to write a different story about our future,” Raikes said.

His speech revolved around the idea that science will be essential to the success of kids today in the workplace. Coming from a small town in Nebraska, Raikes imparted stories of his mother, who was also his seventh grade teacher, as well as one of his first college professors at Stanford, who helped inspire him to learn and work hard. He believes this kind of inspiration dramatically changed his life, and should be universal to all children.

“Every single one of our projects [with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation], no matter where it’s located, originates from the same idea,” Raikes said. “That every person deserves the chance – the opportunity – at a healthy and productive life.”

Three other speakers made it clear that the Science Center can and does act as an entity that gives children an inspiring look at this important field of study.

Ellen Lettvin, vice president for Science and Education at the Center, led the audience through a mini-science experiment that tested the tongue’s ability to detect salinity levels. With six small tubes of water ranging from very salty to plain water, participants tasted each sample and were able to generally detect which ones were saltier.

This small example showed how science can very easily be made interactive and fun.

However, as Bryce Seidel, president and CEO of the Pacific Science Center, noted in his speech, science education is seriously lacking with today’s students. He said innovation in the teaching of this field is in need of great repair and Washington state in particular is falling behind.

“Our state offers the fewest number of minutes in science instruction in the fourth grade classroom of any of the 50 states,” Seidel said. “Only about half of our eighth graders meet the standard for math and science.”

To help solve problems like these, Raikes announced a projected summer opening of a STEM Center in the McKinstry Innovation Center in south Seattle. This development is intended to reinvigorate science education and support future innovation in schools, including the new STEM program introduced at Cleveland High School.

The Pacific Science Center estimates that they have raised more than $100,000 from this event, although final numbers aren’t in. This is a ten-percent increase over last year.