Thesis Abstract

Executive Summary

William H. Gates Hall provides a new home for the UW School of Law, bringing all the faculty and students under one roof for the first time in twenty years.  The 196,000 square foot building houses offices, lecture halls, classrooms, courtrooms, student commons and the Northwest's finest law library. Four soaring architectural skylights in the southwest plaza provide daylight to the law library and puncture onto the outdoor terrace above. William H. Gates Hall is designed and centered around the Marian Gould Gallagher Law Library, which sits two floors below grade and provides 40,000 square feet of book stacks and 10,000 square feet of reading room. With the four trapezoidal sky lights connecting the library to the outside world, the central terrace provides an outdoor gathering place for students and faculty. Linking the main structure and the terrace is a glazed two-story galleria, which serves as the main circulation corridor for building.  The daylight infused Brotman Galleria provides access to classrooms and seminar rooms on the first and second floors. The main entrance of the building is located at the east end of the building, along Memorial drive and feeds into a double-height lobby.  The modest “grand” staircase in the lobby provides access to the library below and the pro-bono law offices above. While the first two levels of the building primarily house courtrooms, classrooms and seminar rooms, the upper two levels accommodate mostly faculty and administrative offices. 

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User Note:

Note: While great efforts have been taken to provide accurate and complete information on the pages of CPEP, Please be aware that the information contained herewith is considered a work-in-progress for this thesis project. Modifications and changes related to the original building designs and construction methodologies for this senior thesis project are solely the interpretation of Katherine Jenkins. Changes and discrepancies in no way imply that the original design contained errors or was flawed. Differing assumptions, code references, requirements, and methodologies have been incorporated into this thesis project; therefore, investigation results may vary from the original design.