Bill Gates house
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Bill Gates' house is a large earth-sheltered mansion in the side of a hill overlooking Lake Washington in Medina, Washington. The house is noted for its design and the technology it contains. More
Pool Building
Size: 3,900 sq. ft.
The 17-by-60-foot swimming pool has an underwater music system and a floor painted in a fossil motif. Swimmers can dive under a glass wall and emerge outdoors by a terrace. Locker room off the pool has four showers and two baths.
Exercise facilities
Size: 2,500 sq. ft.
Includes sauna, steam room, separate men's and women's lockers, and a trampoline room with a 20-foot ceiling.
Library
Size: 2,100 sq. ft. The ornate, paneled library has a domed reading room with oculus (light well), fireplace, and two secret pivoting bookcases, one containing a bar. It's the fitting home for Leonardo da Vinci's 16th-century notebook, the Codex Leicester, which Gates bought for $30.8 million.
Grand staircase
Size: 92 feet long, 63 feet high
Towering Douglas fir beams support the stainless-steel roof and are surrounded by walls of glass, concrete, and stone. While much of the house is buried into the hillside, windows on the lakefront side provide views of Seattle to the west. There are 84 steps down from the entrance to the ground floor. The vertigo-inclined can take an elevator.
Theater
Size: 1,500 ft.
The 20-seat art deco theater is outfitted with plush chairs, couches, and a popcorn machine. Screen is HDTV capable.
Formal dining room
Size: 1,000 sq. ft.
Up to 24 guests can dine by the fireplace while enjoying the sweeping view from the third level. Nearby commercial-grade kitchen is 39 feet by 23 feet.
Offices
Size: 1,900 sq. ft.
Above the reception hall are rooms for conferences,
offices, and a large computer room.
Reception hall
Size: 2,300 sq. ft.
Partly below ground, the reception hall can seat 150 people for a sit-down dinner or hold 200 for a cocktail party. A 6-foot-wide fireplace, faced in limestone, commands one wall. Another wall is dominated by a 22-foot-wide video display made up of 24 rear-projection television monitors, each with a 40-inch screen. A second commercial-grade kitchen serves the reception hall.
Multi-purpose room
Size: 900 sq. ft.
Formerly designated a gallery, this is now a multipurpose room, with a video projector included. Almost entirely underground, with a deck above, the room gets daylight from a large light well. Hallways connect it to the family and guest wings.
Guest house
Size: 1,900 sq. ft.
One bedroom, one bath, one fireplace
Almost hidden underground, this high-tech burrow was the first structure built on the site (completed in 1992), as a test of the technology to be used in the design of the main house. Gates has used the house as a retreat; he wrote much of his book, The Road Ahead, here.
Underground garage
Size: 6,300 sq. ft.
This cavelike structure is the largest and best hidden of three garages. Built entirely underground of concrete and stainless steel, it can easily park 10 or more cars. Some of the concrete is purposely broken for a "deconstructivist" look.
Gatehouse
Size: 3,000 sq. ft.
Includes security offices, mailroom, greenhouse, and garage. The lower entrance to the property is here.
Boathouse
Size: 530 sq. ft.
This rustic log building's roof straddles a small inlet big enough for no more than a ski boat. An outdoor spa is nearby. And who's that in the spa? Click to find out.
Activities building
Size: 900 sq. ft.
Adjacent to multisport court, putting green, and two boat docks. An existing home at this location was moved off the site by barge.
Estuary
An artificial stream and wetland estuary were designed in part to solve the problem of runoff caused by the retaining walls behind the house. It will be stocked with salmon and sea-run cutthroat trout.
Bill Gates house tour Virtual Video
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