Bill Gates's house

Bill Gates's 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 incorporates. It is nicknamed Xanadu 2.0. [cite web | title=Bill Gates's stately pleasure dome and futuristic home | date=11/23/97 | url=http://www.usnews.com/usnews/culture/articles/971201/archive_008409_2.htm]

Property taxes and assessed value

According to zillow.com, the total assessed value of the property (land and house) is $135,867,000 and the annual property tax for 2006 was $1,012,321. "Seattle Weekly" reports the 2008 tax jumped to $1.063 million and the home's assessed value to $147.5 million. [cite web|url=http://www.seattleweekly.com/news/blogs/dailyweekly/2008/05/gates_taxman_cometh.php |title=Taxman Cometh|publisher=Seattle Weekly] The address of the mansion is 1835 73rd Ave NE, Medina, WA 98039-2328.It is now 66,000 square feet.

Details

The house is a modern design in the Pacific lodge style, with classic features such as a large private library with a dome shaped roof and oculus (light well). [http://www.usnews.com/usnews/tech/billgate/room1a.htm Pool building] part of a U.S. News feature on the house [http://www.usnews.com/usnews/tech/billgate/gates.htm] . Retrieved on October 4 2007.] The house also features an estate-wide server system running Windows, heated floors and driveways, and a pin worn by guests that upon entrance of a room automatically adjust temperature, music, and lighting based on the guest's preferences.

Gates and his wife Melinda are fond of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby", and they have inscribed in the library a sentence from the last page of the novel: "He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it." [cite news
last = Paterson
first = Thane
title = Advice for Bill Gates: A Little Culture Wouldn't Hurt
publisher = "Business Week"
date = June 13, 2000
url = http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/june2000/nf00613b.htm
accessdate = 2008-03-21]

Construction

The house was designed by James Cutler of James Cutler Architects and the architectural firm Bohlin Cywinski Jackson. [Cheryl Weber, "Dream teams: architects are partnering with other firms to win plum projects.(practice)", Residential Architect, January 1 2006. [http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-12554429_ITM] Courtesy link, registration required Retrieved on October 4 2007.]

The Gates' purchased several pieces of land and several houses that adjoin their property to expand the land the house is built on.

The number of building permits needed completely overwhelmed the Medina city clerk's office, necessitating the purchase of a computer-based document management system. Ironically, the city used a variation of Linux to meet this demand. [cite web|name=Christine Burns|url=http://www.networkworld.com/archive/1998/49241_10-05-1998.html|title=Gates pushes hometown to Linux|publication=Network World| date=1998-10-05|accessdate=2007-10-04]

ee also

* Microsoft
* Domotics

References

External links

* [http://www.usnews.com/usnews/tech/billgate/gates.htm Virtual tour of Bill Gates' house]
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8431004719814226551&hl=en Video tour of Bill Gates' house]
* [http://www.goehner.com/gates.htm Pictures from outside]
* [http://papertoys.com/gates.htm A paper cutout model of the house that you can build]
* [http://www5.metrokc.gov/reports/property_report.asp?PIN=9208900079 Tax info on the house from the King County GIS website]
* [http://www.bcj.com/public/projects/project/12.html Architect's Website]