Bill Gates' house
Encyclopedia
Bill Gates
Bill Gates
William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...

' house
is a large mansion
Mansion
A mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...

 in the side of a hill overlooking Lake Washington
Lake Washington
Lake Washington is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle. It is the largest lake in King County and the second largest in the state of Washington, after Lake Chelan. It is bordered by the cities of Seattle on the west, Bellevue and Kirkland on the east, Renton on the south and...

 in Medina, Washington
Medina, Washington
Medina is a city located in the Eastside, a region of King County, Washington, United States. Surrounded on the north, west, and south by Lake Washington, opposite Seattle, Medina is bordered by Clyde Hill and Hunts Point, as well as the satellite city of Bellevue. The city's population was 2,969...

. The 66000 sq ft (6,131.6 m²) house is noted for its design and the technology it incorporates. It is nicknamed Xanadu
Xanadu (Citizen Kane)
Xanadu is the fictional estate of Charles Foster Kane, the title character of the film Citizen Kane. The estate gets its name from the real ancient Mongolian city, Xanadu, known for its splendor...

 2.0.

In 2009, property taxes were reported to be US $1.063 million on a total assessed value of US$147.5 million.

Details

The house is a modern design in the Pacific lodge
Pacific lodge
The Pacific lodge style of architecture is based loosely on vague notions of cedar lodges and log cabin dwellings of early inhabitants of the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and Canada. This style can be seen in historic National Park hotels, such as the Lake Quinault Lodge, and in...

 style, with classic features such as a large private library with a dome shaped roof and oculus
Oculus
An Oculus, circular window, or rain-hole is a feature of Classical architecture since the 16th century. They are often denoted by their French name, oeil de boeuf, or "bull's-eye". Such circular or oval windows express the presence of a mezzanine on a building's façade without competing for...

. The house also features an estate-wide server system, and heated floors and driveways. Guests wear pins that upon entrance of a room automatically adjust temperature, music, and lighting based on the guest's preferences, according to the narration in the virtual tour below.

Gates and his wife Melinda
Melinda Gates
Melinda Ann French , later known as Melinda French Gates, is an American businesswoman and philanthropist. She is the wife of Bill Gates...

 are very fond of F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...

's The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby is a novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published in1925, it is set on Long Island's North Shore and in New York City from spring to autumn of 1922....

, 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."

External links

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