New computer science building seen as boost to UW program

A new $72 million building nearing completion at the University of Washington is expected to significantly heighten the profile of the school's respected Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) program.

The Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science and Engineering is named for the Microsoft co-founder, who donated more than $10 million to the project. Another 250 donors — including Microsoft, Intel, prominent business people and dozens of private citizens — raised an additional $32 million in private money. The UW contributed $20 million, while the Legislature approved a direct state investment of about $10 million for the project.

"There was recognition by the technology community that the UW CSE department is an important asset," said Tom Alberg, chairman of Seattle's Madrona Group and a co-chairman of the Allen Center's fund-raising campaign. "It's a good example of the private community getting together and working with a great public institution to accomplish an important goal."

The Allen Center is one of several new UW buildings being constructed with largely private funds. Other projects include a $150 million Genome Sciences and Engineering Building, expected to open in 2005, and the $81 million William H. Gates Sr. School of Law, scheduled to open later this year.

Until now, the UW's computer-science program has been housed in Sieg Hall, a 1960s-era building whose ceilings and walls literally began to crumble in recent years. Until nearly $200,000 in temporary, cosmetic fixes were performed in 2000, chunks of metal fell from Sieg so frequently that faculty members began referring to them as "pieces of the rock" and sending them home with visitors and prospective graduate students as mementos.

Space also has been a problem in Sieg. Some graduate students have had to set up offices in stairwells, while the department's motion-capture laboratory has performed triple duty as a classroom and conference room.

"People are piled up on top of each other," said Rob Short, a Microsoft vice president active in raising money for the new building. "There's not enough room for anything."

Official dedication of the Allen Center is scheduled in early October, just after the start of the fall term. UW professors, staff and researchers will begin moving in over the summer.

By fall, the department's 37 faculty members, 40 staffers, 450 graduate students and 275 undergraduates will settle in their new home, located just southeast of the Drumheller Fountain on the UW's main campus. The new space will house students seeking degrees in computer science and computer engineering. Department specialties include networking, software engineering, computer architecture and computer graphics, vision and animation.

At 85,000 square feet, the Allen Center is nearly triple the size of Sieg Hall.

The new facility, which faculty say has enough capacity to accommodate student and faculty growth well into this century, is equipped with high-bandwidth cable and wireless connections designed to support state-of-the-art technologies.

The Allen Center was designed by LMN Architects of Seattle, the same firm responsible for McCaw Hall and Benaroya Hall. M.A. Mortensen, the general contractor, says the project will finish on time and slightly under budget.

While the Allen Building largely is privately funded, the use of about $30 million in public money comes at a time when some UW faculty members have grumbled that more state resources should be devoted to increasing access for resident undergraduate students, hiring more professors and boosting faculty salaries.

But Alberg says it's in the state's long-term economic interest to ensure that the UW's computer program continues to be viewed as one of the nation's best.

Mike Swift, 33, a UW graduate student who does operating-systems research and teaches some undergraduate computer classes, said the new building will make a big difference in the quality of work students can do.

"Just having all the new space will be great," said Swift, who worked at Microsoft for seven years before deciding a few years ago to pursue a doctorate. "I'm very excited."

Natural light streams into the L-shaped, brick structure through a six-story, glass atrium, which is connected to the neighboring Electrical Engineering Building for easy cross-disciplinary interaction with the CSE Department.

Accented throughout with paneling, cabinetry and acoustic tiles made of cherry wood, the Allen Center also features numerous student lounges, conference rooms and faculty offices. Public spaces and outdoor terraces on the upper floors offer sweeping views of Lake Washington, Mount Rainier and the Cascade Mountains.

Ed Lazowska, a CSE faculty member and the project's chief fund-raiser since the project broke ground two years ago, points out that the building's aesthetics are only part of the picture.

"It's not just about how it looks," Lazowska said. "It's about what you can do."

Faculty and students now will have room to perform cutting-edge research and design in emerging technologies, such as robotics, motion capture and artificial intelligence, Lazowska said.

"Computer science used to be more about pushing a pencil across a page," Lazowska said, but increasingly "it's not just a matter of writing software. Now it's more about building things. Students need space to build things."

The added space also is expected to put the UW on par with comparable computer programs such as MIT, the University of California, Berkeley, Cornell University and Stanford University. Brad Silverberg, managing partner of the Bellevue-based venture capitalist firm Ignition Partners, said the UW's computer-science program long has been recognized as an incubator for economic development.

CSE is credited with helping to attract companies such as DECwest Engineering, Tera/Cray, and Intel Research. Early alumni of CSE founded Aldus, Visio, IC Designs, Digital Research and Dialogic. "I believe in how important a strong, research university is to the region's economy," Silverberg said. "It starts with strong educational institutions."

Short, the Microsoft vice president, said seeing the project completed through largely private contributions has been rewarding, particularly given the region's slumping economy.

"You know how daunting a task this is?" Short said. "Pulling this off has just been astounding."

Robert Marshall Wells: 206-464-2607 or rwells@seattletimes.com