Mary Gates Hall

“Mary Gates Hall is a wonderful  space for teaching, innovation, learning and convening. The building also transmits the legacy of former Regent Mary Maxwell Gates through the work, promise and potential of the students who have been educated here for more than two decades. We anticipate and will welcome countless numbers of undergraduate students who will be served in the years to come.” 

— Ed Taylor, dean and vice provost, Undergraduate Academic Affairs

Mary Gates Hall is the University’s center for undergraduate learning — a crossroads and commons for University of Washington undergraduates. From orientation to graduation and beyond, students find opportunities and academic services within Mary Gates Hall that enhance their education.

Mary Gates Hall is also the physical representation of the centrality of undergraduate education to the University of Washington. It is a place where students from diverse backgrounds come to learn, study, celebrate their accomplishments and plan their futures. By centralizing and housing academic opportunities for undergraduates to enrich their learning within and beyond the classroom, this building symbolizes the possibilities of bringing the full power of a research university to the undergraduate experience.

Formerly known as the Physics Building, Mary Gates Hall is the result of a distinguished legacy, inspired leadership, and vision for the future of the UW’s undergraduate experience. The Board of Regents’s decision to renovate and re-name the building coincided with a 1995, $10 million gift from the Gates family that established the Mary Gates Endowment for Students. The building reopened as Mary Gates Hall in 2000. The completion and re-opening of Mary Gates Hall signified a campus-wide reinvigoration of the undergraduate academic experience.