Mogul’s Mansion About Done Bill Gates’ $50 Million Home Almost Ready After 7 Years

After almost seven years of work, Microsoft mogul Bill Gates’ $50 million technomansion is nearly ready to be lived in.

“The house is complete, the shell. It’s all finish work now” and landscaping, said Geoffrey Whitten, a Gates representative at the site in this affluent suburb east of Seattle.

Construction crews are rushing to get the 40,000-square-foot home in shape for Gates’ technology summit next week to which 100 leaders from the world’s top corporations have been invited, said Microsoft spokesman John Pinette.

The event, which runs Wednesday through Friday, will be split between the Four Seasons Olympic Hotel in downtown Seattle and the Microsoft corporate campus in Redmond. Guests, including Vice President Al Gore and publishing magnate Steve Forbes, have reportedly been invited to dine at the mansion.

But striking bricklayers from a local union may hold up work on the site. Ten masons from Bricklayers Union No. 1 did not show up for work Friday after contract negotiations, under way since mid-February, broke down earlier in the week. The workers’ contract expired at midnight Wednesday.

The strike affects about 325 masons working on 30 projects in Western Washington. The masons are asking for a pay raise to reflect Seattle’s 3 percent cost-of-living increase.

Also absent from the Medina site on Friday were 100 electricians from other trade unions supporting the strike.

Whitten, however, was confident the strike wouldn’t last long and that progress wouldn’t be hampered. Most of the mansion’s extensive stone work is done, he said.

Some of the completed areas include a 60-foot pool, a sauna and a 1,700-square-foot guest house. Some furniture was moved in Friday.

The mansion will also house a trampoline room, a 20-seat theater, an arcade, a 24-screen video wall, a sports court, a dock for water skiing, two spas, a formal dining room and library, and a reception hall for 100 people.

Much of the mansion is underground, and the residence reflects Gates’ fascination with technological wizardry. For example, guests will wear an electronic pin that will register their preferences in art, music and lighting, and will adjust those things as they move around the house. When a phone call comes in for a particular guest, only the phone nearest to him or her will ring.

Gates, his wife, Melinda, and their 1-year-old daughter, Jennifer Katherine, may not move in until midsummer.

“We view this as a private residence. It would be unlikely that we would make an announcement that they are moving in,” Pinette said. “We’re saying sometime in 1997. It continues to be a work in progress.”

The area around the mansion is still dotted with construction trailers, and neighbors are still navigating through constant truck traffic.

“The road is so busy with trucks coming down, it’s getting to be not so funny any more,” said M.W. Mylroie, who lives seven houses down from all the activity.

The home has not gotten a final sign-off from the city of Medina, said chief building official Lowell Erickson, but he and the fire marshal have been asked to give Gates temporary permission to use it during the summit.

After that, Pinette said, the furniture will be moved back out again so work can continue.

So far, there have been no picketers at the Gates home. Several members of the bricklayers union waited with signs in their cars Friday just in case anyone was brought in to do their work.

“We can only picket the work, not the project, as mandated by federal law,” Reynolds said.

“We’ve heard about the fish fry on Thursday. But we’re not interested in picketing unless they come to lay masonry,” he said. “If Al Gore crosses the line and picks up a trowel, we’ll picket the job.”

Although a journeyman currently makes $24 an hour, he works only nine months out of the year because of the weather, Reynolds said. There are also concerns over the strenuous nature of the job, with workers lifting 12,000-15,000 pounds of material daily.

Many members of other trade unions, including electricians, sprinkler fitters, iron workers, carpenters, painters, roofers and plumbers, are supporting the mason strike and staying off the job.