A campaign to restore the 104-year-old ASUW Shell House at the University of Washington in Seattle is getting a boost toward its goal with a $5 million commitment from Microsoft President Brad Smith and his wife, Kathy Surace-Smith, vice president at NanoString.
Microsoft Philanthropies has dedicated an additional $2 million toward the university’s $18.5 million capital campaign.
The structure on the Montlake Cut was originally built by the U.S. Navy as a seaplane hangar in 1918 during World War I. But the Shell House’s biggest claim to fame may be as the onetime home to one of the UW’s most celebrated sports teams.
The 12,000-square-foot building served as home to UW rowing for several decades and was where famed shell builder George Pocock built boats including the Husky Clipper, which carried its UW team to gold at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. That victory is the subject of the acclaimed 2013 novel “The Boys in the Boat” by Daniel James Brown, which will also be an upcoming film directed by George Clooney.
The UW is looking to restore the Shell House as a learning and gathering space for students and the community, according to campaign details which call the building the university’s “beacon on the water.”
“Students will experience an enhanced sense of place and a better understanding of the unique beauty, history and culture that makes our campus unique in the world,” the UW said. “By hosting thematic student programming and courses rooted in the building’s innate themes of innovation, collaboration, leadership and resilience, we will further inspire their learning and growth.”
‘It’s a place for the people who live here to meet and accomplish great things the way the ‘Boys in the Boat’ did, and that is what inspired us to step forward’
Interactive timelines and exhibits will serve to invite the community to take part in that celebration of collective histories and accomplishments.
“This could be a special place where visitors from other states and countries can visit, learn, and be moved by what happened here,” Smith said. “But perhaps most importantly, it’s a place for the people who live here to meet and accomplish great things the way the ‘Boys in the Boat’ did, and that is what inspired us to step forward.”
Surace-Smith said that walking into the Shell House leaves one immediately struck by the historic nature of the building and the nature of the stories that have happened there.
“We hope others see what we see, which is the tremendous potential and value of opening and restoring this iconic space for the community,” she said.
ASUW in the building’s name refers to Associated Students at the University of Washington, which is the university’s student government on campus.
Smith previously helped lead fundraising efforts for The Bill & Melinda Gates Center for Computer Science & Engineering at the UW, which opened in 2019. That campaign attracted contributions from notable tech titans and other current and former Seattle-area tech leaders.
At the time, Smith called it a “wonderful journey” that brought together not only friends of the university but also tech giant rivals who were investing in the program’s future.
“These incredible gifts are propelling our fundraising effort,” Denzil Suite, UW’s vice president for Student Life, said of the Shell House contributions from Smith, Surace-Smith and Microsoft. “But there is plenty of space left in this boat and our hope is that they inspire other leaders within our region’s business community to grab an oar and help us reach our goal.”
