Gates Foundation Discovery Center — Attraction in Seattle

If you're bored with nothing else to do...otherwise, you can skip it and not have missed much.

This museum is beautiful and well put-together, its mission is rather unclear to my travel guest and I who toured it together. It has a lot of heart and it shows a side of Bill & Melinda that is very kind and generous with an extension of loving however, after walking through the museum you left with a rather confused and numb feeling as to what was the entire museum all about.

Video kiosks and 2 theaters as well as multiple photos, numerous displays and even a craft section seem to form a rather bleak picture those in third world countries who need our help however, there seems to be no clear message as to what we can do as visitors beyond look at what's wrong and think a bit about it and then walk out the museum. I personally I'm not sure why the building though as beautiful as it is exists. my guest and I left the building scratching her head saying: "I'm not exactly sure what that was all about." Huge effort on many people's behalf to create this lovely center but...if I'd have missed it, I'd have gained 45...

After spending the day at Seattle Center we decided to check out the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Visitor Center. Great place to visit to wind down after a long day. Staff members manning the desk were informative and friendly. You are welcome to walk through sections of the building, each one different, to learn about people's stories. The goal of the visitor center is to help motivate or inspire you to take action to improve the lives of others - at the end of the tour you can offer up ways on how you want to help. Lots of interactive stations for kids to push, pull, roll, lift...etc. Wheelchair and/or baby stroller accessible. Bathrooms are located by the entrance to the left of the front desk. Coats/jackets, backpacks and/or extra items can be stored conveniently in baskets by the front desk at no charge. No food/drinks allowed inside (baby bottles, water bottles are ok - open container is not). Paid garage parking available ($15/day). Also check out the coffee shop, Seattle Grind, located inside the...

We took our daughter (7) here today to see the "Better Way to Go" exhibit, because she's always making toilet jokes... The center is lovely. The educational materials are presented in interactive formats that seem to make the information easier to absorb. My daughter particularly enjoyed the touch screens with quizzes about global humanitarian and environmental issues. It was very enlightening to realize how many misconceptions there are about human progress. Perhaps most impactful of all was that I had no idea how much things have gotten BETTER in the past thirty or so years. Most of the time, information given on these topics is constant gloom and doom, but the exhibits in this center made me feel like trying to save the world isn't futile or stupid. So many things have gotten so much better thanks to the philanthropic works of hopeful people. That was an amazing piece of education in itself. I feel like I have a whole new attitude on what point there...