The Apple Of Bill Gates' Eye?
Back in 1999, a scurrilous rumor surfaced regarding Bill Gates' house. Now, a lot of things have been said about Gates himself, but what could anyone possibly have on his house? Could it be ...and association with the "other" side? The enemy? The competition? The rumor, passed to Architosh, stated that a UPS driver delivering goods to an architect in Redmond, WA, was told that Bill Gates house had been designed on a (gasp) McIntosh computer!
Where to get the truth? Architosh went to the source, James Cutler Architects, and the architectural firm of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, who built the very beautiful, computer age house and garage. They discovered that BCJ had for a long time, been big McIntosh users. One of their former associates, Robert Pfaffmann, established their McIntosh CAD systems back in the 1980s, because in his own words "The MAC allowed an incremental adoption of CAD without requiring specialized staff."
BCJ did not have any information on the computerization of the James Cutler Associates office, but it was generally believed that they were computerized, although on what system, nobody knew. Their outstanding work, particularly the environmentally friendly designs, don't appear to be something that would fit within the framework of a computer program.
So...was Gates' house a MAC model or not? You could take a look at the pictures yourself, to decide. But due to client confidentiality, it is simply designated as the "Washington project" in books where photos of BCJ work appears. Or you can believe what firm members have stated, that the entire project was done by hand, starting as early as the latter 1980s.
Well...almost. They do admit that the garage was created in ModelShop by BCJ staff who were working on the project