Check Out Designs for Bellevue's Global Innovation Exchange

Initial designs are in for the new Global Innovation Exchange (GIX) facility in Bellevue's Spring District and they've submitted those plans to the city for review. GIX is intended to be a "project-based technology institute" that will be a partnership between the University of Washington and Tsinghua University in China. Developer Wright Runstad & Co. has plans to start construction next spring on the three-story, 86,000-square-foot building at the 36-acre Spring District. NBBJ is designing the building while Lease Crutcher Lewis is the general contractor. The standout features of the structure include a "folded roof" and "vertical expanses of glass to evoke an urban character reminiscent of more vernacular warehouse structures." Once completed, it will be the first time a Chinese university will have a base in the United States. Initial students will spend their first year at Tsinghua this year before moving to GIX in Bellevue in 2017. The entire project was launched thanks to a $40 million donation by, who else, Microsoft.

· First look: UW's Global Innovation Exchange building in Bellevue [PSBJ]
· Drawings show plans for new U.S.-China tech graduate campus in Seattle area [GW]
· Here's a first look at NBBJ's design for the Global Innovation Exchange [DJC]