Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle

The visitors’ center for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is housed in a modern building adjacent to the foundation’s offices and in the shadow of the iconic Space Needle. The bright space explains the foundation’s global goals through displays, photos and video, with an emphasis on reducing poverty and improving healthcare internationally, plus their domestic efforts to expand educational and technology opportunities. The center, helmed by über-famous Seattleite and Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, also taps guests’ own sense of philanthropy, inviting them not only to name a cause or social issue they’d like to improve, but also inviting them to find out what skills they can contribute to a cause-related organization in their own area.