The university has three campuses: the primary and bigger in the University District of Seattle and two others in Tacoma and Bothell. Its operating costs and analysis account for budgetary year 2014–15 is accepted to be $6.4 billion. The UW occupies over 500 buildings, with over 20 actor gross aboveboard footage of space, including the University of Washington Plaza, consisting of the 325-foot (99 m) UW Tower and appointment center.
Washington is a affiliate of the Association of American Universities. Its analysis account is a allotment of the accomplished in the United States. In athletics, the university competes in the NCAA Division I Pac-12 Appointment (Pac-12).
The city-limits of Seattle was one of several settlements in the mid to backward 19th aeon allusive for ability in the anew formed Washington Territory. In 1854, territorial governor Isaac Stevens recommended the enactment of a university in Washington. Several arresting Seattle-area residents, arch a allotment of them Methodist preacher Daniel Bagley, saw the siting of this University as a adventitious to add to the city's prestige. They were able to argue aboriginal architect of Seattle and affiliate of the territorial assembly Arthur A. Denny of the accent of Seattle acceptable the school. The assembly initially accountant two universities, one in Seattle and one in Lewis County, but afterwards repealed its accommodation in favor of a individual university in Lewis County, provided locally donated acreage could be found. If no website emerged, the legislature, encouraged by Denny, relocated the university to Seattle in 1858.
The aboriginal University of Washington architecture on Denny's Knoll, c. 1870
In 1861, aloof began for an adapted 10 acreage (4 ha) website in Seattle to serve as the campus for a new university. Arthur and Mary Denny donated eight acres, and adolescent antecedents Edward Lander and Charlie and Mary Terry donated two acreage to the university at a website on Denny's Knoll in city-limits Seattle. This amplitude was belted by 4th and 6th Avenues on the west and east and Union and Seneca Streets on the arctic and south.
UW opened clearly on November 4, 1861, as the Territorial University of Washington. The afterward year, the assembly anesthetized online writing formally accumulation the University and establishing a Board of Regents. The academy struggled initially, closing three times: in 1863 for abridgement of students, and afresh in 1867 and 1876 due to curtailment of funds. However, Clara Antoinette McCarty Wilt became the aboriginal alum of UW in 1876 if she accelerating from UW with a bachelor's amount in science. By the time Washington entered the Union in 1889, both Seattle and the University had developed substantially. Enrollment had added from an antecedent 30 acceptance to about 300, and the about abreast of the campus had accustomed way to advancing development. A appropriate aldermanic board headed by UW alum Edmond Meany was created for the purpose of award a new campus bigger able to serve the growing apprentice population. The board alleged a website on Union Bay northeast of downtown, and the assembly appointed funds for its acquirement and consecutive construction.
Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Account on the UW campus against Mount Rainier in 1909
The university relocated from city-limits to the new campus in 1895, affective into the anew congenital Denny Hall. The regents approved and bootless to advertise the old campus, and eventually acclimatized on leasing the area. The University still owns what is now alleged the Metropolitan Tract. In the affection of the city, it is a allotment of the a lot of admired pieces of absolute acreage in Seattle and generates millions of US$ in acquirement annually.
The aboriginal Territorial University architecture was broken down in 1908 and its above website currently houses the Fairmont Olympic Hotel. The sole actual debris of UW's aboriginal architecture are four 24-foot (7.3 m), white, hand-fluted cedar, Ionic columns. They were salvaged by Edmond S. Meany—one of the University's aboriginal graduates and the above arch of the history department. Meany and his colleague, Dean Herbert T. Condon, dubbed anniversary of the columns "Loyalty," "Industry," "Faith" and "Efficiency," or "LIFE." The columns now angle in the Sylvan Grove Theater.
Organizers of the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Account eyed the still abundantly abortive campus as a prime ambience for their world's fair. They came to an acceding with the Board of Regents that accustomed them to use the campus area for the exposition. In exchange, the University would be able to yield advantage of the development of the campus for the fair afterwards its conclusion. This included a abundant website plan and several buildings. The plan for the A-Y-P Account able by John Charles Olmsted was afterwards congenital into the all-embracing campus adept plan and assuredly afflicted the blueprint of the campus.
Aerial appearance of campus, about 1922
Both Apple Wars brought the aggressive to the campus, with assertive accessories briefly loaned to the federal government. The consecutive post-war periods were times of affecting advance for the University. The aeon amid the wars saw cogent amplification on the top campus. Architecture of the advanced arts quadrangle, accepted to acceptance as "The Quad," began in 1916 and connected in stages until 1939. The aboriginal two wings of Suzzallo Library, advised the architectural centerpiece of the University, were congenital in 1926 and 1935, respectively. Further advance came with the end of Apple War II and access of the G.I. Bill. A allotment of the a lot of important developments of this aeon was the aperture of the medical academy in 1946. It would eventually abound into the University of Washington Medical Center, now ranked by U.S. News and Apple Report a allotment of the top ten hospitals in the United States. It was during this era in University of Washington history in which abounding Japanese Americans were beatific abroad from the university to bondage camps forth the west bank of the United States as allotment of Executive Order 9066 afterward the attacks on Pearl Harbor. As a result, abounding Japanese American "soon-to-be" graduates were clumsy to accept their diplomas and be accustomed for their ability at the university until the University of Washington's celebration commemoration for the Japanese Americans advantaged The Long Journey Home captivated on May 18, 2008 at the capital campus.
A appearance of campus and Gas Works Park from George Washington Memorial Bridge in 2008
In the backward 1960s, the University of Washington Police Administration acquired from the University Safety and Security Division in acknowledgment to anti-Vietnam War protests. It currently has administration over the University of Washington campus and University-owned housing, except for the Radford Court apartments in Sand Point. The 1960s and 1970s are accepted as the "golden age" of the university due to the amazing advance in students, facilities, operating account and authority beneath the administration of Charles Odegaard from 1958 to 1973. Enrollment at UW added than doubled—from about 16,000 to 34,000—as the babyish bang bearing came of age. As was the case at abounding American universities, this era was apparent by top levels of apprentice activism, with abundant of the agitation focused about civilian rights and action to the Vietnam War. Odegaard instituted a eyes of architecture a "community of scholars" and assertive the accompaniment of Washington legislatures to access their investments appear the university. Additionally, Washington senators, Henry M. Jackson and Warren G. Magnuson acclimated their political ascendancy to carry federal analysis monies to the University of Washington and to this day, UW is a allotment of the top recipients of federal analysis funds in the United States. The after-effects included an operating account access of $37 actor in 1958, to over $400 actor in 1973, and 35 new barrio that angled the attic amplitude of the university.
The University opened campuses in Bothell and Tacoma in 1990. Initially, these campuses offered curricula for acceptance gluttonous bachelor's degrees who accept already completed two years of college education, but both schools accept transitioned to four-year universities, accepting the aboriginal apprentice chic in the abatement of 2006. Both campuses action master's amount programs as well. In 2009 the University opened an appointment in the Spanish city-limits of León in accord with the belted university.
The University of Washington, Seattle campus, is anchored on the shores of Union and Portage Bays, with angle of the Cascade Range to the east and the Olympic Mountains to the west. The capital campus is belted on the west by 15th Avenue N.E., on the arctic by N.E. 45th Street, on the east by Montlake Boulevard N.E., and on the south by N.E. Pacific Street. East Campus stretches east of Montlake Boulevard to Laurelhurst and is abundantly taken up by wetlands and sports fields. South Campus occupies the acreage amid Pacific Street and the Lake Washington Ship Canal which acclimated to be a golf advance and is accustomed over to the bloom sciences, oceanography, fisheries, and the University of Washington Medical Center. West Campus is beneath of a abstracted article than the others, abounding of its accessories getting on city-limits streets, and stretches amid 15th Avenue and Interstate 5 from the Ship Canal to N.E. 41st Street. University Way, accepted locally as "The Ave", lies adjacent and is a focus for abundant apprentice activity at the university. At the affection of the university lies Red Square, which functions as the axial hub of apprentice alternation and hosts a array of contest annually.
Several above motion account films were filmed on campus or acclimated it as a backdrop, including The Sixth Man, WarGames, What the Bleep!?: Down the Rabbit Hole, and 21 and Over.