A Q&A with the architects of the UW’s future Welcome Center
October 2026
A team of world-renowned architects is in the final stages of planning, sketching and conceptualizing the University of Washington’s new Ana Mari Cauce Welcome Center.
The new, dynamic space, set to open in 2028, is designed to be a place where the UW will welcome and engage prospective and current students and families, alumni, visitors and the public.
“The idea that we’re making a building at this public university that welcomes people in, and helps them feel they belong here, is really important,” says architect Billie Tsien. “We want the design of the Welcome Center to be joyous and reflect essentials of the Northwest and Seattle. Everywhere you look, there’ll be something interesting.”
Once complete, the Welcome Center building, pavilion and surrounding landscape will be a new way to experience the UW and another iconic landmark alongside Suzzallo Library, Denny Hall, Rainier Vista and the Hans Rosling Center.
About the architects
In 2026, the UW, in collaboration with the project’s general contractor, selected Studio Tsien, a firm led by Tsien, Jennifer Dempsey and Alex Odom, to design the Welcome Center.
Studio Tsien employs a creative approach and its leaders voiced a strong commitment to authentic collaboration — a foundational value at the UW. The team, with the design firm Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, also has experience designing highly visible buildings designed to welcome the public, including the recently opened Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.
During a recent visit to campus, Tsien and Dempsey talked with us about their concept for the UW’s new Welcome Center and how the design will “capture the vitality, the sense of curiosity and the energy of the University of Washington.”
This Q&A was developed from two separate conversations and edited for clarity.
UW: Thank you so much for talking with us. Please describe your vision for the Welcome Center.
Jennifer Dempsey: The goal is that the Welcome Center will become a part of the identity of the University of Washington, that it will become a beloved place that people know and return to. Once it’s here, it will be a place that will last for generations.
Billie Tsien: The Welcome Center will not be a big building — it will be small, but mighty. Certain things don’t have to be giant to have an impact.
UW: What will be the first impression visitors will have when they visit the Welcome Center?
Tsien: You’ll sense the warmth of wood, and there will be art integrated throughout the building. There will also be exhibits about the UW, its history and your potential place here. We’re looking at ways to incorporate glass, so the warm flow of light shining through can be seen as a kind of beacon. We see this as part of the idea of ‘welcome,’ as a light on gray days and sunny days alike.
Dempsey: We hope people will feel like they’re coming to a home. Our intent is that it will feel like it’s sort of always been there, but also that it is new and beautiful. A beautiful first impression is really a commitment to the larger public, to future students, to alumni — it says that we care about you and your relationship with the University.
UW: Why were you drawn to this project?
Tsien: The idea of helping to make somebody feel comfortable and at home is very important to me. My parents immigrated from China and when you come from another country — I was born in the U.S.; my culture is American; my psychology is very Chinese — that sense of being welcomed is very, very important. That sense of somebody saying, ‘We welcome you to come here,’ is very important because you just never really feel as if you absolutely belong someplace. So the idea of making a place which is all about welcome, to me, is very personal.
Dempsey: This is exactly the type of work we want to do. Your first impression of a place really can color how you feel about it, or maybe if you’ll engage with it again. So this Welcome Center is really important to starting a relationship with the University of Washington that’ll keep going and open the doors to more opportunities.
UW: Can you describe the process Studio Tsien followed as you moved closer to unveiling the design?
Tsien: For me, architecture is not sculpture that you conceive of separately from the place and the people. I think it’s so important to try to spend time and understand a place before you start to have ideas. That’s why we’re working closely with people who live their daily lives here, people who’ve been part of the University for many years.
Then we make models — digital models and real models — and then we go to suppliers, for example, people who will make brick for the building’s exterior. We talk with them and have them make samples, then we make mock-ups so we can see samples on the site.
Dempsey: We understand that this Welcome Center will make a mark on the world. That idea goes into every piece of how we think about designing, the integrity of materials, how something can evolve, just as technology or programs at the University might evolve.
UW: How does the Welcome Center design reflect the ways we think about community?
Tsien: It’s more than what the architecture can do, but we can provide a container for wonderful things to happen. We can make something that feels generous and positive, and then the people inside carry it through.
Dempsey: The fundamental need now is a singular place that can orient people to the campus and the University. It needs to be a place that inspires and represents the University’s identity, and also works on a practical level as you host different types of programs. I hope it will be a building that people love, a place they’ll point out with pride when they visit the UW and treasure their connections to it.
UW: What’s a recurring theme that you’ve discovered about what it means to be part of the University of Washington community?
Tsien: One of the interesting themes is that people come here with a sense of grit and strength, they discover and invent, and they make something happen. You know the “Boys in the Boat” story — it does seem to be very real and permeate the culture of the University. That if you come here to the UW, you can do amazing things. You don’t have to have a particular background. You can invent yourself and invent the world.
Dempsey: I’m continually struck by how important the UW has been to so many people who’ve gone here, and stay here, and keep coming back. That relationship, that love or passion for this place is really palpable.
UW: How do you think about the impact of engagement and philanthropy in bringing the UW’s Welcome Center to life?
Dempsey: We’ve met so many people who are invested in this project, both emotionally and literally. It’s a testament to the values of the University and what this building will represent— that it’s really about what it means to people, to what we can accomplish when people come together in the service of advancing humanity.
Maybe that’s a broad statement, but to me, progress is what education and higher education is about. If you choose to go to college, you do that on an individual level, but we also have to do it together, because it’s places like universities where we advance as a collective.
Tsien: I think when people are supporting a cause or a building because they believe in the values, they have a very deep commitment to making it happen. For the UW’s Welcome Center, we feel aligned on values of education, openness and welcome — always welcome. I don’t think I’ve ever been involved with an institution that has such incredible support from people who’ve been a part of it. People really believe in this place.
— Thanks to Billie Tsien and Jennifer Dempsey for sharing their time with us. Discover more about the Ana Mari Cauce Welcome Center or learn how you can get involved.