Route 66 Motor Lodge Where Bill Gates and Paul Allen Started Microsoft Being Redeveloped
When it comes to technology history, there are few names bigger than Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Paul Allen. In the early days, the latter two got together in a Route 66 motor lodge in order to work while launching Microsoft. The Albuquerque-based hotel has sat relatively dormant for years now, but as consumer technology begins to play a larger role in the mainstream, there's now motivation to redevelop the property into apartments as part of a "neighborhood revival project."
Groundbreaking began on Thursday as the Sundowner Uhuru Apartment Complex begins to come to life -- it's just one of many areas that are being refurbished in this particular part of New Mexico. The hotel itself was erected in 1960, back when Route 66 travel was hotter than ever, and Gates + Allen hunkered down there while "writing BASIC for the Altair 8800 computer, invented in 1975 by the Albuquerque-based company MITS." It was said to have been used as a base in the 70s before the duo moved northwest to Washington.
It's a pretty special place to be revived, but it doesn't appear that the revival will include any nuggets about Microsoft's early days there.
Groundbreaking began on Thursday as the Sundowner Uhuru Apartment Complex begins to come to life -- it's just one of many areas that are being refurbished in this particular part of New Mexico. The hotel itself was erected in 1960, back when Route 66 travel was hotter than ever, and Gates + Allen hunkered down there while "writing BASIC for the Altair 8800 computer, invented in 1975 by the Albuquerque-based company MITS." It was said to have been used as a base in the 70s before the duo moved northwest to Washington.
It's a pretty special place to be revived, but it doesn't appear that the revival will include any nuggets about Microsoft's early days there.
