Fans of the Living Computers Museum + Labs in Seattle reacted with disappointment to the news Tuesday that Paul Allen’s estate won’t be reopening the facility, as some questioned whether the outcome truly reflected the desires of the late Microsoft co-founder.
The estate, which has sold off a variety of holdings amassed by Allen over the years, confirmed that the 12-year-old museum, which closed in March 2020, is done for good and that some computing objects collected by Allen would be auctioned by Christie’s this summer. The Living Computers website and social media accounts were taken down Tuesday.
The news was a blow to those who hoped that Living Computers would be rescued by a buyer, following the pattern of Allen’s Cinerama movie theater and Flying Heritage and Combat Armor Museum.
In comments online (see below), past patrons of the museum called the closure a “bummer” and a “travesty” as they lamented the effort it took to create such an institution.
In the years that have followed his October 2018 death at the age of 65, representatives for Allen’s estate, which is managed by his sister Jody Allen, have said repeatedly, and again this week, that Allen’s wishes were for his considerable assets to be sold off and for the proceeds to go to charity.
For almost six years, that work has been taking place, with the wind down or sale of such entities as the Stratolaunch flying launch pad for rockets; the feature and documentary film company Vulcan Productions; more than $1.6 billion worth of art masterpieces; a superyacht that played host to A-list parties and marine research expeditions; a pricey property in Los Angeles; and more.
The estate and reps from Allen’s Vale Group holding company, previously Vulcan Inc., declined to comment further when asked by GeekWire for any further details about Allen’s trust or whether any properties were off limits or had special stipulations around how they were to be handled.
Some seemed to think Living Computers would have fit that bill, considering the effort Allen put into building such a large collection of rare computing technology, some of which he had a personal childhood or early Microsoft connection to or even worked on himself to resurrect at the museum. Furthermore, when the museum expanded in 2016, Allen heralded the creation of an immersive, hands-on institution that would educate young people about the past and the future promise of technology.
Jeff Parsons of Seattle runs a hardware and software emulation website called PCjs Machines, where people can experience tech from the past on a modern computer. A former museum member and volunteer, he said in an email to GeekWire that “it’s inconceivable that Paul would have invested so much time and money building the museum, with his expressed goals of preservation and education, just to let it be dismantled as soon as he was gone.”
In a blog post last year, Parsons pointed to a quote from Allen that appeared on the museum’s website when it opened in 2012. Parsons highlighted the end of the quote for emphasis:
“The Living Computer Museum also fulfills my hope that the achievements of early computer engineers aren’t lost to time.”
Parsons said art and other properties changing hands makes sense. But Living Computers was fundamentally different.
“It was Paul Allen’s personal creation, and a reflection not only of the legacy of the entire computer industry, but also of his own legacy,” Parsons wrote.
Ed Lazowska, a professor at the University of Washington’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, said that very few people are privy to the directives that Allen left after his death, and he doesn’t count himself among them. Although he served on the Living Computers board from 2018-2019, he emphasized that he doesn’t have inside information on the current situation.
“Clearly, there are things that Paul viewed as part of his legacy, and things that he did not,” he told GeekWire.
Lazowska named research institutes such as the Allen Institute, the Allen Institute for AI, and the Paul G. Allen Schools at UW and Washington State University as part of Allen’s legacy. Other things such as villas, yachts, art pieces and the Cinerama were not.
Lazowska would guess that the Seattle Seahawks don’t fit the legacy bill, but Allen’s extraordinary effort to keep the NFL team from leaving will likely be “reflected in a Herculean effort to find a local owner: he bought that team for us, not for himself.”
In the case of the Everett, Wash.-based Flying Heritage Museum, Lazowska said the value of keeping the majority of the collection together was understood, and an acquirer was found who was willing and able to do this.
“We need to hope that the same is true of the Living Computers Museum,” Lazowska said. “That while some items will be sold piecemeal, the heart of the collection will be retained, and retained in Seattle. So keep your fingers crossed.”
Keep reading for readers’ comments from various social channels on the closure of Living Computers Museum + Labs:
- “What a bummer. I still don’t understand how Paul Allen could have worked so hard on his various interests only to have no plan for them after his very foreseeable death. This was a place where you could not only see historic computers, but *use them*. I made a punchcard with my dad, it was such great fun.”” — Jon Gales, on Threads.
- “I’m so sorry to see this wonderful museum close. It was/is a couple miles from my house and I went there and took kids/grandkids there to see the museum-piece computers that I, as a museum-piece systems programmer, worked on.” — Bill Schrier on X.
- “We wish that a Gates or Ballmer could take over and keep the lights on in his memory. Why not protect & celebrate the origin story of the thriving Seattle tech sector? Hate to see a carefully curated collection split up.” — Oceans Initiative, on Threads.
- “This is a travesty. The LCM is one of the only places in the world where you could get hands-on with actual computing history. The emphasis really was on the “Living” part: You could log in and write code on a PDP-10 mainframe, play games on a Commodore 64, or nerd around on a Xerox Alto. … It’s an enormously important museum for an industry that doesn’t ordinarily hold onto, or appreciate fully, its history, and overzealously disregards it in the name of progress. I kind of can’t believe that our area’s tech industry can’t club together and save it. Such a loss.” — opalfruity, on Reddit.
- “That’s a shame … so much work to assemble such an awesome AND functioning collection that is now going to waste. Seattle is one of the main tech hubs on the planet, it’s nuts that no entity, private or public, would help maintain it. I was lucky enough to visit it in 2019 and had been checking their website for the reopening date now and then.” — Guilherme Souza, on Threads.
- “My autistic adult son loved that museum. He collects old tech like computers and brings them back to factory form. He actually had things he’s been asking to donate when they open back up. This is going to break his heart. We just keep losing places that matter to folks.” — Argyleskin, on Reddit.
- “This is so sad. Loved that place! I mean I typed BASIC into an Apple I, moved the mouse around to control an Alto and typed some Unix commands into a friggin PDP-11….was sooooo cool.” — Mike Silverman, on Threads.
