The Spheres Blossom at Amazon's Urban HQ in Seattle

The Spheres Blossom at Amazon's Urban HQ in Seattle

The Spheres-the newest buildings on Amazon's campus in downtown Seattle-have no enclosed offices, conference spaces, or desks, and employees can meet in treehouses suspended under 40 foot trees or in sitting areas and walking paths alongside cascading waterfalls

Plants, trees, sunlight, soil, and water take center stage - the sound of running water and the scent of flowering plants create an instant botanical immersion that takes visitors far away from the urban landscape

The project created more than 600 full-time jobs, and is part of Amazon's more than $4 billion investment in the design, development, and construction of its Seattle HQ

The Spheres will be open to provide educational opportunities to the Seattle community through tours, field trips and partnerships with local schools and universities

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 29, 2018-- (NASDAQ: AMZN) - Amazon today announced the opening of The Spheres, the company's newest Seattle HQ buildings that are home to more than 40,000 plants from around the world. There's no place else in the world quite like The Spheres - a spot where Amazon employees can work in an environment that's more like a tropical rainforest in the clouds than an office. Plants, trees, sunlight, soil, and water take center stage - the sound of running water and the scent of flowering plants create an instant botanical immersion that takes visitors far away from the urban landscape. The Spheres are a result of innovative thinking about the character of the workplace and an extended conversation about what is typically missing from urban offices - a direct link to nature. Studies suggest that spaces that embrace biophilic design can inspire creativity and even improve brain function.

Our goal with The Spheres was to create a unique gathering place where employees could collaborate and innovate together, and where the Seattle community could gather to experience biodiversity in the center of the city, said John Schoettler, Amazon Vice President of Global Real Estate and Facilities. I am very proud and thankful to the entire team who made The Spheres a reality - they did a terrific job from the design all the way to the finishing touches. We are thrilled to officially open the doors.

The Spheres feature treehouse meeting rooms, river and waterfall features, paludariums, a four-story living wall, and epiphytic trees. They are home to more than 400 species spanning five continents and 50 countries, and many of the plants have journeyed from botanical gardens, tree nurseries, and conservation programs from around the globe. Many of the plants inside The Spheres are from cloud forest ecosystems, where plants thrive on mountainsides at an altitude ranging from 3,000 to 10,000 feet. Plants in these ecosystems have adapted to cooler temperatures, which makes their climate needs comfortable for people, too.

Amazon is committed to sharing the beauty and biodiversity inside The Spheres with the public, and will provide educational opportunities to the Seattle community through tours, field trips and partnerships with local schools and universities. The Spheres also include a visitor center - called The Understory - that is open to the public year round. The Understory provides a fully immersive, 360-degree experience where visitors can get up close and personal with the science, engineering, and plants behind The Spheres.

The Spheres are sure to become an iconic part of downtown Seattle, and I applaud Amazon for its latest innovation, Gov. Jay Inslee said. These unique buildings are so much more than a beautiful creative space for Amazon employees. They will help conserve a number of rare plant species from around the world and provide countless educational opportunities for local students - and that's something Washington can take pride in.

Seattle is the coolest city in the country, leading the way with innovative urban projects like The Spheres. This unique landscape will bring together students, visitors, and residents in the heart of our City, said Mayor Jenny Durkan.

The most delightful design feature of Amazon's Spheres goes far beyond bringing natural beauty into Seattle's urban core, said Toby Bradshaw, Professor and Chair, UW Department of Biology. The use of plant biodiversity - including the weird' and ugly' specimens - to tell the story of interconnections among living things will be an inspiration to all who visit and work at The Spheres.

Learn about The Spheres, The Understory, and how to visit on www.seattlespheres.com. For regular updates about the plant life inside The Spheres, follow @SeattleSpheres on Instagram.

About The Spheres

Find out about opening day: https://blog.aboutamazon.com/amazon-campus/the-spheres-blossom-in-seattle

The Spheres were built to create a wide variety of ways to communicate, work and dine on five different levels in the backdrop of dramatic plant installations including living walls, paludariums and treehouse gathering spaces. Below are a few facts about The Spheres, as well as what visitors will find within and around them:

More than 600 full-time jobs created through the design, build and construction of The Spheres

More than 620 tons of steel, or enough steel to build the Space Needle three times

12 million pounds of concrete used in the construction, or enough concrete to build a highway from Seattle to Sacramento, CA.

The exterior fa ade features a naturally occurring shape in nature called a Catalan, which is derived from the face of a pentagonal hexecontahedron Catalan solid - the shape repeats throughout The Spheres with 60 faces per Sphere and 180 total

The Spheres' fa ade contains 2,643 panes of glass that are ultra-clear and energy-efficient, with a film interlayer t

LINK:	http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&...
	See more stories from phx

Most recent headlines