Amazon Gobbles Downtown Seattle, Builds Biospheres (bloomberg.com)

Amazon has grabbed more than 15% of Seattle's office space inventory, which a local book author is describing as "the Amazocalypse". And now Amazon is building three "gigantic spheres resembling melted-together Milk Duds in the shadow of their new 500-foot-tall office tower," according to Bloomberg: The 100-foot-tall orbs -- Amazon calls them Biospheres -- will host more than 300 plant species from around the world, creating what the company sees as the workplace of the future. Amazonians will be able to break from their daily labors to walk amid the greenery along suspension bridges and climb into meeting spaces resembling bird nests perched in mature trees... Many of the plants are endangered species, meaning that the spheres double as a conservation project.
Bloomberg talks about the desire of Amazon and other tech companies to stay -- and grow -- in the popular cities "where millennials prefer to live". While the owners of Seattle's Space Needle complain that all the new office towers are blocking views of their tourist attraction, the article also describes how Amazon leased the ground floors of its office buildings to "hand-picked bars, restaurants and coffee shops," transforming it from "a hodgepodge of car dealerships and second-hand stores."

Comments

Balls

[HornWumpus]

I've always thought high rise structures should have balls.

I applaud Amazon for choosing an unconventional number.

Space Needle economics

[DRJlaw]

Meanwhile, the Space Needle's owners have complained that all the towers being thrown up by Amazon and developers hoping to house its workers are crowding out views of the aging tourist attraction.

Did those owners pay the other property owners to surrender their air rights so that the Space Needle could have unobstructed views, or are they merely trying to seize a right to prevent others from building structures that are equally high? I.e., a real estate version of pulling the ladder up behind you.

Re:Space Needle economics

[Locando]

My guess would be that they assumed that Seattle would remain sprawly and low-rise, and that any outsiders who wanted to invest in the local economy by building taller buildings would cower in shame and abandon their plans when the population of the city passive-aggressively refused en masse to recognize said buildings as being reflective of the real Seattle, the gritty, honest, unpretentious city that we grew up in, not that you would know anything about that.

Re:Space Needle economics

[cusco]

We got to the Space Needle for dinner for our anniversary every summer, and we're of the opinion that the South Lake Union building boom has dramatically improved the view. That used to be a run-down neighborhood of warehouses, abandoned buildings, and parking lots, now it's actually something interesting and attractive to look at. Yeah, the view of the Space Needle is obstructed from some places in that area, but since the only people there much of the time before the new buildings were hookers and crack dealers I don't see it as much of an issue.

Interestingly...

[bluegutang]

thanks to investment in public transportation, Seattle actually has less traffic than it did a decade ago, despite its growth in employment and housing.

According to the Seattle DOT Traffic Report (2015), Seattle added nearly 100,000 people in the decade from 2004-2014, while average daily car traffic in the city fell by some 60,000 trips over the same period. The travel demand created by population and job growth is being absorbed by the transit system

source

Re:Interestingly...

[93 Escort Wagon]

Seattle actually has less traffic than it did a decade ago, despite its growth in employment and housing.

A funny thing happened between 2004 and 2014... The 2008 crash.

The Seattle area is booming, it's true... But the Great Recession hit this area hard, and in 2014 the area was still recovering. I doubt 2016 statistics would tell the same story.

I mostly take transit to and from work; but anecdotally I'd say Seattle freeway traffic is worse now than it's ever been. I can say for certain that northbound on I-5 used to be clear sailing as soon as you reached the convention center; but now, more often than not, it's stop and go from Mercer to 520 even at 10am.

Downtown traffic may be marginally less bad than ten years ago, but that has more to do with Seattle's aggressive push to eliminate downtown parking than the availability of transit.

But now that I can FINALLY take light rail to UW, it's a moot point in my case. Sounder train and light rail means my commute is no longer dependent on the roads!

What is the point

[superdude72]

Biosphere. God, what a metaphor! In other words, a self-contained inhabitable zone shielded from the harsh environment of--gasp--Seattle.

The whole point of locating in a city is to be part of the city. Let your employees meet for lunch at a local restaurant that hasn't been hand-picked by Amazon's Director of Restaurant Planning. Use the transportation system that the locals use, improving it for everyone in the process. Go to a public park to chill out, rather than a private park reserved for Amazon employees.

This kind of office park is all over Silicon Valley. To someone who's never worked in this environment, it sounds like a huge perk. But having worked in an environment like this, I'd rather just work in Seattle, not in a biosphere surrounded by Seattle.

Megacorps

[JanneM]

One one hand, revitalizing city centers is not necessarily a bad thing. On the other, this starts to smell a little of Shadowrun-style megacorporations (or of industrial-era company towns).

Live and work your entire life within the protective confines of your employer. Go to the company school, work at the company office, live in company housing paid for with a company-bank supplied mortgage, dine at your choice of company restaurants, vacation at the company resort, get a company funeral...

Good While It Lasts

[cmholm]

There was a time when Seattle seemed to be headed towards a Boeing economic mono-culture of sorts, and when company employment cratered in 1970, the whole region felt it. At such point as something awful happens to Amazon - say, shareholders demanding a reasonable profit - it could get a bit dark in the CBD.

Re:Amazon, you could do it for 1/10 the price

[cusco]

Amazon has thousands of employees on hundreds of teams that need to work together. Physical proximity makes that a frack of a lot easier to accomplish.

Besides, they've got piles of money, why not? The South Lake Union area where the main campus is located was a dump, full of warehouses, abandoned buildings, parking lots, hookers and crack dealers. Today that region is unrecognizable to someone who visited only five or six years ago, in a good way.