Project Type: Commercial
Project Location: Arlington, VA
Summary: CREW Northern Virginia organized a site tour of Amazon HQ2 in April 2024 and it was a fantastic visit! For the most part, Amazon is trending in the direction of many modern office spaces with coffee shop vibes, lots of plants, amenities and meeting spaces; attractive areas with natural light you would be drawn to hang out in. Food options, etc. It was buzzing with activity and so cool to get to tour!
Here are a few notes I took after my visit:
Amazon has "center of energy" floors that live up to the name - these are amenity and meeting spaces on floors 2 and 3 connected with a staircase
There is 55,000 sq ft of retail on first floor with museum/exhibit style spaces for the public and events; garage style doors open up to the park on nice days
All workstations are hoteling, height adjustable benching (didn't get to see those floors); Gensler designed
They have an urban farm on floor 15 managed by a local edible garden non profit Love and Carrots complete with several blueberry patches and seasonal crops for donation
8,500 people swipe in on peak days between the two buildings
Met Park just outside the buildings is amazing - it's a gift from Amazon to the community; a 2.5 acre park for dogs, kids and people to enjoy
The building recycles 10 million gallons of rainwater a year with underground cisterns that clean and treat the water (they use 11 mill gallons when it should be around 21) and reuse it in the building; they also use low flow water saving plumbing fixtures; This water recycling was added as a feature because the company thinks reusing water is important. This does not add a lot of cost savings and we are not in a drought prone area.
ZGF designed the core shell building
It's a dog friendly office with dog park terraces on the working floors I didn't see; sounds awesome though!
They have a 700 person conference center for any use from concerts to all hands, skylights dim and natural light can be black boxed for a concert
Biophilia everywhere!
Green roof
Operable windows can be opened by any employees. A sensor goes green on days when the window being open is ideal based on the weather and goes red on days when heat/cold and humidity will cause HVAC to work harder
Bezos does NOT believe in work gyms, so there is no gym in the building, but there are showers and a bike room
Furniture in amenity spaces is super varied and fun. Apparently a team of 4 worked as the main furniture team. (sounds like a lot of work)
Those are my notes. I found the tour inspiring! Enjoy these photos.
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