Amazon unveils HQ2 outdoors, renewing its commitment to offices

The centerpiece will be the site’s fourth and tallest tower, a 350-meter structure called Helix, as it will have two outdoor spiral alleys with trees and plants from Virginia that twist up to the top of the building.

Amazon, which unveiled the projects on Tuesday, said the group of new office and retail buildings will house about 13,000 employees, with room for more. The project is part of the campus of the Amazon office of over $ 2.5 billion and 25,000 employees, which the Seattle company calls its second headquarters.

While many technology companies have pledged to allow employees to work from home even after the coronavirus pandemic is contained, Amazon, Facebook Inc.,

Alphabet Inc

Google and others have continued to expand their urban office footprints. By investing heavily in real estate in big cities, they bet that office space will be an important part of their corporate culture after the pandemic ends.

“We need to think of this as a long-term investment,” said John Schoettler, Amazon’s vice president of global real estate and facilities. “These buildings will begin to be delivered in 2025. Therefore, we believe that the world will be a much better place than it is today.”

However, the growing popularity of teleworking has influenced building plans, Mr Schoettler said. The company expects some employees to go to the office only occasionally. Projects require more collaboration spaces where these people can meet colleagues. They won’t look too much like traditional offices.

“Think of a cafe instead,” he said. One with movable whiteboard.

Plans for the second phase of Amazon’s buildings are expected to go through a public review process, and the company hopes to begin early next year. A pair of office buildings for about 12,500 employees are already under construction on the street after the planned development of the second phase. The first buildings in the second phase are to be completed in 2025.

The new Amazon campus is the latest in a growing line of outdoor office projects, as companies try harder to provide a pleasant work environment and appeal to environmentally conscious employees.

Helix “will be an opportunity for people to literally go on a city trip,” said Dale Alberda, director of architecture firm NBBJ, which designs the development over the river in Washington, DC.

The plans for the interior of the building also require a lot of greenery, along with meeting spaces, offices and studios for artists’ residency programs. “You feel like you’re in a lush garden in the middle of winter in DC,” Mr. Alberda said of the interior design.

NBBJ previously designed an outdoor-focused facility for Recreational Equipment Inc. from Seattle, which was later sold to Facebook.

Amazon selected Arlington as the location of its second headquarters, together with Queens, NY, in 2018, following a long and well-publicized search. The company later gave up its planned New York campus, but continued with its plans in Virginia.

In addition to including many plants, Amazon said it wants to design buildings in an energy-efficient way and get all the electricity from a solar farm in Virginia. Much of the campus’ green space will be open to the public 24 hours a day, Mr. Schoettler said.

Write to Konrad Putzier at [email protected]