A rendering of Amazon’s proposed design for its second headquarters campus in Arlington, Va., includes a unique, spiraling centerpiece building called The Helix. (Amazon Images)

Amazon’s proposed design plans for its second headquarters campus in Arlington, Va., will have a familiar look for anyone who has ever set foot in Seattle as three tall office buildings ring a unique glass-enclosed structure. But that’s not Seattle’s Spheres. HQ2 will get “The Helix.”

In a new blog post on Tuesday, Amazon’s global real estate chief John Schoettler offered up details on the architectural and ecological elements at PenPlace, the name of the site where Amazon will someday station 25,000 employees in the suburb of Washington, D.C.

“For this project, we’re doubling down on the importance of fostering an open and inviting community by creating a new destination for local residents,” Schoettler said of the project, designed by the architecture firm NBBJ. Much like in Seattle, natural landscapes will be infused into the urban environment.

Much has changed since Amazon cancelled plans to split a 50,000-person HQ2 between New York City and Arlington in early 2019. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped how and where people work and has shuttered many tech workspaces over the past year, including Amazon’s. But Schoettler said the company views Arlington as a long-term investment, where Amazon remains committed to the $2.5 billion project for the next decade.

The highlights of the proposed campus include:

  • Three sustainable 22-story buildings: Amazon will develop 2.8 million square feet of new office space with a focus on collaboration, natural light, and a constant interaction with nature. In line with the company’s Climate Pledge to be net-zero carbon by 2040, the buildings are designed to be LEED Platinum, the highest certification for a sustainable development issued by the U.S. Green Building Council. An all-electric central heating and cooling system will run on 100% renewable energy from a solar farm located in Pittsylvania County in southern Virginia, procured in collaboration with Arlington County.
  • The Helix: Amazon first embraced the concept of biophilia — the innate human desire to connect with nature — with the construction of The Spheres at its Seattle headquarters. Those three glass orbs feature thousands of plants from around the world in a tropical work setting for the company’s employees. In Arlington, the concept takes the shape of a double helix, which will offer a similarly unique work environment. The 370,000-square-foot building will feature two walkable paths of landscaped terrain that will spiral up the outside of the 350-foot-tall building, featuring plantings that might be found on a hike in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, Schoettler said. The space will include a 1,500-person meeting center. Much like The Spheres, The Helix will be open to the general public several weekends a month.

  • Green spaces: Open spaces totaling more than 2.5 acres will be accessible for public use. These include an amphitheater facing a central green suitable for outdoor concerts, farmers’ markets, and movies in the park. A forest grove with shaded areas and a dog run, food truck area and community space are also planned. There will also be retail pavilions and restaurants throughout the site.
  • Bike and pedestrian friendly: Amazon plans to move all vehicle access underground to make for a more pedestrian-friendly environment and there will be protected bike lanes in the streets.

Amazon currently has more than 1,600 employees and over 600 jobs open in Arlington, and construction began on the HQ2 project last January. Schoettler said that “when the public health situation improves and as regulations allow, we will continue to see value in bringing our employees together in a physical space to cross-pollinate ideas and foster collaboration.”

At a 2019 talk in Seattle, Schoettler said that he and the Amazon real estate team were focused on changing “the way that people work within the four walls.”

That sentiment was echoed by Seattle real estate developer Jordan Selig, of Martin Selig Real Estate, in the latest episode of the GeekWire podcast “2025: Tomorrow, Today.” Selig talked about the next phase of real estate development emulating natural environs.

“The experience of being in an office is going to become more and more like the experience of being in nature,” Selig said in discussing “living buildings” and how the next generation of office design and office development will be a better experience for workers. “It’s going to be more like the environment we as human beings are meant to spend our time in.”

In Seattle, Amazon has reshaped the South Lake Union and Denny Triangle neighborhoods north of downtown over the past decade. Three office towers form the main headquarters of the sprawling urban campus — a departure from the way other tech giants such as Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft have typically housed employees in leafy suburban settings.

With more than 75,000 employees now in the region it calls home, Amazon has exhibited a strong desire to stretch further beyond the limits of Seattle, driven in part by disputes with the Seattle City Council over its impact on the community, and efforts by the city to impose new taxes on big businesses.

Amazon launched its highly-publicized HQ2 sweepstakes in 2019 as it searched for a location for a second North American headquarters. But in Bellevue, Wash., Amazon is poised to add as many jobs as it plans for Virginia, with the city just 10 miles east of Seattle becoming a much closer second headquarters location.

Amazon announced last month that it is committing more than $2 billion to affordable housing initiatives in the Seattle and Arlington regions, as well as Nashville, Tenn., where its presence is also growing. The company is seeking to leverage its extraordinary financial assets to address disparities in three communities where its rapid growth risks deepening the economic divide.

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