UPDATED 12:00 EDT / MAY 22 2013

NEWS

Amazon’s New Campus Sports A Greenhouse Effect

Look around and you’ll see structures sprouting up from the ground up wherever you go. All cities have their fair share of ugly concrete monstrosities – tall, lots of windows and generally just very boring, yet others look like something that an artist designed, or like something out of a sci-fi comic.  But what do office buildings really need?

For Amazon, it needs lots of plants.

On Tuesday, Amazon unveiled designs created by architectural firm NBBJ that feature three mirrored, biosphere-like domes and three 37-story office towers strategically placed around the globes.

The domes will come equipped with in-house dining, meeting, and lounge spaces, as well as “a variety of botanical zones modeled on… ecologies found around the globe.”

The design of the Amazon ecological buildings is based on similar architectures found around the globe, such as the Convention Center in Ottawa, Canada, the Mitchel Park Conservatory in Milwaukee, the Renzo Piano in Italy, the Royal Greenhouses of Laeken in Belgium, Gardens by the Bay in Singapore, Nabana-No-Sato in Japan, the National Botanic Garden in Wales, and the Zoo in Germany.

“The generative idea is that a plant-rich environment has many positive qualities that are not often found in a typical office setting,” the proposal stated. “While the form of the building will be visually reminiscent of a greenhouse or conservatory, plant material will be selected for its ability to co-exist in a microclimate that also suits people.”

Aside from the botanical domes, Amazon also plans on adding multi-generational open spaces that would facilitate various activities such as a Playfield, a dog park, water feature, gardens, art block, and awesome lights that would be amusing to look at during your leisurely night walk or night out with friends.

Amazon’s planning to ‘grow’ its new headquarters in Seattle’s Lake Union neighborhood where the e-comm giant purchased 11 office buildings last year in a $1.16 billion agreement with Paul Allen’s Vulcan Real Estate.

Speaking of big money, Amazon has just announced increased financial support for its employee education program, Amazon Career Choice, raising the maximum amount of tuition reimbursement it pre-pays to some of its employees from $2,000 to $3,000 a year for up to four years.

Amazon seems like a pretty decent company to work for. Not only is it helping its employees by supporting their education, it’s also determined to make sure that current and future employees will have an office space that is conducive for their productivity.


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