Amazon Spheres

My desk overlooks the crystal orbs at the center of Amazon’s Seattle campus. They give the vibe of being pulled straight from fiction. During their pupal construction stage, I would think of Daenerys Targaryen’s dragon eggs or Haruki Murakami’s air chrysalis. They look like jewels with something growing and alive.

In February they opened and I finally got to go inside. As you enter it feels like walking through the overgrown wreckage of spaceship drifting between galaxies. Vegetation climbs a 6-story plant wall and fish swim in the submerged skeleton of a tree. A wooden nest sits on a boardwalk in the branches of a 60 foot fig.

Climb the stairs through the canopy to the sun deck and it’s wide and bright with lounge chairs and low tables for working. There’s a bakery on the floor below and in the morning the air smells like waffles. Vents pump mist on the plants but it never feels wet. When I was there, I didn’t know if I should take my conference call or take off my shirt, but I never wanted to leave.