The second phase of Amazon’s headquarters complex in Arlington, Va., will be a 2.8-million-sf campus with three 22-story buildings that target LEED Platinum certification.
The Phase 2 site, called PenPlace, will be anchored by The Helix, a 370,000-sf spiral shaped building that, according to Amazon, will feature indoor garden spaces, an Artist in Residence program, a 1,500-person meeting center, and an outdoor hill climb open to the public on select weekends every month. (SCAPE is PenPlace’s landscape architect.)
Amazon sent its latest designs to the Arlington County Board on Tuesday. If the plans are approved, ground breaking for PenPlace could be early next year, with delivery scheduled for 2025.
Amazon—which in 2019 faced community opposition to its plans to build a headquarters complex in the New York City borough of Queens—is proactively presenting itself to Arlington residents as a friend of the community and a corporate citizen. The tech giant has donated more than $19 million to local nonprofits, and recently announced a $2 billion Housing Equity Fund whose starting investment will be to create more than 1,300 affordable homes in Arlington’s Crystal City neighborhood, where PenPlace would be built.
A dog park will be one of the community amenities that Amazon's headquarters will offer.
The proposed design for PenPlace includes:
•2.5-plus acres of public open space and connected walkways, a dog run, a 250-seat amphitheater, woodlands, and art installations;
•Over 950 onsite bike spaces, including 180 for visitors. There will be one-quarter mile of new protected bike lanes;
•100,000 sf for retail pavilions, walkways, and space for a dozen local dealers and eateries;
•A child-care center;
•A plaza that supports farmers markets and food vendors; and
•A 20,000-sf community space that supports education, science, and technology, and is flexible enough to accommodate small and large meetings and classes.
PenPlace’s sustainable features include an onsite water reclamation system for reducing cooling, irrigation, and flushing demand by 50%. Site-wide landscape will integrate and clean 100% of the complex’s rainfall runoff.
The project will include an all-electric central heating and cooling system that runs on 100% renewable energy from a solar farm in southern Virginia. (Amazon has pledged to be net-carbon-neutral as a company by 2040.)
PenPlace will include 100,000 sf for local retail tenants and a pavilion.
GEOMETRY IN ACTION
Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle is distinguished by The Spheres, ball-shaped workplaces that are also home to over 30,000 plants from 30-plus countries. Amazon is looking to achieve a similar connection with nature for its Arlington workers via The Helix, which will offer a variety of alternative work environments. (Whiting-Turner Construction is PenPlace’s contractor.)
The Helix will have two walkable paths of landscaped terrain that spiral the outside of the buildings and feature plants familiar to hikers of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains.
As at The Spheres, Amazon plans to offer public tours of The Helix several weekends a month.
A MULTI-BILLION INVESTMENT
Once completed, Amazon's Arlington headquarters will distribute 850,000 sf of office space over five buildings.
PenPlace would be north of where Amazon is building Metropolitan Park, a 2.1-milllion-sf mixed-use project. The first phase includes two 22-story towers, as well as some renovated office space.
Metropolitan Park—designed by ZGF Architects, with Clark Construction as its builder and James Corner Field Operations as its landscape designer—is scheduled to start opening in 2023, John Schoettler, Amazon’s Vice President of Global Real Estate Facilities, told WUSA9. Amazon states that Metropolitan Park will have 500 bike spaces, over 2.5 acres of new and renovated park space, 69,000 sf of ground-floor retail and a 700-person meeting center available to the public.
Amazon’s initial investment in its headquarters plans has been $2.5 billion. All told, Amazon intends to have 850,000 sf of office space for 25,000 employees in Arlington, Va., by mid-decade.
Related Stories
| Jun 24, 2014
Intuit begins work on LEED Platinum campus addition
Demolition will begin this week as a precursor to construction of Intuit's new addition to its Mountain View, Calif., campus. The first of two additions, a 185,000-sf building on Marine Way, is expected to begin construction in August.
| Jun 20, 2014
Sterling Bay pulled on board for Chicago Old Main Post Office project
Sterling Bay Cos. and Bill Davies' International Property Developers North America partner up for a $500 million restoration of Chicago's Old Main Post Office
| Jun 19, 2014
First look: JDS Architects' roller-coaster-like design for Istanbul waterfront development
The development's wavy and groovy design promises unobstructed views of the Marmara Sea for every unit.
| Jun 18, 2014
Study shows walkable urbanism has positive economic impact
Walkable communities have a higher GDP, greater wealth, and higher percentages of college grads, according to a new study by George Washington University.
| Jun 18, 2014
Arup uses 3D printing to fabricate one-of-a-kind structural steel components
The firm's research shows that 3D printing has the potential to reduce costs, cut waste, and slash the carbon footprint of the construction sector.
| Jun 17, 2014
World's tallest pair of towers to serve as 'environmental catalyst' for China
The Phoenix Towers are expected to reach 1 km, the same height as Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill's Kingdom Tower, but would set a record for multiple towers in one development.
| Jun 16, 2014
6 U.S. cities at the forefront of innovation districts
A new Brookings Institution study records the emergence of “competitive places that are also cool spaces.”
| Jun 12, 2014
Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects' design selected for new UCSC facility
The planned site is a natural landscape among redwood trees with views over Monterey Bay, a site that the architects have called “one of the most beautiful they have ever worked on.”
| Jun 12, 2014
Austrian university develops 'inflatable' concrete dome method
Constructing a concrete dome is a costly process, but this may change soon. A team from the Vienna University of Technology has developed a method that allows concrete domes to form with the use of air and steel cables instead of expensive, timber supporting structures.
| Jun 11, 2014
Bill signing signals approval to revitalize New Orleans’ convention center corridor
A plan to revitalize New Orleans' Convention Center moves forward after Louisiana governor signs bill.
