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NBBJ shares details of its Nickerson Gardens Playground renovation project in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles as part of a grand opening held on August 16th at the site, which forms the center of what is the largest American public housing development west of the Mississippi River. The... View full entry
Phase 1 of the Amazon HQ2 has been completed in Arlington, VA, which includes the newly-created Met Park and rooftop terraces designed by James Corner Field Operations. The park is part of a broader $2.5 billion headquarters featuring buildings by NBBJ and ZGF Architects. Image credit: Michael... View full entry
[...] the company’s decision made public on Friday to pause plans in Virginia — about four years after Amazon pulled out of its campus in New York — is the latest reminder that the tech industry’s long boom has slowed. [...]
The pause will affect PenPlace, the second and larger stage, which would build a mix of office towers, open space and a signature, spiraling glass building Amazon calls the Helix.
— The New York Times
The move comes after Amazon reported its first unprofitable year since 2014. The helix-shaped, $2.5 billion biophilia-lined PenPlace design had only been greenlit in August and is contracted to NBBJ. Amazon had said its construction would cost another $5 billion. The company began cutting some... View full entry
NBBJ has been selected by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to lead the redevelopment of Paul Rudolph’s iconic Charles F. Hurley Building at the Boston Government Service Center. The move was announced last week after years of speculation as to the fate of Rudolph’s endangered Brutalist... View full entry
Amazon will begin transforming an undeveloped swath of Arlington County into the largest piece of its second corporate headquarters [...]
County lawmakers on Saturday unanimously endorsed the expansion of Amazon’s footprint at the 10.4 acre site in Pentagon City, known as PenPlace. Plans include three corporate office buildings, retail pavilions, a futuristic glass Helix, a child-care facility and about 2.75 acres of open space.
— The Washington Post
Designs for the second phase of Amazon's $2.5 billion Arlington HQ2 campus, including its much-debated tree-covered and helix-shaped centerpiece tower, first appeared on Archinect in February 2021. Updated designs were released by the company and its architect NBBJ later that year. Previously on... View full entry
An updated version of PenPlace, Amazon’s forthcoming suburban DC headquarters dubbed ‘HQ2,’ has been released by the company showcasing a series of design changes that were the result of an eight-month feedback process from the local community in Arlington, Virginia. The company said they... View full entry
Amazon has unveiled the latest design plans for the second phase of its $2.5 billion Arlington HQ2 campus. The proposal for the PenPlace site includes three 22-story office towers, several smaller buildings, a 250-seat outdoor amphitheater, public green space, and a fourth 350-foot swirling glass... View full entry
NBBJ has been selected to design Net City, a 2 million-square-meter master-planned district along Shenzhen's Dachanwan Port for Tencent, the largest internet company in China. The concept for Net City builds on the idea of an urban environment as an interconnected, human-focused organic... View full entry
International architecture and design firm NBBJ announced today that it has acquired experience design studio ESI Design. In joining one another, NBBJ and ESI Design will be able to capitalize on their multidisciplinary team to introduce digital experiences earlier in the design process, giving... View full entry
[...] the Erection Co. topped out Seattle’s 850-ft-tall Rainier Square Tower, with its radical composite steel frame dubbed “speed core,” in only 10 months. Steel erection began last October in the lowest basement.
The retail-office-residential building is on course for substantial completion next Aug. 13, according to Andy Bench, project manager for the developer, Wright Runstad & Co.
— Engineering News-Record
The NBBJ-designed Rainier Square Tower recently became Seattle's new second-tallest skyscraper after construction height passed 772 feet. Now its developer, Wright Runstad & Company, also celebrated the structure's official topping out at a height of 850 feet. Today we celebrated the Rainier... View full entry
On Friday, as construction crews added another layer of steel to the building, the skyscraper passed 772 feet, the height of Seattle’s former second tallest building, 1201 Third Avenue. Construction crews are expected to top out Rainier Square Tower at 850 feet later this month, according to a spokesperson for Wright Runstad, the building’s developer. Columbia Center, at 937 feet, is the only building taller in Seattle. — The Stranger
NBBJ-designed Rainier Square Tower will be a 1.7-million-square-foot "mix of ground-floor retail, underground parking, 722,000 square feet of office space, and 200 luxury apartments." Upon completion, it will become the seventh-tallest building on the west coast. View full entry
Amazon is abandoning a prominent downtown Seattle office project 10 months after it threatened to do so if the city imposed a new business tax. [...]
Amazon confirmed Wednesday it will not occupy the 722,000 square feet it had leased in the Rainier Square tower under construction at Fifth Avenue and Union Street. The lease was one of the biggest in Seattle history — enough space to hold at least 3,500 employees and perhaps up to 5,000.
— Seattle Times
Sounds familiar, said Long Island City. Aerial view of construction progressin February 2019. Image: Rainier Square.Designed by NBBJ, the 58-story mixed-use Rainier Square tower is currently under construction right next to Minoru Yamasaki’s famous Rainier Tower in downtown Seattle and will win... View full entry
Symbolizing mountain ranges in architecture has the potential for a dramatic, iconic payoff, especially when the materials used to do so play an integral role in the interior experience of the building (think: the fabric peaks of the Denver International Airport, which allude to the Rocky... View full entry
the spheres will be packed with a plant collection worthy of top-notch conservatories, allowing Amazon employees to amble through tree canopies three stories off the ground, meet with colleagues in rooms with walls made from vines and eat kale Caesar salads next to an indoor creek. [...]
“The whole idea was to get people to think more creatively, maybe come up with a new idea they wouldn’t have if they were just in their office,” said Dale Alberda, the lead architect on the project at NBBJ
— nytimes.com
While the benefits of greenery for employee productivity is well established, and any good tech company needs to play up the "serendipity machine" game, Amazon is taking this to an architectural level:The spheres will have meeting areas called treehouses, and suspension bridges high off the ground... View full entry
It’s that time of year when London's design district opens its doors to the public for Clerkenwell Design Week and shows the rest of London and the design industry what it has to offer. An impressive showcase of distinct and accomplished talent the three-day event spans; furniture and product... View full entry
