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[...] 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
Amazon in January signed a $35 billion contract to build new data centers across Virginia, a deal so sizable a detractor disappointed at the incentives being thrown at the tech giant said, “We might as well start calling it the Commonwealth of Amazon.” — Commerical Observer
The state’s “Data Center Alley,” Loudoun County, is still cutting $1- to $3 million-per-acre deals with tech companies that rely on hyperscale data centers designed to provide massive, scalable data storage and computing resources for cloud computing and big data processing. The currently... View full entry
Gensler and Amazon are among the donors who have gifted $4.7 million to the California College of the Arts (CCA). The funds will be used to support diversity, equity, and innovation in the arts and design field. CCA received a $1 million gift from the Gensler family and an additional $1 million... 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
The second most valuable company in the world, Amazon has been gobbling up space throughout the southeast corner of the city, taking advantage of zoning meant to preserve blue-collar jobs in a market in which housing and office space have typically generated higher revenues. — The San Francisco Chronicle
Amazon bought a 510,000-square-foot former sanitation motor pool parcel in the Showplace Square section of the city for $200 million in December of 2020. It has since proposed an expansion of the site’s footprint into an over 725,000-square-foot distribution hub for 400 workers that neighboring... View full entry
2021 was a year where form continued to follow finance. Throughout the year, our coverage included many examples of the world’s largest architecture firms designing for some of the world’s largest companies. From sleek corporate headquarters to “work-and-play” tech campuses, such projects... View full entry
In California’s Inland Empire, dozens of mega-warehouses for Amazon, UPS and other companies are choking the cities with traffic and air pollution. Some argue that the jobs warehouses provide aren’t worth the cost, while others say it’s online shopping that’s the real problem. — Los Angeles Times
Despite the boiler-plate promise of adding jobs to the community, warehouse-laden tracts have been dumping an increasing amount of pollutants into the atmosphere in the form of increased truck and air cargo traffic and propelled in part by a sharp rise in online shopping. Amazon opened its... 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
Rivian Automotive Inc., the electric-vehicle startup backed by Amazon.com Inc., is in talks to invest at least $5 billion to build a factory near Fort Worth, Texas, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg News. — Bloomberg
The factory, labeled “Project Tera” according to the Bloomberg-obtained document, would be able to produce 200,000 vehicles a year and create at least 7,500 jobs by 2027. A number of incentives, including grants and a city tax abatement of up to $440 million, have also been proposed in the... View full entry
Amazon continues to makes headlines with its labor issues, workers' rights, and headquarters expansion. However, that hasn't stopped the multi-billion-dollar company from growing, for better or for worse. A recent news report from NBC News shared Amazon's moves towards purchasing empty shopping... View full entry
In February, Amazon announced its latest design for a $2.5 billion headquarters in Arlington, "the Helix." Once visual renderings for the campus were released, the architecture community was quick to respond. Besides heavy criticism of its overall design, discussion regarding its surrounding... 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
Amazon.com Inc. plans to open 1,000 small delivery hubs in cities and suburbs all over the U.S., according to people familiar with the plans. The facilities, which will eventually number about 1,500, will bring products closer to customers, making shopping online about as fast as a quick run to the store. It will also help the world’s largest e-commerce company take on a resurgent Walmart Inc. — Bloomberg
Marc Wulfrat, president of the logistics consulting firm MWPVL International Inc estimates Amazon will deliver 67% of its own packages this year and soon increase to 85%, Bloomberg reports. "In just a few years, Amazon has built its own UPS," Wulfrat continued. View full entry
Even before the pandemic reconfigured every aspect of our daily lives, it was clear that the cash register — the kind with a drawer that pops out after your groceries are tallied — was headed for the dust heap of technology, joining fax machines and CD players. Many convenience stores, like CVS, Rite Aid and Target, started installing self-checkout stations a decade ago. — The Philadelphia Inquirer
Architecture critic Inga Saffron of The Philadelphia Inquirer examines the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has supercharged the automation of grocery stores and other spaces, finding that with the boom in grocery delivery services that has taken hold since the pandemic hit, some purveyors... View full entry
Amazon is shelling out $1.15 billion in cash to acquire the former Lord & Taylor flagship in Midtown Manhattan, The Post has learned.
The Fifth Avenue landmark, which spans 11 stories and 660,000 square feet, will serve as Amazon’s New York City headquarters, housing several thousand employees in the coming years.
— The New York Post
According to The Post, the building had been initially been leased by WeWork to become the company's’s own headquarters, but after a series of scandals last fall, the plans fell through. Amazon will pay of $750 million of the remaining construction loan WeWork had obtained to renovate... View full entry
