Amazon Spheres, Glass conservatory at South Lake Union, Seattle, US
Amazon Spheres is a set of three intersecting spherical conservatories on Lenora Street between 6th and 7th Avenues in Seattle's Denny Triangle, beside the Day 1 building. The domes, 80 to 95 feet tall, are clad in pentagonal hexecontahedron glass panels on a white steel frame; the central sphere is the largest, four stories tall.
The architecture firm NBBJ designed the glass structure as part of a major company headquarters, and the facility opened its doors in late January 2018. Construction took several years and brought a new kind of work environment to the urban neighborhood.
The media nicknamed the complex "Bezos' balls", and it has been compared to the Space Needle as a futuristic Seattle landmark. The domes are split into Old World and New World sections, with the western and eastern spheres holding plants from Africa and Southeast Asia on one side and Central and South America on the other. A 55-foot Ficus rubiginosa nicknamed "Rubi" was lifted in by crane in June 2017.
Public entry is through weekly guided tours of the Amazon headquarters campus and a twice-monthly weekend reservation program; the ground-floor Understory exhibit sits below the spheres. Inside, daytime conditions are held at 72 °F (22 °C) and 60 percent humidity, so light clothing suits a visit.
The largest tree inside is a 55-foot Ficus rubiginosa nicknamed "Rubi", lifted in by crane in June 2017. A corpse flower named "Morticia" bloomed for 48 hours in October 2018 and drew 5,000 visitors when Amazon opened the Spheres for limited public viewing.
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