Amazon's New Headquarters

[CityView Jim]

This was all settled. West Marine is up and operational at their new location on Westlake.

[CityView Jim]

Looks like they are finally adding those last two floors to the tall building (Phase IV) after a month of doing the first 9 or so. Yeah! I thought they might have downsized it or something.

[CityView Jim]

Here's the latest on the Mercer Mess. Big bucks awarded!

http://blog.seattlepi.com/transporta...ves/194787.asp

[Seasun]

Yesterday I walked the block with the large plaza that was recently opened to the public. This seems like the main outdoor gathering space for the campus. It has a mosaic art piece on the wall (looks like a book opened up or a seagull). Very nice space.

[CityView Jim]

City rep emailed me that demolition work begins next week of these buildings:

1120 Mercer St. (old Lincoln Towing)
1123 Valley St. (old Sport Boat NW)
613 Fairview Ave. N. (old Pong building)
1104 Mercer St. (old Taco Del Mar)
601 Boren Ave. N (old Shell station)
1000 Mercer St. (old West Marine)
800/816 Mercer St. (located at Mercer and Broad St.)
601 Westlake Ave. N. (parking garage at McKay site)

[CityView Jim]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...mercer19m.html

[CrazyAboutCities]

I didn't know Mercer Mess have been going on since 70's. It took City of Seattle more than three decades to fix this mess! I know that City of Seattle have been working on this project for really long time. When did City of Seattle realize that Mercer Mess need to be improved?

[RMacherat]

Originally Posted by CrazyAboutCities

I didn't know Mercer Mess have been going on since 70's. It took City of Seattle more than three decades to fix this mess! I know that City of Seattle have been working on this project for really long time. When did City of Seattle realize that Mercer Mess need to be improved?

I'd guess April 22, 1962. They would have realized it the day before, but everyone was giddy from all the Century 21 celebrations. Little did we all ever imagine - it would be the 21st century before we got around to fixing the danged street.

[CityView Jim]

Cladding on the tall tower is up to about the 3rd floor. This one's moving along quickly! The rest of the campus is looking nice. Walked through the area. I really had no idea how many little cafes and restaurants there were in the SLU area. And they were all full on a Saturday morning! Where'd they come from?

[Capitol Hill]

Originally Posted by CrazyAboutCities

I didn't know Mercer Mess have been going on since 70's. It took City of Seattle more than three decades to fix this mess! I know that City of Seattle have been working on this project for really long time. When did City of Seattle realize that Mercer Mess need to be improved?

http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm...m&file_id=3156

This explains some of the history.

[CrazyAboutCities]

That's interesting information. Thanks for the link!

[CityView Jim]

Tom Douglas moving into the campus next summer. Posted the story in the Retail Thread.

Cladding on Phase IV is up to the 4th floor! Looking boring as the renderings!

[Sorian]

Agreed, while the new Amazon.com buildings aren't exactly premiere architecture, the area as a whole will be very nice once complete. Here are some picture of the campus I took two weeks ago (meant to upload them then but I couldn't find the time).

Phase IA


Phase IB


Phase II


Phase III


Phase IV


The Phase V site has already been largely demolished but is currently occupied by construction trailers. If I recall, there was an article in the Seattle Times fairly recently that said that construction on the Phase V building had been delayed until January 2011. There are more pictures on on photobucket page (just joined).

http://s963.photobucket.com/home/Ianofrisen

[meku]

I've been meaning to take a walk around SLU with my camera, so thanks for posting those !

Looks very generic but somehow not too bad. Phase IV and V are the most interesting in my opinion.

[alexjonlin]

That building in IB does have kind of a kind of interesting facade. Hopefully there will be plenty of retail and street life, that's what really matters in my opinion.

[CityView Jim]

Here's the Mercer Expansion demolition progress from what I've seen. All properties are fenced off:

1120 Mercer St. (old Lincoln Towing) LEVELED
1123 Valley St. (old Sport Boat NW)
613 Fairview Ave. N. (old Pong building)
1104 Mercer St. (old Taco Del Mar)
601 Boren Ave. N (old Shell station) LEVELED
1000 Mercer St. (old West Marine)
800/816 Mercer St. (located at Mercer and Broad St.)
601 Westlake Ave. N. (parking garage at McKay site)

Further updates to follow!

[just4ivaylo]

Nice buildings! I just ordered a ton of stuff for my AP tests in May from Amazon. I hope they ship 'em fast.

Random question: how big is this company really?

[BoulderGrad]

Originally Posted by just4ivaylo

Random question: how big is this company really?

By what measure?

These are the stats of Wikipedia:
Type Public (NASDAQ: AMZN)
Founded 1994
Founder Jeffrey P. Bezos
Headquarters Seattle, Washington
Area served Worldwide
Key people Jeffrey P. Bezos
Chairman, CEO, & President
Industry Retail
Products Amazon.com
A9.com
Alexa Internet
IMDb
Kindle
Amazon Web Services
dpreview.com
Javari.co.uk
Revenue ▲ US$ 24.509 billion (2009)
Operating income ▲ US$ 1.129 billion (2009)
Net income ▲ US$ 902 million (2009)
Employees 20,700 (2009)[1]
Website Amazon.com
Alexa rank 19[2]
Type of site e-commerce
Advertising web banners and videos
Available in English, Japanese, German, French, & Chinese
Launched 1995

[CityView Jim]

I was trying to find out how many of the employees work in Seattle but couldn't find it. I'll keep looking though! Curious what the add to SLU will be!!

[mhays]

In the US, office space averages 250 sf per person.

That's just a rule of thumb. Evidence points to the number falling.

Also, it varies by type. Executive offices tend to be larger. Call centers pack people in, sometimes averaging less than 100 sf including common areas.