Nobody dropped the tech industry’s tried and true “fail fast” mantra, but during a tour Wednesday of Amazon’s newly opened Sonic office tower in Bellevue, Wash., the theme was definitely about experimenting, learning and evolving.
And that’s not in relation to new products or services. It’s about how the people who make those things will actually work and interact with one another in a space that’s a testing ground of sorts.
Despite a pause in construction that’s impacting Amazon’s ambitious growth plans in Bellevue, the 42-story skyscraper rises to be the tallest building in the city. It looks like it could have been plucked from the tech giant’s headquarters campus across Lake Washington in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood. Amazon’s three towers near The Spheres share a similar look, and Sonic is no different.
It’s inside where the company has shifted the thinking a bit, moving away from the idea that all communal space needs to be concentrated near the bottom of a building. Instead, Amazon has dispersed so-called “Centers of Energy” to a few different floors.
“We’re learning that employees are working a little bit differently than before,” said Gina Klem, an Amazon global real estate and facilities director.
Klem admitted that Amazon’s return to office, in which the company has asked its corporate and tech employees to be in the office at least three days a week, has been “an adjustment.” She’s focused on what types of spaces Amazon can deliver for how people are working after being gone for three years of the pandemic.
“What we are hearing is enthusiasm in the ability to connect and collaborate with one another, and in the different types of spaces for the different types of work,” Klem said.
Those spaces rely on a myriad of buzzwords, including lounges, breakout spaces, meeting rooms, focus spaces, communal centers, team suites, head-down spaces and more.
And there was another familiar term that came up: home.
“I think we tried to lean in and make it feel a little bit more like home maybe than it had in the past, so it’s a comfortable place,” said Steve Erickson, principal at the architecture firm SABA+BA, who helped lead Wednesday’s tour.
Plants are definitely homey, and Amazon has plenty of its signature horticultural touches throughout the building, mimicking the look of The Spheres and Climate Pledge Arena and other spaces.
There is also lots of artwork, colorful hallways, wood accents, modern lighting and furniture, and coffee bars and eateries throughout.
And there are views. At 600 feet, the building is currently the tallest in Bellevue, and from a 32nd floor communal space, employees and visitors can easily gaze south at Mount Rainier.
At the ground level, building owner Vulcan Real Estate is leasing 21,000 square feet of retail space to Pinstripes, an Italian-American bistro with bocce and bowling.
The building, at 555 108th Ave. N.E., isn’t finished though. While the exterior has been completed, Amazon has only built out about half of the interior of Sonic — roughly 450,000 square feet — up to the 19th floor. It’s waiting to proceed with the remaining buildout, and the testing of different layouts and work modes will give the company the opportunity to learn and adjust along the way. There’s no timeframe for when it will be fully completed.
Sonic (previously referred to as 555 Tower) is part of Amazon’s big push to grow in Bellevue, where the company has said it plans to put 25,000 workers across various buildings in the city, matching the headcount it plans for HQ2 in Arlington, Va.
But the pace of that growth slowed as Amazon paused construction to get a better idea of what impact hybrid work would have on its need for office space. Other buildings include Dynamo (West Main) Tower One, which will be the next to open; Bellevue 600, where the core of one tower is currently rising and another tower is paused; and The Artise, where construction is also paused.
Amazon employs roughly 65,000 people in the Seattle area in corporate operations, including 10,000 in Bellevue. Sonic is currently home to 1,000 workers primarily from operations support and technology.
Like most Amazon buildings, the name has a backstory. Klem said Sonic was the code name for when Amazon was launching Prime Now delivery in Canada and France.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to accurately reflect the number of Amazon employees in the Seattle area.
Keep scrolling for more images from GeekWire’s tour of the building:
