What do you do if you are a multi-trillion dollar company looking to make a splash and be memorable as you launch an East Coast headquarters as your second corporate home?
In the case of Amazon, you build an office tower called the Helix, which has a spiral design and features a walkable ramp wrapping around the outside of the building with greenery designed into it to resemble a mountain hike.
Why the heck would they build something so umm, odd? Amazon wants people inside the building to “connect with nature,” The outdoor mountain climb up the tower is a real thing and will be open to the public on weekends (and most likely be unofficially open to drunk idiots on Friday nights). The complex will also accommodate a community high school as well as retail on the street level.
This is all happening in Arlington. County Virginia and the building will go up in Arlington, the city that won the battle to become Amazon’s second home. If officials had seen a preliminary sketch of this building, you wonder if city leaders would have maybe said, “Minneapolis, you go ahead and have this.”
The planning commission eventually voted 9-0 in favor of the project, and it will stand out in the Arlington skyline, 350 high. The complex will be home to 25,000 workers when it is completed.
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