SEATTLE (KCPQ/CNN) – Amazon doesn’t do anything small.
The online retailing giant opened a new and very unique workspace in downtown Seattle this week.
It’s called Amazon Spheres. It’s probably nothing like where you work.
Inside there are 40,000 plants and 400 different types of species from five continents and 50 countries.
Leave it to Amazon to create their own Amazon-like workspace, a mini rainforest.
"It's primarily an office space for Amazon employees,” said John Schoettler, a vice president for Amazon. “A place for them to come and collaborate and innovate with other co-workers."
The largest plant is a 55-foot fichus tree called "Rubi.” It was first planted in California in 1969 and moved to Amazon Spheres over the summer.
The Amazon horticulturist gets a case of the tingles every time he walks through.
"I'm still inspired,” Ron Gagliard said. “I walk by those terrarium boxes upstairs with the begonias … and go, ‘how did this happen?’"
The Spheres are very free-form with no cubicles or desks.
There’s just a lot room for people to work in nature and hopefully inspire the next big idea or solution.
"We wanted to give it a spirit, a soul, a center for Amazon and for the city to rally around,” said the project’s lead architect David Sadinsky.
Enclosing that spirit and soul is 620 tons of steel, 12 million pounds of concrete and more than 2,600 panes of glass.
While Amazon workers get to see it every day, outsiders can get a peak too.
There’s a sign-up list on the Amazon headquarters tours website.
But, be warned, public tours of the spheres are booked all the way to June.
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