DNA In VA? Amazon's New ‘HQ2’ In Virginia To Be Helix-Shaped Tower
Amazon will construct a unique helix-shaped tower for its second headquarters in Virginia, and it will have an outdoor "mountain" that visitors can hike on the weekends.
The Arlington County Board approved the 350-foot-tall building on Saturday. The building was designed by the architectural firm NBBJ, and it has been approved by the board unanimously.
It will be the focal point of Amazon's planned $2.5 billion campus, which will be located just across the Potomac River from Washington, DC.
While the District of Columbia prohibits skyscrapers, Amazon's tower will become one of the highest structures in neighboring Arlington County.
From certain views in the area, the helix will visually rival the Washington Monument in dominance.
The helix has a spiral hike around its façade with trees, and tourists will be able to follow a meandering outdoor ramp around the building's edge to its peak.
Amazon first unveiled a mockup of the building in February 2021. It's one of a number of large offices that the web company will build on the site.
When it's done (by 2025), around 25,000 people will be able to live and work there.
In addition, there will be a separate park, as well as a high school for the community, and a lot of shops.
Amazon has said that the Helix will have its own artist in residence, as well as a place for the people who work there to meet and work together.
The worldwide headquarters of the online powerhouse is in Washington. Now, Virginia is expected to become Amazon's second most important US location.
In late 2018, Amazon had announced that New York City had been chosen as the site for its second headquarters. It had planned to open a huge new base on Long Island City in Queens, across the East River from Midtown Manhattan.
That caused a lot of anger from the cities the company turned down. They were angry that a city that already had a lot of jobs got another multinational company.
Many New Yorkers were also upset and feared Amazon's arrival would cause an even bigger spike in the city's extraordinarily high cost of living. Some progressive lawmakers, such as U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, feared that the new HQ would make it hard for poorer people to live there.
During an announcement on Valentine's Day in 2019, the company said it was giving up on its plan to build a new headquarters in New York City. Instead, it was going to work on its Arlington site.
