Commentary: Navigating the Amazon System

In addition to its 11-building complex in the South Lake Union neighborhood, Amazon is planning to build a new headquarters campus in downtown Seattle to consolidate the companys currently scattered operations into the three-block Denny Triangle bordered by Sixth Avenue, Blanchard Street and Westlake Avenue.

The 3.3 million square feet of Amazons new headquarters include three 37-story towers, an auditorium, retail space and several shorter, six-story buildings. It has a diversity of open space, landscaping and significant green area on each block that has access to natural light on the ground and is open to the public.

From a feng shui perspective, balance of form within the environment is an important factor in creating the harmony of a business. The Denny block, triangular in shape, is generally a challenge for any design. However, the proposed Amazon campus has good balance between the buildings and negative space, blending well with the downtown skyline and urban fabric.

Both traditional architecture and feng shui use the three criteria of function, economy and aesthetics to evaluate a building. While traditional architecture regards a building as merely a physical body, from a feng shui perspective, it is also an energy body and information carrier. This energy body is called the chi-energy aspect, which is analyzed through the form of the space. In feng shui, we say, Form defines energy, and, Holistic form manifests holistic energy. With this consideration, the whole form of the Amazon complex does have holistic form. Also, the three high-rise towers, square or rectangular, provide stable energy.

Communication Problem? Amazon’s three-tower downtown campus will provide 3.3 million square feet of office/retail space.

Seattle is proudly surrounded by a picturesque landscape. Unfortunately, there are few buildings we can feel proud of. The citys skyline has been jammed by unsightly buildings such as the spoiled Rainier Tower, the Columbia Tower, the black Darth Vader (Fourth and Blanchard) Building that further darkens the already gray Seattle sky, the Experience Music Projectarguably one of the ugliest buildings in the worldand the new Seattle Public Library, the potato made into sculpture that is not in harmony and resonance with its surrounding buildings. All have been designed by nonlocal architects. It is finally a relief that with the Amazon headquarters, we have a Seattle-based company, NBBJ, doing a decent job in designing the Denny Triangle complex.

However, the new Amazon headquarters design is not without a flaw. The positioning of the three high-rise towers does not demonstrate good coordination. The tower between Seventh Avenue and Eighth Avenue is at a tilted angle, looking away from the other two towers. This position does not provide for good communication. Form defines energy; energy manifests information. This uncoordinated form, from an information level, implies that while Amazon presents a certain image to the general public, on the executive level it has already looked toward other directions.

Amazon is a somewhat secretive company. On the exterior of its campus in the Seattle South Lake Union neighborhood are few signs of the company logo. Upon completion of the new buildings, especially with one tower facing a different direction, we may never know what is in Jeff Bezos mind and what will be his next move.

UPDATE: After this column was published, Amazon announced a revision of the originally proposed headquarters plan, replacing a low-story rectangular building (below, left) with a three-sphere dome arrangement (below, right) in trying to create a naturalistic working environment. It proposes to bring in plants from all over the world in this enclosed structure.

From a feng shui perspective, the outer form, compared to disasters like EMP and the Seattle Public Library, is relatively holistic. However, the overzealous effort to create this enclosed natural environment actually does not follow natural principles of simple, easy and economical. In due time, Amazon might find it will be overburdened by unexpected negative consequences. Regardless of the intention of creating a naturalistic environment, its important to remember an office environment is not a conservatory or a park. It will not fulfill the original intention.

SHAN-TUNG HSU runs the Blue Mountain Feng Shui Institute in Bellevue. Reach him at [email protected] or 206.523.3946.