April 3, 2024

A closer look at West Main, Amazon's new home in Bellevue

Photos by Benjamin Benschneider [enlarge]

West Main comprises three mixed-use office towers of varying size.

Amazon employees in February moved into a new office tower at developer Vulcan Real Estate's West Main project in Bellevue's Central Business District.

West Main is one of the most anticipated new developments to open on the Eastside in 2024.

The handsome project is spread across a 4-acre site and occupies half of a downtown block at 117 106th Ave. N.E. It comprises three mixed-use office towers of varying heights and sizes, with 1,030,000 square feet of class A office space and 34,000 square feet of street-level retail distributed between them.

The towers are knit together by nearly 80,000 square feet of open space anchored by a 23,000-square-foot public plaza and through-block connection. The project scope also included 1,800 linear feet of right-of-way improvements, including a protected bike lane at Main Street.

West Main has parking for over 2,200 vehicles.

AMAZON'S NEW HOME

Amazon leases all three towers at the development but announced in 2022 that it would only be occupying one of them.

That tower, which the company has dubbed Dynamo, is 17 stories and 318,000 square feet.

Amazon's new office in the tower has over 300,000 square feet of office and collaboration space for more than 1,500 employees working across various teams. Those include AWS Database, Machine Learning, AI, Compute, and Networking teams.

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Amazon occupies 300,000 square feet of office and collaboration space at Tower I. It will sublease the other two towers.

The modern office offers a variety of working options and spaces for employees including informal meeting areas for small group discussions, white boarding areas for in-depth problem solving, focus rooms for heads-down writing or coding, and couch and living room setups for team discussions.

The tower's second floor has a grab ‘n' go market with more seating options.

A TALE OF THREE TOWERS

West Main's second tower is 16 stories and 341,000 square feet. The third is 17 stories and 325,500 square feet. Those have been finished to their shell and core.

West Main's confirmed retail tenants are Peruvian restaurant La Mar Cebichería Peruana, from renowned chef and restaurateur Gastón Acurio, and self-serve taproom Tapster.

La Mar, which currently has 8 locations worldwide, will occupy 10,000 square feet on the ground level of the Dynamo tower (Tower I) and should open this year.

Tapster has leased 3,200 square feet in the development's northernmost tower (Tower III) and should also open this year.

Vulcan tapped Seattle-based firm's Graphite Design Group, and Compton Design Office, to design West Main. GLY Construction of Bellevue was the general contractor.

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West Main’s towers are connected via a public plaza and landscaped through-block connection.

Construction began in 2020 and was substantially completed by quarter three of 2023.

Gensler designed the interiors for Amazon at Dynamo.

Graphite Design Group told the DJC that while each tower is unique, “they are all variants of an offset core design that maximizes planning flexibility on typical floors.” Floorplates range between 20,030 and 20,400 square feet. The lower floors (levels 1 and 2) are larger and designed to accommodate unique office program areas and shared amenity spaces.

The exterior expression of each tower is also consciously different. Each features a unique flow pattern across the perimeter facade that changes shape as the light shifts throughout the day. Graphite says this design element is intended to “represent the historical streambeds that once flowed across the site en route to Lake Washington.”

A PUBLIC AND PRIVATE DESTINATION

West Main is the latest in a storied list of projects for Graphite and Vulcan. The duo has worked together on over ten buildings for tech companies in downtown Seattle. West Main marks their first project on the Eastside.

Graphite shared that it was imperative that the project's design reflected the suburban feel of Bellevue and its downtown. The vision was to create both a destination for employees - that would prove to be an attractive pull back to the office - and for the broader community.

In addition to the retail options, a big draw of West Main is its extensive and vibrant outside spaces. Those were crafted by landscape architecture firm GGN and incorporate an abundance of native Northwest plants.

New public art plays a vital role in enriching West Main's public-facing elements and aims to attract the broader community to the development and its businesses.

Local artists Julian Watts and Iván Carmona have each created custom artwork for the project.

Watts' work, called ‘Groves and Stones', is a multi-piece installation inspired by the Pacific Northwest's boulders, mountains, and trees. It comprises sculptures of soft, organic forms that provide a nice complement to the angular architecture of West Main's towers. Groves and Stones is intended to be touched and sat upon and fully enjoyed by the community.

Carmona’s work is called ‘De Sol a Sol’, which translates to “from sunrise to sunset” and pays homage to the Jíbaro, the contemporary stewards of Puerto Rico’s agricultural tradition. The sculpture is an abstracted representation of a Jíbaro and serves as an embracing symbol at the main entrance to West Main.

With the move-in at West Main, Amazon now occupies nine office buildings across Bellevue.