BCBUSINESS NOVEMBER 2017 65
b y M i c h a e l M c C u l l o u g h / / p o r t r a i t b y A l a n a P a t e r s o n
TECH
DOWN
TOWN
will eat
In Vancouver and other major North
American cities, technoloy companies
are busy consuming oce space in
the central core. As this invasion
gathers speed, how will it change
the urban landscape?
A
long bustling Westlake Avenue, running up a gentle
incline from South Lake Union to the highrise heart
of Seattle, about half the lunch-hour pedestrians and
patrons sitting on café patios sport the distinctive blue
lanyard and badge of the Amazon.com Inc. employee.
The world's preeminent digital retailer and cloud ser-
vices provider employs more than 30,000 people
spread over 30 buildings here. And its presence is growing, in size
and visibility. Between two of its newest o€ce towers, Amazon
is building a glass-walled conservatory in the shape of giant golf
balls where employees will be able to hold meetings or just chill
out, surrounded by tropical foliage. What the company is doing
has generated so much curiosity that, in 2016, it began o†ering
public walking tours of select buildings twice a week.
