Redesign, redeploy, and re-envision urban corporate headquarters : Amazon's Seattle campus case study

Abstract

Corporate headquarters have tremendous impacts on cities and the built environment. As companies expand, downsize, and adapt through the business cycles and industry transformations, the size of corporate workforce and real estate holdings are in constant flux, resulting in a dynamic urban system that continues to shape and reshape physical planning and urban morphologies of cities. This thesis focuses on corporate headquarters in an urban environment where the main campus is physically located in the downtown core or near the central business district. Using Amazon campus in Seattle as a case study, the research investigates past experiences in adaptive reuse of signature corporate headquarters in the US, explores Amazon growth and its impacts on urbanism, and develops a custom-built app that visualizes Amazon-occupied office space in Seattle to inform re-tenant and real estate disposition strategies in a futuristic scenario where Amazon shifts the activity center away from the downtown area. Local and regional planning agencies could potentially use this research as a framework for future economic resilience planning initiatives and dialogues.