Amazon.com

Freshwater Aquarium Tank for The Spheres

Rainforest Aquarium and Arboretum

OPPORTUNITIES

Perhaps no company defines the dot-com era quite like Amazon.com, the online bookseller that become an e-commerce behemoth. From worldwide retail and grocery delivery to cloud data storage, Amazon both supports and defines a modern way of life. Within Amazon.com headquarters in Seattle, WA, employees advance technology and scale to new levels, and the company wished to create a calming and reflective environment as conducive to creativity as possible.

The Amazon Spheres, three glass-domed conservatories, were designed to do so. Within their clear pentagonal panels, Amazon teams work, lounge  and explore the exhibits throughout the complex—including over 40,000 plants from 50 countries clustered into Old World and New World displays—and shoals of freshwater fish.

By choosing to build an indoor aquarium environment visible to the outside world Amazon made a statement about their company, their vision, their values. And because this project required an unprecedented level of experience, expertise, and creativity, they made a clear choice for their aquatic environment builder: Tenji.

CHALLENGES

  • The variety of tropical plants and fish in the displays demanded animal husbandry expertise and aquatic engineering know-how. The LSS would need to be carefully designed to fit the limited space and easily accessed to make servicing the system as simple as possible.
  • Because of the quiet ambiance of the space, the filtration system and water noise needed to be as quiet as possible (or something like that about making the system quiet as a design criteria).
  • Tenji’s in-house engineering and construction departments would need to fabricate the tanks in the exact, complicated, and custom shapes specified by Amazon’s interior designers.
  • Our aquatic engineers would also need to meet Seattle’s seismic zone requirements as well as AZA standards for animal husbandry.
  • Coordinating the construction and installation of each exhibit with the many other teams involved was critical. Extensive and highly specialized pre-construction capabilities and a top-notch traveling team were key to this collaboration.

THE TENJI TOUCH

  • Tenji engineered a powerful yet easy-to-use filtration system completely contained within each tank’s custom footprint. Our specialists made sure that this powerful LSS was practically invisible yet easily accessible for cleaning and maintenance.
  • The system supports a wide variety of aquatic plants, allowing maintenance teams to calibrate the right amount of fertilization and CO2 for each species.
  • Tenji achieved a rarified level of artistry and sophistication in this build. Our Rapid Design Process (RDP) and extensive knowledge and experience allowed us to realize the vision of a talented team of architects and designers without compromise—on time and on budget.

Every day, Amazon.com leverages its staggering size and reach to meet the specific needs of millions of individual customers. To do this takes tenji. And it took the best of the Tenji team to build the stunning living walls and abundant tropical aquariums housed within the Spheres. We are proud to have played a part in creating such a powerful point of interest in the Seattle cityscape.