Visite audio de Seattle : Échos de chefs, de tours et d'innovation

Arrêts de ce tour

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   Buste de Mark A. Matthews
   Look for a tall, light-colored stone pedestal with a bronze bust of a serious-looking man gazing into the distance-the statue stands proudly in the open, surrounded by grass and…Lire plusAfficher moins

   Look for a tall, light-colored stone pedestal with a bronze bust of a serious-looking man gazing into the distance-the statue stands proudly in the open, surrounded by grass and trees in Denny Park. Welcome to your first stop! Take a look at that bronze bust sitting on a tall pedestal-if he seems to be staring wisely into the Seattle sky, you’ve found Dr. Mark A. Matthews. Back in 1941, artist Alonzo Victor Lewis gave us this rather regal depiction, and he didn’t forget to leave his signature touch on the back. Mark Matthews wasn’t your average preacher; he was a mover and shaker, a man whose sermons could stir up a crowd and whose dedication to helping others was legendary. Imagine him walking right here among the trees, his coat tails swishing, determined to make Seattle a more just city, one fiery speech at a time. People called him a friend of man, and not just because he was good at potlucks-he helped the poor, fought corruption, and spoke up when others stayed silent. In 1942, the city honored him with this memorial, so next time you hear a pigeon coo, imagine it’s Mark trying to give you a little advice from above. And if the statue looks a bit weathered, well, it’s just proof he’s been standing watch over the park for a long time. Don’t forget to admire that inscription-a little thank you from Seattle to one of its true reformers!

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   Re:Invent
   Up ahead, you’ll see a towering glass skyscraper with a sleek, dark façade and rows of bright, evenly spaced windows-just glance straight ahead and look for the tallest high-rise…Lire plusAfficher moins

   Up ahead, you’ll see a towering glass skyscraper with a sleek, dark façade and rows of bright, evenly spaced windows-just glance straight ahead and look for the tallest high-rise surrounded by other modern buildings and a busy street below. Welcome to Re:Invent-Seattle’s own urban giant! Right now, you’re standing at the feet of a true wonder of modern ambition, a 37-story high-rise that almost scrapes the clouds. But can you believe that just a few years back, this wasn’t a hub of high-tech hustle, but instead a place where shiny new Toyotas used to nap under showroom lights? Imagine the roar of engines and the shuffle of car keys, not starched shirts and laptops! When the dealership finally rolled south to SoDo, the old building had one last trick up its sleeve: it began buzzing with Amazon Prime Now deliveries. Picture a flurry of goods, all destined for doorsteps, zipping out from here before the final curtain fell-or, should I say, the final “Prime box” shipped. But all good things must transition, and in 2016, the plot revved up again! Concrete mixers and construction hats descended, raising this tower skyward over Seattle’s Denny Triangle. By June 2019, Re:Invent opened its doors, glittering with possibility and-let’s face it-great coffee. It was named for Amazon’s famous cloud conference, so the building houses over 5,000 employees, mostly cloud gurus who probably dream in binary code. Below their workspace, ground-level storefronts tempt you in: an Amazon 4-star store with only the best-rated gadgets and gizmos, unique gifts from Glassybaby, and vinyl treasures from Sub Pop’s record store. There’s even a plaza out front, where fountains dance and a bronze sculpture by Gerard Tsutakawa waits for you to spin a story of your own. Plans for a bustling food hall were dashed by the pandemic, but in 2024, art lovers will get their due, as the Gage Academy of Art brings a creative wave to the ground floor. So stand tall with Re:Invent, where every level is packed with stories-and probably a few secrets from Amazon’s legendary brainstorming sessions!

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   Amazon Spheres
   Look just ahead-those giant, glimmering glass bubbles rising out of the city like something from the future-those are the Amazon Spheres, impossible to miss with their geometric…Lire plusAfficher moins

   Look just ahead-those giant, glimmering glass bubbles rising out of the city like something from the future-those are the Amazon Spheres, impossible to miss with their geometric panels sparkling beneath the skyline. Welcome to the Amazon Spheres, Seattle’s very own crystal jungle! Imagine three massive glass globes, each one packed to the brim with lush, living greenery-right here in the middle of the city. It’s like if a greenhouse went on a sci-fi adventure and landed in the tech capital of the Northwest. Walk a little closer and you might almost expect to hear the soft rustle of leaves, or catch the mysterious aroma of a rare rainforest flower wafting onto Lenora Street. Back in the early 2010s, Seattle was buzzing: Amazon, the tech giant that seems to have a finger in every pie, was dreaming big. Instead of boxy, bland office blocks, the designers imagined something radical. What if office workers could stroll among 40,000 plants from 50 countries, have meetings by a living wall brimming with 25,000 plants, or brainstorm next to a tree named Rubi reaching nearly 60 feet tall? And so, with plans by the architects at NBBJ and crazy plant-building dreams from Site Workshop, these gleaming domes rose from the pavement. Just picture the sound of steel beams being lifted and welded in place as the Spheres started to take shape in 2016. Each sphere is made up of 2,600 glass panels jigsawed together in five-sided patterns-like the world’s most complicated soccer ball, except this one houses meetings with the boss instead of game-day goals. Kind of gives a new meaning to “thinking outside the box,” don’t you think? The largest dome towers as high as a four-story building, with winding stairways, cozy nooks, and tables where up to 800 people could hang out. There’s a cafeteria, elevators (nature’s not always ADA-compliant), and a gigantic living wall where carnivorous plants await their next bug-sized meal. Now, humor me for a moment: local wits call these “Bezos’ balls,” and the Spheres have become almost as much of a Seattle icon as the Space Needle-maybe because they look straight out of a 21st-century world’s fair. That sense of “future-forward” is no accident: the design pulls in ideas from biophilic architecture, trying to make people feel happier and healthier just by being around, well, a ton of really cool plants. Here’s a secret twist: every plant inside was grown over three years at a super-secret greenhouse in Redmond. Some plants are even on loan to university botanists-so you can literally say there’s science in the air! Stepping inside feels like a different world: there’s the constant warm humidity (kept at a rainforest-perfect 72 degrees), glimpses of dazzling blooms, even a few feisty corpse flowers with names like Morticia and Bellatrix. When those rare giants bloomed, the city lined up around the block to get a whiff-though I’ll warn you, a corpse flower smells more like old socks than roses. Think how tense those early days must’ve been: will the reviewers love it or hate it? Some locals were iffy, not sure about the energy use or the fact that you need a reservation for public tours. But when the Spheres finally opened on January 30, 2018-complete with a ribbon-cutting Alexa command from Jeff Bezos himself-they changed the skyline for good. Now, whether you’re an Amazon wizard or lucky enough to snag a tour, you’re seeing an office jungle where the sound of laptops blends with the calls of tropical birds (okay, not real birds… yet!). Welcome to Seattle’s urban rainforest-where a walk through the park takes place under glass!

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