A picture with Seattle’s Space Needle easily identifies it as being a photo of Seattle. Another unique architectural feature in Seattle was completed in March of 2016, the Amazon Spheres. While it was not completed on the inside for almost two more years, the Spheres have become another recognizable symbol of Seattle and is worth visiting.
A trip to the top of the Space Needle will set one back as much as $37.50 per person. However, a visit to the Amazon Spheres will cost one nothing. That’s right, one can tour the Spheres for free, a gift to visitors from Amazon. (I think they can afford it) While a visit is free, getting tickets isn’t exactly a simple process. One has to be intentional to get them.
First know that the Spheres are only open to the public twice a month on the first and third Saturdays of any given month. Secondly be aware that Amazon limits the number of tickets, as well as the time, one hour. More on that later.
Tickets become available 15 days before the day of your visit. That would be a Friday two weeks before. I put that on my calendar to remind me to get tickets that day. On that Friday Amazon releases tickets every 15 minutes for the same time of your visit. In other words, if you want to start your visit at 12:00 noon those tickets would become available at 12:00 noon on that Friday. They release 90 tickets for each 15 minute period.
To get those tickets visit their website. Scroll down to “Book a Visit” and then click the time you want. The rest is pretty self explanatory. Morning tickets seem to go the quickest. When we went in December, the late afternoon tickets lingered the longest, and some were still available a few days before our visit. However, I would imagine that other times of the year that would not be true. Here’s a screen shot of the page when I got our tickets. The afternoon tickets had yet to be released, but you can see that the early 8:00 am tickets were already gone.
On the Saturday of our visit, we took the light rail down to the Westlake stop. It was a pretty easy 10 minute walk from there to the Spheres which lie between Sixth and Seventh. There is a plaza between the Spheres and the main Amazon building. During December they had some interesting swing seats people were exploring as they waited for their time slot. About a block farther north on Seventh one can also see the old Elephant Car Wash sign which is another iconic part of Seattle.
The venue were pretty strict about entering during your time slot. They let us in only a couple of minutes early. When you enter, you need an official ID for all adults as well as your booking information. Once checked in they will give you a sticker with a time on it. They expect you to wear this so they can tell if you have overstayed your one hour time limit. Not sure what happens if you do stay longer. We found that an hour was adequate although another 15 minutes would have been nice.
While the Spheres have interest as an architectural structure, inside the spheres it’s all about the plants. However the first thing you notice are the fish tanks.
Anyone with an interest in plants will love the Spheres. They created a tropical environment such that I shed my coat pretty quickly. It was nice and warm inside as well as humid. We could see misters going off from time to time adding moisture to the air. Of course this means the plants generally come from the tropical areas of the world.
There are three levels to the Sphere. On the first level the plants are mostly from South America. The center piece here is a tall tree that reaches nearly to the top of the Sphere. In fact they do prune it to keep it from growing too tall. The tree is quite old and came from California. They call the tree Ruby.
Underneath the canopy of Ruby, a couple of walkways wander through a wide selection of interesting plants. Not all of the plants are identified, but some of the more unusual plants do have identification tags on them.
The garden areas tend to be on the sides of the spheres. In the center are spaces for workers. The idea of the Spheres is that it provides a unique place for Amazon workers. They can come here to eat their lunch, chat with friends, or even do their work. There is a coffee shop on the second floor along with a room containing a large conference table for meetings.
The second floor is also the place for plants from Asia. These gardens seem to have more palm trees along with a variety of other plants. From the second floor one can also get a good view of the green wall which covers the elevator shafts and rest rooms. The wall goes all the way from the bottom to the top of the Spheres and is quite wide. Toward the top one can see places where it looks like the air is moved around. It’s quite impressive and reminds me of the green wall at Climate Pledge Arena which was also set up by Amazon. However, the one in the Spheres is much larger.
One unique feature on this floor is that over the plants from South American they created a wooden slat walkway/bridge that allows you to look down on the plants and paths below. Along the way there is a wooden circular space where one can gather with friends. I think it’s intended to be like a bird’s nest. It was a popular spot with visitors.
The third floor didn’t have a large plant section. Part of this is because the two other areas reach up to the top floor leaving less space for new plants. From here one can see the top of Ruby and look down through her branches to the spaces below. There was one area with a tree and at the base of the tree was an area of miniature cacti and other such plants. The variety they had there was quite interesting.
Another popular place on the third floor was a room which had loungers in it. I think this would also be a popular place for Amazon workers throughout the week, a place for a little nap.
The third floor also has the obligatory selfie place where the name of the Spheres was prominently displayed surrounded by green plants. We don’t normally have our picture taken in these types of places, but a woman asked Silvette to take her picture and then offered to take a picture of us, so we did.
From inside the sphere one occasionally notices the buildings surrounding it through the “skeleton” of the sphere. It’s also interesting to see the interior design of the stairs as well as even the lights. The top of the sphere is a fascinating point to observe from the third floor.
While there could be 360 guests in the Sphere at any one time, it didn’t feel particularly crowded. Among the guests you will find a number of hosts who are quite knowledgeable about the plants there. You can’t miss them in their flowery shirts. One of them told us the story of Ruby so feel free to engage them with questions.
All in all we found a visit to the Spheres to be quite an enjoyable experience. While there were only a few flowers in bloom, I would think visits at different times of the year would give different flowers or colors to see. The fact that it’s free to visit makes it an easy choice. However, the limited opportunities to visit make it a hit or miss option to share with out of town visitors.
Has anyone else had a chance to visit the Spheres? I’d love to hear your stories in the comment box below. Next week I will begin to share about our most recent trip to Europe. Be sure to join us as we brave the Christmas travel experience. See you then.
Really cool! Thanks! Have not been. Now I want to!
Hopefully you know what to do to get tickets. That’s the hardest part.