Amazon’s second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia composes a highly sustainable campus that has transformed an underutilized urban space into a beloved neighborhood destination. Emphatically integrated within its context, the campus fosters collaboration and innovation for its employees as it enhances quality of life in surrounding communities.

With a focus on social engagement and stewardship, Field Operations was tapped to lead the design of the project’s public realm, which includes the Eads Street Linear Park, the 5-acre Met Park, multiple streetscapes, and 19 building terraces. Opening in June 2023, the project successfully moved from public planning to construction in less than 3 years.

Metropolitan Park is organized by a central meandering path, which connects its most active urban edges and terminates at locations closest to public transit. Drawing inspiration from Virginia’s native landscapes and physiographic features, the path is a conceptual “fall line,” separating rocky and topographically dynamic “piedmont forests” from a much more expansive “coastal plain.” Each area is carefully calibrated to support both ecological function and social connection.

The “Forest Walk” is a place of shade, intimacy, and discovery. Public art installations delight and surprise along the journey to a dramatic overlook at the park’s highest point. In view is the park’s Central Green, a flexible space scaled to accommodate everything from picnic lunches to community festivals for thousands of attendees. Furthermore, the Woodland Playground provides areas for caregivers and children aged 2-5 and 5-12.

At the footsteps of the new office towers, the “Coastal Plain” gardens, full of native plants, attract butterflies and other pollinators, and provide a backdrop to collaboration spaces used by office workers and residents alike. Nearby, dog runs are also beloved by locals and visitors. The park’s integration of nature extends to productive landscapes with a Community Garden that features native edible species.

At the park’s edges, what was previously a narrow sidewalk along a four-lane arterial has become a vibrant multi-modal corridor and linear park. This Complete Street design integrates protected bike lanes, enhanced pedestrian crossings, and a series of garden rooms that create intimate social spaces adjacent to retail frontages.

The Terraces are an outdoor collection of Virginia gardens that host outdoor work and social spaces. Field Operations used the concept of collections as an opportunity to tell a story about Amazon as a global company, one about conservation and science, ingenuity, and the power of connecting people with nature. Together they compose a new outdoor collection, a series of Virginia-specific gardens that host social spaces and amenities to inspire collaboration and innovation. Combined with plants as tools, the terraces tell the story of summiting a Virginia mountain while functionally introducing native mountaintop plants adapted to sun, wind, and shallow soils one finds on urban rooftops.

In all aspects of the project, Field Operations biophilic design emphasizes the critical role nature can play in defining a place and its history while strengthening collective health and well-being.

• Other landscape architecture offices involved in the design of the landscape:
Field Operations

• Architecture offices involved in the design:
ZGF Architects

• Other credits:
Client: Amazon
Owner’s Consultant: Seneca Group
Development Manager: JBG Smith Properties
Civil Engineer: VIKA Inc.
Code & Accessibility Consultant: Arup
Lighting Design: Fisher Marantz Stone
MEP Engineering: GHT Limited
Structural Engineering: Thornton Tomasetti
Wayfinding Consultant: RSM Design
Playground Consultant: Earthscape
Soils, Irrigation & Water Harvesting and Reuse: Jeffrey L. Bruce & Company
Horticulture Consultant: Bill McLaughlin
Play Safety Consultant: Abundant Playscapes
Accessibility Specialist: Studio Pacifica
Telecom: Hargis
Security: Zbeta
Sustainability Consultant: Palladino
General Contractor: Clark Construction
Landscape Subcontractors (Terraces): Ruppert Landscape
Landscape Subcontractors (Park): BrightView Landscape

Arlington, Virginia, USA