A first look inside

摘要

The building on South 76th Avenue in the Seattle suburb of Kent, Washington, blends into a neighborhood of light industrial facilities and warehouses, including a large fulfillment center for Amazon.com. The company name isn't visible from the street, just a sign displaying its address. The interior, however, is a different story. Guests, like those of us on the company's first-ever media tour, are ushered into a lobby that is home to an eclectic collection of space and science fiction artifacts: a giant model of the starship Enterprise from the Star Trek movies, a much smaller model of the ill-fated X-33, and a Russian Sokol pressure suit. Take away the space collectibles and the facility might still pass as one belonging to a generic tech company. There are open-plan offices, employees walking the halls with their dogs, and a large lounge with a "communal coffee pot," as company founder Jeff Bezos put it, to encourage people working in different areas to interact.