When we were meeting with Jeff,
talking about HQ2, he said to me, then
he goes, "John, I really want to make it difficult.
I really want it to be something that is so unique and has never been done before."
And it's just like raise the bar, and just dig in and do it.
- The Helix is based on a very simple
geometric form, a double helix.
We looked to that form because we saw
an opportunity to create a unique experience.
So I hope it comes alive with human activity.
(fast-paced violin and viola music)
- Today, more than 1600 Amazonians
are already in Arlington working at HQ2.
We've opened up a variety of buildings, 5 in total.
That is going to hold us until the first phase,
the Metropolitan Park phase, opens in 2023.
- Where we are right now
is we're on the northwest side of the Met Park site.
PenPlace is just across the street.
- Met Park and PenPlace
are literally next to one another.
It takes two minutes to walk from Met Park to PenPlace.
- We're going to have open green space, retail,
with the focus on local and small businesses.
We want to create opportunities for the local businesses here to grow along with Amazon.
- One thing that I am really excited about for HQ2,
is that it to enables us to take our
climate pledge to a whole new level.
(piano music)
As somebody that's worked in government for
pretty much my entire life, hearing that Amazon was
going to come to the Arlington area was
really a game changer.
- When I had the opportunity, I jumped on it.
Even though I was four months pregnant,
my husband and I moved across the country to be a
part of HQ2.
- Coming to a location that has so many different
colleges and universities,
it's really allowed us to diversify the types
of candidates that we're recruiting for.
With Amazon coming here, there's a new energy.
- Being purposeful about
integrating ourselves into the community and
doing it in the right way,
is kind of the long-term goal as well.
(piano music)
- You know, last year, we knew that lots of
restaurants were struggling, right? And you
know, we were trying to think of ways that we
could be most impactful.
We also knew and had heard a lot from front-line
workers who were really busy and
some of them weren't able to get out for lunches
or meals and so forth. And so what we were able
to do was to support Freddie and
support some other local restaurants in
providing 10,000 meals for front-line health
care workers, as well as first responders, as well
as our neighbors in need.
- You know, I grew up here.
I love this neighborhood.
I went to elementary school right up the hill.
We're not chain restaurants. We're
little mom-and-pop restaurants.
Everybody was suffering at the time
and when Amazon reached out, it was kind
of like a bright light at the end of the tunnel.
- We're really happy that we've been able to really
stitch ourselves into the fabric of this
community because it's what makes this a vibrant
place for not only us, but within this region.
- We invested 381 million dollars,
a combination of loans and grants, to be
able to make the Crystal House acquisition possible.
We are one of the first corporations
in the capital region to make such a major
investment in housing affordability.
And what's interesting about our commitment is
not just the size of the dollars,
we're investing in really interesting, very valued, very needed projects,
but also lending our voice to
the issue around housing affordability.
So Crystal House will be affordable for the next 99 years.
That means after I'm here, as my children are here,
that Crystal House will still be here as an asset for the community.
Our team is serious about making sure that we
have long term affordability.
These are not short-term commitments.
They really are commitments that are going to
transform people's lives.
- It feels really exciting.
There is a lot to build
and you can imagine how
you can fit and shape the future of HQ2.
- There are so many great things to do here.
- The trail systems, the bike paths.
- At my children's school,
there's more than twenty languages.
- The best pho restaurant in the entire world
is Pho 75 and is in Arlington.
I would put that up against any pho restaurant
in the world.
- I would love to see HQ2 being
an innovation hub.
I want to see the biggest ideas
come to fruition here.
I want opportunities for engineers
to work on the world's toughest challenges.
- There's a lot of great technical schools,
technical programs, you know, finding that kind
of talent and giving them that opportunity here
has been a really rewarding experience.
- Amazon is day one. Everything is day one.
We are constantly innovating, changing, looking
at what we could do better.
- Well, I hope that our work represents
what we strive for.
My hope is that people that work there feel
pride.
- My ultimate dream for HQ2 is
to create an amazing place for Amazon employees.
We want it to be vibrant and we want it to be a
destination.
We want it to be something that the community at
large can be proud of.