The Meadow, a new 1.75-acre public open space at Amazon’s Bellevue 600 tower, background, is meant to activate a space that will eventually house another tower. When that tower is built, the majority of The Meadow, including the hardscape and temporary installations, will be redeveloped as part of that phase, but a permanent through-block connection between the two towers will remain, including the new art installation.
Amazon on Monday celebrated the official opening of a new 1.75-acre public open space and art installation in downtown Bellevue at the company’s newest tower, the Bellevue 600 office development, 633 110th Ave. NE.
The Meadow is an open space built atop the future site of a second Amazon tower planned at Bellevue 600, whose development timing has not been determined.
While a building will eventually occupy the majority of the site, The Meadow is designed to activate the land and welcome the community during interim development phases, Amazon said in a news post and email. The art installation will not be affected by future development, as it’s located in a permanent open space that’s part of a through-block connection between Tower 1 and the future Tower 2.
The installation, by artist and children’s book author Oliver Jeffers, is called The Moon, the Earth and Us — two hand-painted sculptures of the Moon and Earth, scaled and positioned to reflect their true size and distance from one another, Amazon said in its post.
The Meadow, meanwhile, also features native flowering plant species, providing habitat for pollinators, including birds and bees.
The globe is part of the permanent art installation at The Meadow next to the Bellevue 600 tower.
“Amazon’s vision in Bellevue has always been to grow alongside this community,” Sean Lee, vice president of corporate real estate and facilities at Amazon, said in a statement. “Rather than closing off this site between development, we wanted to open it up — the Meadow gives the community a space to gather and enjoy right now. None of it is possible without the strong partnership we’ve built with the city of Bellevue and the community partners who help bring these spaces to life.”
Members of the Bellevue City Council, the city manager, city leadership staff, and community partners, including the Bellevue Downtown Association, joined Amazon for a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Marking the opening of The Meadow on Monday are, from left, Randi Davis, senior portfolio manager, Amazon; Lynne Robinson, Bellevue councilmember; Claire Sumadiwirya, councilmember; Diane Carlson, Bellevue city manager; Mo Malakoutian, Bellevue mayor; Sean Lee, vice president-corporate real estate and facilities at Amazon; Vishal Bhargava, councilmember; Dave Hamilton, deputy mayor; and Laura Horn, asset manager for Amazon.
Amazon has grown from 450 employees in Bellevue in 2017 to more than 15,000 today, making it the city’s largest employer. It’s expected to eventually have about 25,000 employees in the city.
The 600-foot-tall Bellevue 600 — which is about to undergo interior tenant improvements on 39 of its 43 floors to begin housing employees about mid-2027 — is Amazon’s first self-developed project in Bellevue and a cornerstone of the Grand Connection, a pedestrian and bicycle link that will eventually cross Interstate 405 to connect Wilburton to Meydenbauer Bay. Amazon’s other offices are in leased spaces, among them West Main and the Sonic Tower.
