Amazon's new downtown Vancouver office, The Post.Amazon
Big tech and big cities have a tense relationship. Silicon Valley is a place in the suburbs, and the industry grew up at a physical and conceptual remove from urban life. These days they make products to keep us indoors, buying stuff on our phones and swiping right.
So there’s an inevitable question when Amazon opens a new downtown office, as they have recently done in Vancouver: Does the company really want to be part of the city?
On the surface, the answer is yes. About 2,500 Amazon staff moved this year into The Post, a 1.1-million-square-foot complex on West Georgia Street designed by MCM Architects. Another 2,000 will join them in 2026. Yet the office space, designed by B+H Architects, is as tightly sealed as an Amazon package; a rich buffet of workspaces, cafés and amenities lies behind the security perimeter. This gargantuan facility is in the city, but not of it.
The old post office was a beast to begin with. Finished in 1958, it occupied a full city block. Designed by McCarter Nairne & Partners and the Department of Public Works, it was an enormous steel-framed shed eight storeys high, wrapped in a skin of precast concrete splashed with blue clay tile, cobalt-red panels and the coat of arms of Canada.
When the post office closed, what other purpose could the building serve? It would have made a fine home for the Vancouver Art Gallery, but the VAG made other plans for a site across the street. (It remains a parking lot.) Instead, QuadReal purchased the building and planned to rebuild it with a Loblaws within and towers on top.
MCM, working with local heritage architect Donald Luxton, preserved most of the building’s façades and 60 per cent of its structure, keeping huge amounts of material from being demolished. But the architects thoroughly rearranged its guts to house office space, parking, service areas and the grocery store. Their interventions at the base are well-judged, adding harmonious new openings to provide light and connect the building with the street. But the new towers on top are nothing to write home about: their blue glass curtain-wall façades were made bland enough to attract any tenant.
Then, in 2019 Amazon took 1.1 million square feet for what they call a “Tech Hub,” including the 21-floor south tower, now complete; the 22-storey north tower; and within the base of the building, block-long mega-floors including an eighth-floor amenity zone. On a recent tour of the building, Amazon senior manager of corporate communications Kristin Gable framed this as a strategic choice in the wake of the pandemic. “We’re very proud that we stayed committed to urban real estate,” Ms. Gable said. “Unlike some of our other buildings, this one has a grocery store that serves a really good lunch, and so [staff] will be part of the community.”
Fair enough. The Loblaws lies within the core of the building; you enter from Homer Street, cross the terrazzo floor in the renovated lobby of the post office, and perhaps admire the restored mural by Orville Fisher that depicts “the royal mails” travelling by coach, ship and jet plane. Just past a new Starbucks, escalators lead up into the store where you can find groceries or takeout lunch.
In theory. But up inside the building are a thousand reasons not to leave. A team from B+H led by interior designer Caroline Cho designed the so-called “atrium,” which opened in early September. That zone, basically a gathering space for the office, occupies 43,000 square feet on the eighth floor. It offers an event venue, a café, meeting rooms and breakout space for employees. Brasserie-style banquettes welcome staffers on coffee break; pink-felt-lined booths provide alternatives for solo work.
B+H’s clever interior design draws on the history of the building. Repurposed mailboxes bring some vintage vibe from the post office downstairs; a mural depicts an Edwardian stamp; wall panels nod to airmail envelopes. The interior finishes blend mid-century modern with vague hints of deco and Edwardian classical, a specific vibe that recalls tech-office design gurus AvroKO. (That California firm in fact consulted on the retail areas of the building.)
Just outside, a large space designed by Vancouver’s PFS Studio provides barbecues, sports courts, and even a kitchen garden. There is a pet-relief area, too, for when staff bring their dogs to work. I saw three canines while touring the building, all of whom were being constantly fussed over.
Then there are the office spaces. These display two standard characteristics of tech offices: large floors, and a high degree of flexibility to accommodate project teams which will change over time. Plus, they are comfortable. There is colour; there are plants; there are textiles, sound-dampening felt walls, and armies of plush chairs. Each office floor is decorated with one of three themes; wood, ink or fibre, and the wall coverings and furniture change accordingly.
Yet for all the doggie day passes and historic twee, this is a place of work. Amazon is ramping up its return-to-office policy. Eventually, 4,500 young, well-educated, well-compensated Vancouverites will flow in here daily to get things done. There’s no question that this is good for the city in a general sense. With luck they will even go out on the street from time to time, leaving behind the cozy confines of the office to engage with the city outside the walls.