Imagine waking up one morning, looking out the window and seeing three huge glass bubbles, like spaceships, rising in the middle of an ordinary city block. And inside them — real jungles with trees that almost touch the ceiling! That’s what happened in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle a few years ago. But the most interesting thing isn’t the glass spheres themselves; it’s who helped create this remarkable garden and why it was built amid computer offices.
This story began when the massive company Amazon, which sells almost everything online, decided to build its new headquarters. They chose an old industrial area that once held warehouses and parking lots. The company constructed tall office buildings where thousands of programmers and engineers came to work every day. But Amazon’s leaders started to wonder: is it good for people to sit in front of computers in ordinary offices all day? Maybe they need nature?
How engineers decided to build a jungle made of glass
In 2018, three glass domes connected to each other opened in the heart of the tech district. They were simply called The Spheres. But inside there was anything but simple! More than 40,000 plants from cloud forests were planted there — forests that grow high in the mountains where it’s always misty and humid. Plants were brought from 30 different countries: Costa Rica, Ecuador, Australia, New Zealand and even Malaysia.
The tallest tree in The Spheres — a ficus named Ruben — reaches 17 meters tall. That’s about as tall as a five-storey building! Engineers created a special system that mists the plants every day and maintains the right temperature and humidity. The result is a real piece of tropical forest in the middle of a city where winters are cold and rainy.
But why did a tech company need a jungle? The leaders explained it simply: research shows people think better and come up with new ideas when they are near nature. So inside The Spheres they made special places for meetings and work. Programmers can bring their laptops, sit among ferns and vines, and work on building websites or apps. It makes for a funny picture: someone working on “cloud” technologies (programs that run over the internet) while real mist clouds rise from the irrigation system around them!
The children who became the first gardeners
And now the most interesting part of the story. When Amazon built The Spheres, the company invited children from local schools to help create this unusual garden. Students visited during construction, when the glass domes were being installed. They were shown how the irrigation system would work, how plants were chosen, and how the artificial climate was created.
Some children were even allowed to plant a few trees with their own hands! Imagine: you’re an ordinary girl from Seattle, and suddenly you’re given a small tree from a distant tropical forest and told, “Plant it, and it will grow here for many years.” One participant in that program, ten-year-old Maria, later told reporters: “I planted a little palm, and now every time my mom and I walk past The Spheres, I think: my tree is growing in there!”
After The Spheres opened, Amazon created a special educational program. Every week school classes visit on tours where children learn about tropical plants, why it’s important to protect forests on our planet, and about climate change. There are even classes where kids learn how technology helps protect nature — for example, how satellites monitor deforestation, or how artificial intelligence helps scientists study rare plants.
When a glass garden changed a whole neighborhood
But not all neighborhood residents welcomed these changes. You see, when Amazon started building its offices in South Lake Union, the area changed dramatically. It used to be home to ordinary people in affordable apartments, with small shops and cafes. But when thousands of highly paid tech workers arrived, housing prices soared. Many long-time residents could no longer afford to stay and were forced to move.
Imagine living your whole life in your neighborhood, knowing all your neighbors and shopping at your favorite corner store. Then, in a few years everything changes: your neighbors leave because they can’t pay the new high rent, small shops are replaced by upscale restaurants, and low old buildings are replaced by glass office towers.
Some people said: “Sure, The Spheres are beautiful, but does that help the people who lost their homes because of rising prices? Can a jungle in a glass bubble replace a real community of neighbors?” It’s a difficult question with no simple answer.
On the other hand, Amazon made The Spheres partially open to all city residents. Each month there are special days when anyone can sign up for a free tour and walk among the tropical plants. For many children from families who cannot afford trips to faraway countries, this is a chance to see a real piece of tropical forest.
What happened to the nature that was there before
Interestingly, before the offices and The Spheres were built, there was nature in this area too — just a different kind. A hundred years ago a small stream ran here, with fish and local trees — firs, maples, and wild blackberry bushes. When industrial warehouses were built, that stream was put into a pipe and buried underground.
Now tropical plants grow in that place — beautiful and exotic, but not the species that used to grow there. That raises an interesting question: what’s better for the city — to restore the original nature that was here, or to create a new, unusual one? Some ecologists say it would have been better to restore the stream and plant native trees needed by local birds and insects. Others believe The Spheres are valuable because they teach people to appreciate nature in general, however different it may be.
By the way, Amazon has tried to partly address this. Around its buildings the company created small parks planted with native species. They made “rain gardens” — depressions in the ground that collect rainwater from roofs and streets. The water passes through layers of soil and plants, gets cleaned, and only then enters the city sewer system or returns to the ground. This helps protect Puget Sound from pollution.
What the story of the glass jungle teaches us
The story of The Spheres shows how difficult it can be to balance technological progress, care for nature, and fairness for all people. On one hand, the company created an amazing place where children can learn, people can relax among greenery, and rare plants can grow safely (some of them are disappearing in the wild due to deforestation). On the other hand, the project became part of big changes that made life in the neighborhood too expensive for many residents.
To me, the most important part of this story is the children who planted trees. They became a bridge between the world of technology and the world of nature. When those kids grow up, they will remember that once they were invited into a huge tech company not to learn programming, but to plant a living tree. Maybe that will teach them to think about how to make future cities technological, green, and fair for everyone at the same time.
Today, if you come to Seattle and walk through the streets of South Lake Union, you’ll see a strange scene: tall glass buildings filled with computers and people creating software for the whole world. And in the middle of this tech city — three giant glass bubbles full of living plants, butterflies, and birds. And somewhere in there, among thousands of trees, grow the very plants that ordinary schoolchildren planted a few years ago. Their roots go into the soil, their branches reach up to the glass sky, and they remind everyone: no matter how far technology goes, people still need living nature nearby.
