South Lake Union Market Under the Spheres

 

9/27/25 South Lake Union

When we had planned the sketch outing to South Lake Union, we didn’t even know that the Saturday Market had moved from its previous Denny Park location (where USk met last year) to the center of Amazontown near the Amazon Spheres. It was a fun bonus to sketch some market people (and a dog).

Of course, it’s hard to ignore the Spheres themselves. I sketched them in my own sketchbook, but I also sketched them in the traveling sketchbook (below) that is circulating among USk chapters across the country (thanks to Kate Buike for coordinating USk Seattle’s and USk Tacoma’s participation). South Lake Union seemed like an appropriately iconic spot in Seattle to represent in the book.

My contribution to the traveling sketchbook.

Despite the day starting out with iffy weather, we still had a fantastic turnout and were rewarded with sunshine in time for our throwdown!

Sketchers did a great job of taking over most of the orange chairs on Amazon campus!

Sixth and Lenora

 

3/20/21 Sixth and Lenora, downtown Seattle

As I did three weeks ago for his first shot, I dropped Greg off for his second dose at the Virginia Mason/Amazon SuperVax site, then parked a short distance away to wait. This time I found a spot facing Sixth and Lenora, where I caught a glimpse of the Amazon Spheres. In the foreground, protected by a row of orange stanchions and a fake picket fence, is a large tent used for outdoor seating by nearby restaurants. The tent occupies a traffic lane that has been closed to accommodate it. As before, it’s not a composition I would have chosen if I’d felt comfortable standing on the sidewalk, but it was still a treat to be downtown.

Sketching from my car is not a tactic new to the pandemic; I use my mobile studio every winter. Sometimes it’s frustrating because I know much better compositions would be available, if only I could get out and move a few feet. Other times I enjoy the challenge of looking for an interesting view within my parking limitations.

By the time I finished the sketch, he was done. It seems deceptively simple for a life-saving solution to take so little time to receive.

Ninth & Hennepin Donuts

6/4/19 Regrade Farmers Market

The Seattle Sketcher’s recent column about pop-up farmers markets downtown reminded me that I had wanted to check them out last summer but never got around to it. On Tuesday, I hopped on the bus to the Regrade area, where a market had popped up right next to the Amazon Spheres. Before exploring the market, I sketched a few tents in the shadow of the Spheres from across the street.

Yukon Potato Cake Donut with chocolate ganache glaze!

As Amazonites on their lunch break poured out of nearby buildings, I started strolling around the vendors to check out their wares. Suddenly, my nose led me to the tent of 9^th & Hennepin Donuts, where two guys were making donuts to order! On the menu that day were Yukon Potato Cake Donut with chocolate ganache glaze, Applesauce-Hazelnut Cake Donut with cinnamon sugar, Filled Brioche Thumbprint with strawberry custard and vanilla bean glaze, and d’Anjou Pear Fritter with a local honey glaze. It took me a while to decide, but that chocolate ganache called to me. I considered sketching it . . . but the thought was fleeting, and I scarfed it down while it was hot.

After sketching the donut shop with the warm sun at my back (it was 65 degrees with a soft breeze), I brought home the first local strawberries of the season. I wait nine months in the year for a day like that, and it’s worth it.

Incidentally, I asked the owner if Hennepin was the one in Minneapolis (Twin Cities native Greg has taken me there), and indeed, it was. He said the shop is named for the Tom Waits song in which donuts are referenced. (Urban sketching teaches me so many things!)

And not so incidentally: Happy National Donut Day!

Dry at Last!

1/11/19 Amazon Sphere and Space Needle in South Lake Union

Café Suisse is a cute venue in the South Lake Union neighborhood. Filled with lots of fun, colorful décor in a Swiss theme, it also offers a wide variety of pastries, including many that are gluten-free. Greg would have loved all the GF goodies, but I was there without him (he didn’t miss out; I got him some muffins to go) to meet Natalie and Kathleen.

1/11/19 Cafe Suisse

Right outside the café, I spotted a peek-a-boo view of the Needle near the Amazon Spheres. It was chilly but dry! After being rained in for what seemed a long, long time, it was wonderful to sketch outdoors again.

After that, I needed a warm-up. I dashed into the café, where Kathleen and Natalie were already settled in. I had planned to sketch other patrons, but in the direction I was facing, the chairs remained unoccupied. Although many decorative items filled the space, I simplified the composition significantly to focus on the challenging perspective of the tall chairs. Sketchers often bemoan the perspective difficulties of architecture, but personally, I find interior perspective to be just as difficult.

A new group selfie technique!

Finally Inside

Over the past few years, I've sketched the Amazon Spheres as they were built. And then I sketched them from the outside. Finally, today, I got inside. Some weeks ago I scheduled a "tour" of the Amazon Spheres.



I went into the city via the light rail and did sketches while traveling in both directions.



gel pen in Field Notes Sketchbook

As it turned out, it was simply a ticket to enter and wander as long as I wanted. I first stopped at General Porpoise for a vanilla custard doughnut. I used the time at the table to sketch.



It is a wondrous place and the Amazon employees are fortunate to have it. I'm not sure how much work I would get done there, though! I was there about 2 hours. According to the tiny brochure, there are 2,636 panes of glass in the exterior. Many of the 40,000 plants inside are tropical so the conditions are kept at 72 degrees and 60% humidity in the day time.  It would seem there's even a place to nap.  The woman on the left was flat out asleep!



I'd seen Tina's sketch of the Bird Nest and knew I couldn't leave without doing one of my own. I think it's the most unusual spot within the Spheres.  It is reached by a bridge that is rather bouncy, like a suspension bridge.




Many more photos

Inside the Spheres

3/27/18 A view of the top two floors

A couple of months ago Greg and I went to the Amazon Spheres visitors center, which is on the street-level floor of the bubble-shaped complex. Since it was the first time the public had access to the long-anticipated buildings, many were disappointed that they couldn’t go up into the terrarium-like space where all the amazing plants were. I knew that was off-limits to us, so I had checked my expectations, but I still hoped that we would get an opportunity to go inside the Spheres themselves someday. Recently Amazon began allowing the public inside if accompanied by an employee, so our friend Julie invited us. What a cool privilege it was to be inside one of Seattle’s most intriguing buildings!

3/27/18 A conference room "nest" atop the trees

As soon as we walked in, our glasses steamed up! The temperature is kept in the 70s and the air very humid, like a tropical rainforest. Normally I don’t like humidity, but after walking several blocks in the drizzly cold, it felt good to shed my down jacket and be instantly warm.

First Julie walked us around each level of the five-story building so we could take photos and experience the lush, surrounding green. All the exotic plants are labeled as in a botanical garden. Nothing is at right angles or has sharp corners; everything is curved or organic. Tucked in around all the plantings are small seating areas for employees to work quietly or hold meetings. (No employees have offices in the Spheres, but any can use the space whenever they want to. If I worked for Amazon, I think I’d find an excuse to go to the Spheres every day!) A concession area offers snacks to hungry Amazonites. I was tempted by the donuts, but I didn’t want to waste precious sketching time eating.

Julie had generously taken an hour and a half out of her work day to accompany us, so after our walk-through, I had to budget the remaining time carefully. So much to sketch, so little time – and all of it overwhelming! What to choose, what to choose?

3/27/18 Lush and green inside; cold steel and glass outside

I had my eye on the coolest “conference room”: the “nest” perched high in the trees. A meeting had just broken up when I started to sketch it, so I turned around to sketch the larger view of a couple of the upper floors first (top of post). When I had finished, another meeting had started in the nest, so I quickly sketched that before we moved on. The surrounding natural light made sketching delightful.

With only 10 minutes remaining, I had to think and sketch fast. I picked an umbrella-shaped tree with fern-like foliage. In the background of every view are those crazy windows that look like they should form a geometric pattern but don’t. Through the windows of the warm bubbles, you can see the cold canyons of steel and glass that seem so ordinary by comparison.

Soon enough, it was time to put our jackets on and go back out to cold reality. 

The Spheres from outside

The "green wall" is a popular selfie spot

Climbing vines on the pillars

The "nest" from below

The "nest" from above

Exotic!

Thanks, Julie, for a peek inside the fantastic Spheres!

Amazon Adventures

1/30/18 One of three Amazon Spheres

1/30/18 View of the construction across the street
through a Sphere window.

Amazon has been in the news a lot lately. The company’s long-anticipated Spheres finally opened this week, and I have to say they look pretty cool. (I first sketched them two years ago when the glass was still going in, and then again a year later.) The triple-bubble, terrarium-like structure is a meeting place for Amazon employees, but what makes it distinctive is that it is filled with plants. This morning Greg and I visited the Understory, which is the Spheres’ visitors center and the only part open to the public. The Understory includes exhibits about the building and the types of plants in the upper levels. Video and photo projections show the bird-nest-like meeting rooms and gorgeous vegetation. It sure made us want to go upstairs!

After we got our fill of that, we walked down the street to Amazon Go, which has also been making national news. Billed as the “store of the future,” Amazon Go has no cashiers. You walk in and scan the app on your phone (which is connected to your Amazon account). The store sells snacks, ready-to-eat foods, meal kits and other convenience foods. You can take anything off the shelf that you want, and a million cameras on the ceiling are watching you. If you don’t put it back, the transaction is recorded as a purchase. A few minutes after you leave the store (“Just walk out!” the signs encourage you), a receipt shows up on your app. It does feel a bit like shoplifting, but since a friendly Amazon staff member urged me to step through the exit with my big orange bag of self-served snacks, I felt reassured.

The pattern in the ceiling
mimics the complex window structure
of the Spheres.

Creepy or cool? You decide. I guess I was more curious than paranoid, so I enjoyed the novelty. All I bought was a cookie and an exclusively branded Amazon Go chocolate bar made by local Theo Chocolate. 

Understory ceiling

Image of "bird nest" meeting room projected on the wall.

Plant projections

A model of the Spheres is behind us.

We're Amazon Go-ing!

Lots of convenience foods

Just doing my part to support the local economy.