Amazon opened its first distribution center of its kind, a project featuring sustainable design that's expected to serve as a testing ground for the e-commerce giant's global building network.
The new facility in Elkhart, Indiana, is loaded with features aimed at reducing its environmental impact, something not typically associated with industrial properties. It was partially constructed with structural beams, walls and roof panels made from wood instead of steel or concrete in a move to help Amazon reduce its carbon footprint because wood is a renewable resource.
Graycor Construction Co. completed the 171,000-square-foot distribution center on 39 acres in Elkhart. Floor-to-ceiling windows were installed in several sections to provide daylight to interior spaces, low-flow plumbing fixtures conserve water and the parking lot is equipped with about 170 charging stations. About eight acres that surround the building were replanted with native vegetation to reduce flooding and control erosion and stormwater runoff.
It’s one of the first distribution centers to use so-called mass timber as a primary construction material, according to Amazon. Mass timber refers to specially manufactured wood that can be used a load-bearing material in the same way as steel or concrete. Panels and beams are crafted by laminating or gluing smaller pieces of wood to form stronger components. Mass timber components are also treated with fire-retardant chemicals.
Amazon has experimented with bits and pieces of sustainable building materials and processes properties over the years, Daniel Mallory, Amazon's vice president of global realty, said in a statement from the company. But the Elkhart property is Amazon’s first owner-occupied mass timber delivery station and is expected to be used as a model for Amazon’s future real estate developments, he said.
The new warehouse “redefines the industrial building typology and proves that a logistics facility can be beautifully designed with people and the planet in mind,” ZGF, lead design architecture firm, said in a project description.
The designers used several different tree species to create the timber materials, including Douglas fir from Oregon and California, yellow poplar from Indiana and Pennsylvania and loblolly yellow pine from several Southeast states.
Amazon uses the facility for last-mile deliveries. Products are shipped from Amazon’s larger fulfillment centers, resorted at the new Elkhart building and delivered either by vans operated by Amazon or third-party partners.
ZGF has designed numerous buildings using mass-timber materials, including a new terminal at Portland International Airport in Oregon and PAE Engineering's headquarters office at 151 SW 1st Ave. in Portland.
Amazon's new facility in Elkhart wasn't built just to deliver packages, it was "built to deliver knowledge that helps us move toward a more sustainable future," Amazon said on its website.
For the record
Atlantic AE was architect of record. Graycor Construction was general contractor.