Bringing The Outside In

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July.  It's a fantastic time to catch up with friends and family and enjoy the great outdoors.

Even after being back for the last week, I still can't get Seattle out of my mind.  The Amazon campus was such a great example of one company's commitment to creating a vibrant urban campus.  

There can be a lot of parallels drawn to what Amazon is doing in Seattle and what Mayo Clinic is doing here in Rochester.  At its core, both organizations are trying to achieve the same goal.  Both Amazon and Mayo want to help invest in creating a vibrate ecosystem downtown that not only creates a great place to work but a great place to live.

After visiting Seattle, I think we should challenge ourselves to think even bigger.  The Amazon Seattle Spheres (pictured above) is one way we could challenge our innovative spirit to create something truly unique.  The Spheres are a place where Amazon employees can go and tie themselves back to nature and be inspired.  

Imagine a place like this that is open to our entire community during the middle of a Minnesota winter.  We could create a place where we could work and play and reconnect with nature.  Our visitors to Rochester would also find this a great place to spend time as they visit our city.

Food for thought.