This is what downtown Seattle looks like as Amazon builds an insane spherical greenhouse for employees

Set to open in 2018, Amazon's greenhouse will sit in downtown Seattle.

The tech company already owns 30 office buildings around the city. Amazon is also constructing new high-rise and low-rise office buildings around the spheres.

A construction crew is building the three glass spheres (the largest measuring 90 feet tall) that will connect to form one giant space.

Featuring an open layout, there will be five different levels that can accommodate about 800 people in total.

The pentagonal pattern, called a Catalan, will repeat 60 times per sphere, Sam Kennedy, a spokesperson for Amazon, tells Tech Insider.

As part of a partnership with the University of Washington, Amazon is growing over 3,000 species of plants in a greenhouse that's a half-hour drive from its Seattle headquarters. The plants will later be transplanted to the spheres. In total, the downtown greenhouses will have 20,000 specimens representing 400 species from over 50 countries.

Amazon first approached the idea of putting the spheres at its headquarters in 2013. The company hired Ron Gagliardo, who now serves as the company's horticulturist, to grow everything and oversee the off-site greenhouse.

The idea behind the spheres is to increase productivity and happiness among Amazon employees, Kennedy says.

Seattle doesn't have much green space in its city center, and the company is betting that the orbs will help lower stress levels.

The orbs will feature tree canopies three stories off the ground, a five-story living wall, a creek, and waterfall. Meeting rooms will have walls made from vines.

They'll offer what's typically missing from urban offices: nature.