Will Amazon's massive greenhouse perk spur employee creativity, wellbeing?

Dive Brief:

In the past year, online giant Amazon has taken a few hits in the media over aspects of its company culture, but a "green" perk-in-progress at its Seattle headquarters is unlike anything seen before on the employee benefits scene.
A New York Times article explores how Amazon is in the process of building an eye-grabbing, one-acre glass multi-enclosure that will feature more than 3,000 plant species ranging from "carnivorous pitcher plants, exotic philodendrons and orchids from Ecuador."
Amazon will offer the transparent, connected "spheres" to employees in their headquarters as a place to relax, work and even hold meetings in tree houses, the Times reports.

Dive Insight:

John Schoettler, director of Amazon’s global real estate and facilities, told the Times that the company wants the new spaces to be "iconic" and on the level of the city's vaunted Space Needle to newcomers to Seattle. “It would be a found treasure in the downtown neighborhood," he said.

But most importantly, the spheres are expected to inspire employees and deliver an unmatched at-work experience. Opening in early 2018, the spheres will offer employees an amazing space including tree canopies three stories high, according to the Times. There even will be an indoor creek.

“The whole idea was to get people to think more creatively, maybe come up with a new idea they wouldn’t have if they were just in their office,” Dale Alberda, the lead architect on the project at NBBJ, told the Times.

Will this dazzling new benefit make employees more engaged, creative and inspired? One expert, Ihab Elzeyadi, an associate professor of architecture at the University of Oregon, isn't quite sure. Elzeyadi, whose research found that workers who had a view of nature experienced a 20% sick leave reduction, told the Times that "You’re making a big investment and betting on two big hypotheses. Will they leave work and go there and, having that kind of nature-bathing maybe once a week, will it really impact their stress levels?”

No word on how much such a program would cost.