Westin Building Exchange

The story

The 34-story Westin Building tower in downtown Seattle was constructed in 1981 and evolved into the Pacific Northwest's undisputed carrier hotel and home of the Seattle Internet Exchange (SIX). In 2015, the facility formed an innovative environmental partnership with neighboring Amazon: instead of dissipating heat through rooftop cooling towers, the data centre diverts warm water into a district hydronic loop that heats four blocks and 3 million square feet of Amazon's headquarters campus, cutting millions of kilowatt-hours of electrical heating.

Notable

• The premier carrier hotel of the Pacific Northwest, hosting the Seattle Internet Exchange (SIX) and subsea backhauls.
• Pioneered district energy sharing: exports server waste heat to heat over 3 million sq ft of Amazon's downtown campus.
• Houses 34 stories of telecommunications and colocation space housing over 250 carriers and cloud networks.
• Forms the primary landing routing hub for high-capacity trans-Pacific submarine cables from Japan and Asia.

Expansions

• 1981: built as 34-story office tower and telecom hub
• 1990s: expands to become Pacific Northwest's primary carrier hotel
• 2015: district energy loop connects to Amazon Seattle headquarters campus
• 2020: Digital Realty acquires controlling interest for $1.8 billion portfolio valuation