We visited Crystal City, Arlington, to see Amazon HQ2 changes

In the year since Amazon announced plans to open its second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, the city just outside of Washington, DC, has transformed to welcome the e-commerce giant.

Ardine Williams, vice president of workforce development at Amazon, told Business Insider that while there are currently 70 employees working in a temporary building in Arlington’s Crystal City neighborhood, a permanent office is slated to open at the end of September.

Read more: I spent a day in Crystal City, Virginia — and it’s easy to see why Amazon picked it for its new HQ2 headquarters

Crystal City is located in the southeastern corner of Arlington and is best known for its proximity to the Pentagon. The area — which is filled with office buildings and sleek, modern high-rise apartments — is significantly quieter and more corporate than its capital city neighbor.

“It’s a sleepy, mostly office-and-hotel neighborhood, separated from the more residential and livable parts of the area by a giant, eight-lane highway,” former Business Insider reporter Kif Leswing wrote while visiting Crystal City in December.

When Amazon announced it had selected Arlington for HQ2, it said it had essentially created a new area called National Landing — encompassing Crystal City, Pentagon City, and Potomac Yard — for the project. When we visited the area for Amazon Career Day on Tuesday, however, the focus was all on Crystal City and how it has continued to pave the way for Amazon’s arrival.

Here’s what we saw.