American Offices

we must acknowledge that it’s called “office space”

Contents:

Office Parks
A Love Letter To Those Offices Which Held Me
Office Relationships
History

Office Parks

The suburbanization of the corporate office was manifested through three distinct typologies, the office park, the corporate campus, and the corporate estate.

— Parks of Sprawl: The Corporate Landscape

A Love Letter To Those Offices Which Held Me

The Gates-Hillman Center (GHC) and Tata Consultancy Services Hall (TCS)

TCS Hall. My desk resided in room 221B (baker st?). One wall was green. I opened the window and let in the still hot summer air and stared at church spires.

GHC. The angle obscures GHC's finest feature: its pancake design composed of stacked levels.

Stata: The Two Towers

In conclusion

long live the university office

Office Relationships

1. Internship Season

The office contains us. Multitudes within us, within the office. The office is site witness to full gamut of human emotions. Office happy, office sad, office wintry february january drudgery—
and—

internship summer

The office has never looked more inviting.

2. The Train

Employee handbook says it is best to take the train to the office. Studies show that workplace performance is highest when you board the last car on an elevated track and watch the wake the rails make. Don’t resist the bouncing of the train.

You take the 9:42 Shady Grove bound Red Line—you know, the one that forms a U—transfer to the Green Line towards Greenbelt (apt) at Fort Totten, get off at College Park U of Md and wait for the bus at the station and then another bus to LPS right next to the 4H; get off on the side of the road once you’re on Greenmead.

What did you read on the way? Was it The Atlantic? You can do better than that.

3. Comedy

Lampoon the office
It is the only way to acknowledge the central role it plays in your life
- When Dilbert burns down the office, the spectacle is comparable to blowing up the Death Star or Beaufort
  - The office itself, not the manager, is the villain
  - A building is a character
Comedy elevates our own experience in life to melodrama which more closely approximates our emotional subjectivity
- Comedy is more dramatic than drama
Someone’s got a case of the Mondays
Are you brave enough to tell your therapist how much you love going to the office?
How many more offices do you hope to live in throughout your life?
You say so much with a space.

History

Read on: