Originating from the intellectual and cultural centers of medieval monastic life, the office has achieved a level of spatial primacy in our contemporary lives rivaled only by that of the home. The modern office developed out of the increase in business size and complexity following the Civil War, and the attendant need for a new level of bureaucracy: so-called “middle” management.²⁷ In fact, from 1860 to 1910 the number of persons engaged in professional, managerial and “commercial” positions doubled from 2.39% to 4.79% of the U.S. population.²⁸ Even more striking was the increase in the number of women in the labor force. Buoyed by the invention of the telegraph, telephone and typewriter—which created a new class of office jobs—the percentage of female clerical workers jumped from 2 to 12 percent.²⁹

Many of the characteristics associated with modern offices—open spaces, natural light and specialized furniture—were first employed by Frank Lloyd Wright in his Larkin and Johnson Wax office buildings (1904 and 1939, respectively), the former of which is considered the first to “integrate innovations in architecture with progressive management philosophy, mechanical systems [and] spatial distribution.”³⁰ By mid-century, a movement advocating change in workplace design had begun to coalesce in Germany. The “Bürolandschaft” or “office landscape” concept—defined by plans encouraging communication
collaboration, transparency, the exchange of ideas and a flat hierarchy—revolutionized office design and anticipated contemporary open office systems.³¹ Perhaps the only constant is that as technology and business changes, office design changes with it.

1. “Managing the Work Environment.” Herman Miller, Inc.; Zeeland, MI; 1979.
2. “Arnot Introduces ‘A New Way of Life’ in the Office.” Swan Equipment Company; Buffalo, NY; 1954.
3. [Cubicle curtains sample]. General Cubicle Company; Ambler, PA; c.1960s.
4. “Wovin.” 3form, Inc.; Salt Lake City, UT; 2008.
5. “Kartell Office.” Kartell; Milan, Italy; 2004.
6. “My Studio Environments.” Herman Miller, Inc.; Zeeland, MI; 2006.
7. “Pittsburgh Color Dynamics.” Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company; c.1950s.

^{27. Donald Albrecht and Chrysanthe B. Broikos. On the Job: Design and the American Office, (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2000), 18. ↩}

^{28. Ibid, 17.↩}

^{29. Ibid.↩}

^{30. Ibid, 21.↩}

^{31. Sydney G. Rodgers, “Modularity Versus Free-Form Clustering,” New Concepts in Office Design, (Elmhurst, Ill. : Business Press, 1968), 28.↩}