It is the end of the year, and for you salespeople, it’s the end of the quarter! For me this is definitely a rushrush time of year, and work is laying a heavy and stressful load on me at the moment. Thus I found myself going in to the office both days this past weekend. I happened to have my camera with me and snapped some images of the build in which I work.

I have been interested in how the architecture and design of objects within one’s everyday world have their effects on us. Being alone in the building heightened my sensitivities to the nature of the space.

The entrance exterior.

The entrance interior.

This building is an attempt to combine inexpensive concrete-tilt-up construction (think Costco buildings) with just enough outside-Silicon Valley hipness. The truth is, this building is really just a glorified call-center and order processing center, with some IT and a few other jobs thrown in. It is also a rather simple building in terms of design and layout.

I have to say that there are some characteristics of the building and work area that I like, but I also have to say that it does not feed my soul, not that I expect it to. Like other aspects of my job, such as the good benefits and decent pay and good people to work with, this building is part of the “golden handcuffs” that make it difficult for me to dislike my job enough to leave and go pursue some personal “dream.” And of course I’m not bitter, it’s a lot better than some other places I’ve worked. It beats working on a green chain! If you’ve lived in the Northwest for very long you know what I mean.

The long atrium that runs down the center of the building. I’ve been told it’s a quarter mile long.

The little section of cubes where I work.

What I find most interesting about this building is that its antecedents go back to some of my favorite architects, le Cobusier and Gropius, and to their ideas of the relationship between form and function. In that sense this is both a modern, and in modern terms, now an old building. It is a very functional building and, in its best moments, its aesthetics are the result of great functional design. I am sometimes amazed at how many hours of my life have been spent in this building – since early 2002!