The Evolving, Creative American Office - exhibit examines work space - Brief Article

Since its emergence in the Late 19th century as the primary place of work, the office has evolved into the face of American business. As today's workers take advantage of the latest in technological advancements, from Web-enabled cell phones and instant messaging to laptops and satellite conferencing, the term "office" no longer conjures up a single type of work space. And no longer is it a defining statement about what we do during the majority of our workday.

But even as technology has expanded our options for how and where we work, the office as the focal point of work is still the constant in American business. That's the message of the groundbreaking exhibit "On the Job: Design and the American Office," now on display at the National Building Museum, the nation's cultural archive of architecture and design trends, located in Washington, D.C. "On the Job" traces the historical development of the American workplace, considers how social changes have affected workplace styles and amenities, and offers a glimpse at what the future holds.

"Just 10 years ago, it seemed like everyone was predicting the demise of the office as the place of work," said Chrysanthe B. Broikos, who researched and assembled the exhibit along with co-curator Donald Albrecht. "What we learned in putting together this exhibit is that even if it is hard to predict what exactly the office will look like in the future, the office as a place of creative inspiration and motivation has staying power."

The office as a center where workers come together to produce a product or service was born following the Civil War as a response to three important revolutionary technological advancements--the intercontinental railroad and the telegraph, closely followed by the invention of the telephone, Broikos said.

"By the end of the 19th century, a rapidly industrializing United States was connected by railroad and telephone, which immediately fostered national networks of manufacturing and distribution. Instead of selling a product or service to your neighbors, you as a business owner could set your sights on a much wider audience."

The rise of the "company," a term borrowed from the military, necessitated a new level of bureaucracy to process orders, coordinate long-distance distribution, and plan and execute marketing strategies. New types of buildings had to be designed to accommodate ever-expanding manufacturing, sales, and support staffs. Early examples of the inventions that changed American work life open the exhibit. An 1874 Sholes & Glidden typewriter made by the premier gun manufacturer of the era, Remington & Sons, Inc., sits opposite the ornate elevators doors from an 1890 Chicago skyscraper.

"The typewriter, invented to make the administrative task of order-taking and correspondence more efficient, was developed based on the American system of interchangeable parts pioneered for firearms," Broikos said. "The inventors at the Remington Company used a similar hammer mechanism from their guns for the action of the keys striking paper."

The typewriter also inspired standardization of paper size, which created the need for standard-sized filing folders and file cabinets, as well as office how-to manuals, Broikos noted.

The advancement from telegraph to telephone in the 1870s was an important evolution in business life because it allowed the transmission of voice as well as code over wires, she said.

"The telephone was conceived by Alexander Graham Bell as a passive instrument to broadcast speeches and concerts to a wider audience," Broikos said, "but it quickly made its way into almost every business and home in America, thanks to the foresight of Theodore Vail who grasped the potential of the telephone as a network device." Between 1888 and 1920, the number of phones in American ballooned from 6,000 to 10 million.

Lest you think the fax machine and e-mail are late-20th-century inventions, check out the brochure for the Gray's National Telautograph machine invented in 1893. A pen attached to a silk cord allowed the user to transmit a message instantly to a remote receiver via electronic impulses, thus speeding up communications between boss and secretary or a downtown office and suburban factory.

Creating an inviting work space was much on the minds of John Larkin and Elbert Hub-bard when they hired an emerging Chicago architect to design a headquarters building for their soap company in Buffalo, New York. When it opened in 1906, boasting such amenities as air-conditioning and an employee library, music lounge, and fitness center, Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin Soap Co. Administration Building was widely heralded as the first modern office building in the world.

"In order to attract a largely female workforce, Wright designed a clean, airy, light-filled world which stood in stark contrast to its gritty surroundings in industrial rail yards Buffalo," Broikos said, noting that the exhibit includes a walk-through model that gives visitors a sense of the building's otherworldly quality.

The gradual shift from treating workers as little more than extensions of the machines they ran to valuing them as independent, creative thinkers can be seen in the evolution of the desk into the modem work station and the office from expansive work room to solitary cubicle to mobile laptop technology.

Photographs, many enlarged to fill an entire wall, show off this evolution in office environments. Film clips of workplace dramas alongside office equipment advertisements complement the physical displays.

Finally, with the help of Sun Micro systems, the museum takes a stab at what the office will look like in the future. Museum-goers can answer a computerized questionnaire that evaluates whether their current jobs are best done at the company's main office, at a remote satellite location, from home, or in a more social cafe setting.

"On the Job: Design and the American Office" runs through August 19, 2001. The National Building Museum is at 401 F Street NW in Washington, D.C. Admission is free. The museum is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday from 12 to 5p.m. Telephone: 202/272-2448.

Caroline Louise Cole is a New England-based freelancer.

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