To kick off our new ongoing visual series, Back to the Office, we are taking a stroll down memory lane. Which specific memory, you might ask? The one where you drove your Oldsmobile to a sleek, carpeted 1980s corporate office building on the edge of town near the mall and the interstate.
Thanks to Carol M. Highsmith—a prolific, storied, and uniquely-American photographer who has for decades been donating her images to the Library of Congress—we are able to ponder the depths of the collective national memory to reminisce about the strange, dream-like, liminal office spaces of a time long ago.
Here we are taking a look at the absolute best reception areas and common spaces from 1980s commercial office buildings. To be clear, this classification excludes lobbies and personal offices or cubicle zones, which are separate spaces entirely and will be addressed accordingly in future installations of Back to the Office.
#11 Purple Carpeted Room with Six Cathode Ray Tube TV Sets
We start out our list with this slick entry from someone’s nightmare. What is going on with those television sets? Is that a burning building on all six screens? At least the carpet is immaculate. The temperature in this room was definitely set at a cool 65 degrees at all times. If you worked here you likely had a strong sweater strategy and thought about calling OSHA at least twice a week.
#10 Corporate Reception Area with Glass Coffee Table
This office also looks cold. We love how Highsmith was able to capture all of these images without a single person in sight. Can you imagine the sound of your complimentary porcelain mug of water clinking against the glass coffee table as you sit in that weird chair, back to the receptionist, waiting to be called into your interview? What a mess.
#9 Local TV Station Kitchen
Coming in at number eight, this scene is giving us strong local-tv-station-break-room vibes. What happened when the weather man and the sports guy had to heat up their Lean Cuisines at the same time in the conjoined microwaves? What if three people used the microwaves at the same time? Was it safe to have toasters on top of all three microwaves? Inspirational.
#8 Sunset Corporate Plaza Building Two
Is that a darkened room behind the reception desk or a backlit way-finding obelisk? Either way, it clearly reads Sunset Corporate Plaza Building Two. We couldn’t have imagined a more appropriate name for this place. That wild 3d corporate wavy art let visitors know these people weren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves and do a little bit of cocaine between quarterly budget meetings. Look at those vacuum lines. Immaculate.
#7 Carpeted Office Gym
They say a picture speaks a thousand words. This photo of step climbers in front of glass cube walls in a carpeted office says “Don’t worry about finding a towel after your workout, just wipe your sweaty body all over the perfectly vacuumed carpet and go back to your desk”.
#6 Circular Glass Cube Wall Conference Room Floor
Office Interior from the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, between 1980 and 1990
Do we think this curved path went around the glass cube wall in a big circle? What was in the middle of the ominous glowing glass cube wall circle? This was a powerful space. These were the types of 20th floor conference rooms where important regional and tri-state deals were made.
#5 Mid-Century Cafeteria Lounge with Leafy View
Ok, this one is unironically kind of nice. With a few minor changes (the floor is psychotic and looks inspired by a zoo cafeteria) a space like this could easily work in 2024. If anyone knows where this photo was taken please write to us.
#4 Cactus Room, No Natural Light
Walking into a dark room with seemingly very little or no natural light and seeing multiple fully grown cacti would have surely set off alarm bells for any guests of this space in the 1980s. Maybe that curtain was covering a huge south-facing glass wall with excellent natural light? The plants being fake would not have improved the disturbing vibe here, either.
#3 Between Two Palms
Someone should orchestrate a pop-up experience where you pay $40 to vacuum this room while a crowd watches from behind a glass wall. The glow from the tiled ceiling lighting is impeccable, carpet is fresh, furniture all at 90 degree angles, and the fake plastic trees are practically sparkling.
#2 Two Computers, Two Doors
This photo has it all. We’re seeing two old beige plastic cathode ray tube computers on a single commanding, shiny reception desk. We’ve got 80s modernist glass pendant lighting. We’ve got uncomfortable boxy lounge chairs with terrible fabric. The carpet was on point and well groomed as usual. What was behind each of those weirdly hard-to-see doors? Was that an entrance and an exit for one massive executive office? This room had mysterious energy.
#1 Cheesecake Factory Corporate Office Basement Jail
Finishing off at number one on our list is this formidable holy sacrament and absolute freak show of a room. There are at least five columns in this office. It is entirely possible there are a lot more columns but but we are too uncertain to make that call here now. If you know how many columns are in this photo please write to us.
This concludes our look at some of the best reception areas and common spaces from 1980s commercial office buildings. Thanks again to Carol M. Highsmith for documenting this unique moment of time and place in American culture. Stay tuned for future installments of Back to the Office where we will further dissect the complicated history and psychological implications of American commercial office space aesthetics.
