The creative’s cubicle | Taking it to the next level

“A corridor is a means to an end,” so says The Office Book, the self-proclaimed first comprehensive guide to planning and decorating a modern office. Written nearly 30 years ago, it argues that “as the most-used spaces in an office, corridors might also be the most intensively designed ones.”

Perhaps this may be true, but when I think of the most memorable office corridors I’ve passed through, I think of their functionality. Their purpose as transition spaces. And when I think of the most intensively designed transition spaces, I think of stairs.

The following are some vintage images of classic office interiors and their stairs. Although most have been upgraded since these photos were first published in 1982, their designs remain timeless and their purpose still stands for one thing, to take us to the next level.

Offices of Milbank, Tweed, Hadby and McClary.
Design: Swanke, Hayden, Connell

Unnamed law firm.
Design: Gensler

S.C. Johnson Research and Development Tower
Design: Frank Lloyd Wright

Offices of International Paper
Design: The Space Design Group

Weyerhaeuser Technology Center
Design: SOM

Converted gymnasium space at Stanford University
Design: Barry Brukoff

Source: The Office Book by Judy Graf Klein