Postmodernism deserves a little love too!

[Arenacale]

Though apparently this is what their st louis location looked like, so I guess they really like garbage suburban office space.
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I wanted to pull stick n move's post about "garbage suburban office space" over here to this thread, because I have a confession to make: I love the '80s/'90s light PoMo office park aesthetic. Absolutely adore it. When I was growing up, these were the places I kind of aspired to work in, especially since so many computer/tech companies of the era had these exact types of buildings. Apple's Infinite Loop. Microsoft's old Redmond campus. Adobe's HQ. I know that inside they were largely banal cube farms, but something about the exteriors made me think of the future.

Almost my entire career has been spent in offices in decrepit 1940s/50s hospital buildings, so anytime I get to go to a 1990s office park it still somehow feels like a massive upgrade. My wife works at MathWorks, and while their Apple Hill campus has more recent buildings, every time I visit I feel like I'm stepping into Triumph of the Nerds.

Specifically to the Panera building above - I know the little adornment over the door is minor, but it also feels like the architects understood that this was a pretty boring place to be, so let's do something to make it more interesting and welcoming. And that's where PoMo's influence succeeds. Something to make it feel a little bit more like a place you actually want to be in.

 

[Charlie_mta]

I wanted to pull stick n move's post about "garbage suburban office space" over here to this thread, because I have a confession to make: I love the '80s/'90s light PoMo office park aesthetic. Absolutely adore it. When I was growing up, these were the places I kind of aspired to work in, especially since so many computer/tech companies of the era had these exact types of buildings. Apple's Infinite Loop. Microsoft's old Redmond campus. Adobe's HQ. I know that inside they were largely banal cube farms, but something about the exteriors made me think of the future.

Almost my entire career has been spent in offices in decrepit 1940s/50s hospital buildings, so anytime I get to go to a 1990s office park it still somehow feels like a massive upgrade. My wife works at MathWorks, and while their Apple Hill campus has more recent buildings, every time I visit I feel like I'm stepping into Triumph of the Nerds.

Specifically to the Panera building above - I know the little adornment over the door is minor, but it also feels like the architects understood that this was a pretty boring place to be, so let's do something to make it more interesting and welcoming. And that's where PoMo's influence succeeds. Something to make it feel a little bit more like a place you actually want to be in.

At its best, the style of the '80s/'90s light PoMo office park aesthetic to me is an offshoot of mid-century modern, which is a good thing, as I generally love mid-century modern. The problem I see with much of the the '80s/'90s light PoMo office park aesthetic is not so much the buildings themselves, but the sprawling parking lot type "no there, there" layout they inhabit, and also their monotonous office or lab singe-use, which lacks any substantive mix of residential and retail to provide a lively urban feel. However, if you set these PoMo office park aesthetic buildings into a continuous street grid with small streets and city blocks, with mixed use and pocket parks (but no parking lots!), then you really have something.

 

[RandomWalk]

It’s mid-century modern with shoulder pads and a shiny twist.