The office cubicle turns 40: Much-maligned workspace was born in Ann Arbor

The cubicle isn’t exactly an example of innovation today, but it was when it was invented in Ann Arbor 40 years ago. Excerpt: Forty years ago, in an odd-shaped building on South State Street between Interstate 94 and the University of Michigan campus, a team of researchers and designers came up with an idea that seems simple now.  However their idea – now known simply as the office cubicle — transformed the way millions of people around the country do their daily business. Called “Action Office,” the team from the Herman Miller furniture company developed a system of mobile office furniture that led the business world away from simple rows of desks toward more flexible work spaces.  Completed in Ann Arbor in 1968 by a team led by Robert Propst, the Action Office was created to meet the needs of many different individuals and types of businesses, and to move away from the standard configurations that were prevalent at the time. As Propst wrote in his 1968 book describing the system: “The renewed rise of individuality as a value and the great diversity in what one may be required to do in an office does not allow a continuation of sterile uniformity …” Read the rest of the story here.