The Early 20th Century Office Space Infrastructure and the 21st Century Office.

I've occupied the same office for about 20 years or so.  The building itself was built in 1917, as part of the World War One oil boom.  When it was built in 17, air conditioning didn't exist.  Cooling was provided by opening a window. Heat was provided by a boiler and radiant steam, as it still is here.  But, most significantly, in 1917 when the office was built, electricity probably only powered electric lights, and the only electronic communications system was the telephone.

Since that time, the infrastructure of the modern office building has changed enormously.  It's changed enormously even within the past 20 years.  When I first started working in this building, 2r years ago, we had just getting read to buy office computers for the first time.  Shortly after we did, we had a single computer that was connected to the Internet.  Later, everyone had one that was connected via a telephone line.  Now, of course, they are all DSL, or something like that, and we have wireless as well.

I can't really recall what sort of phones we had 23 years ago, but I know that we had more than one line. The phones have been updated here at least twice, maybe more, since that time. We still, of course, have more than one line, but we have voice mail and call forwarding, and the phones are run through the computers somehow.

All that just goes towards saying that the office space I started occupying 20 years ago didn't quite contemplate all of this 21st Century technology. Twenty four years ago I had a phone and a Dictaphone.  The next year I had a phone, Dictaphone and a computer.  Now the Dictaphone is gone and my computer will take audio dictation.  The Internet is so much a part of what I do everyday that it's almost impossible to imagine working with out it.  I'm sure that to newer lawyers a pre Internet law practice seems like some sort of a fable, and they'll never have a recollection of needing to go to the county law library every day.

But all that also means that the space that was comfortable 20 years ago may no longer be.  So I ended up rearranging my office in an attempt to make it so.  These photos show that work in progress.

But its interesting to note how, even though an old structure can be updated to accommodation new infrastructure, it has to be done in order that it can be.  New furniture in particular contemplates it, while the older furniture, which I have kept using, really didn't. Not that it can't be made to work.  And no 1917 building contemplated 2013 electronics, everything has to be added, or has been added over time.  This trend will no doubt continue in some fashion, making me wonder how buildings built now will sometimes fare in that endeavor.  And for those with fairly old houses, even updating to modern dwelling infrastructure must be a pain.