Michael Graves' working spaces

Mercer Business, Aug 01, 2005 by Hisbrook, David

Where is a cubicle not a cubicle? Where does every worker (upwards of 140 employees) from top manager to mail room clerk have a window seat? Where do even the summer interns reheat their lunches in a state-of-the-art kitchen and do their laundry in a high-end, precision-engineered washer and dryer? Princeton's own Miele Design Center where Miele, USA is headquartered. I went looking for work designed by Michael Graves and I didn't have to travel far. Miele opened the building to the public in 1999. The attention to detail is extraordinary, the ingenious work spaces make everyone's cubicle a haven of natural light and high design, and the modular floor-to-ceiling partitions make it one of the most serene and workerfriendly spaces you are likely to encounter - all the while remaining a highly productive and profitable base of operations. It is literally possible there to stand in a 2nd floor hallway and look through one office wall, through 4 "cubicles", through another office wall and see a panoramic view of the beautiful landscaping outside.

Graves has dubbed himself "a general practitioner," designing not only the interiors for the majority of his projects, but also a wide range of furnishings and artifacts. On the Miele Building: "It's a welldesigned building for well-designed products," states Thomas P. Rowe, AIA, Principal, Michael Graves & Associates. "There was a great deal of care and precision to the aesthetic details both inside and out. To the motorists passing by on Route One, the Miele building says 'high quality design' at 55 miles an hour."

Lori Dolnick of Thacker & Frank Communications showed me around the facility. Inside, the Design Center Showroom accommodates complete, working kitchens showcasing Miele products in various decors. Here, consumers and design professionals may fully visualize and experience the latest Miele products as they gain in-depth product information. Together with expanded training facilities, these new demonstration kitchens allow Miele to provide ongoing training to a growing roster of employees and authorized dealers. The building will accommodate up to 200 employees - Miele currently employs approximately 140 at its U.S. headquarters facility.

"As Miele's popularity in the United States grows, so will this impressive facility... as well as Miele's commitment to providing personal attention, superior service and quality products," states Nick Ord, President of Miele USA.

Born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1934, Michael Graves has been in the forefront of architectural design since he founded his practice in Princeton, New Jersey in 1964. As a kid, Graves spent countless hours drawing. "The more I did, the better I got," he says. "I wasn't good at much else." His mother panicked when he said he wanted to be an artist, however, telling him, "Unless you're as good as Picasso, you'll starve." She suggested he consider careers that use drawing engineering and architecture - and when he investigated each, he chose architecture. It was as a starving student in Rome that Graves says he first began experimenting with product design. He claims he didn't know it was considered lowbrow for an architect to do so; on the contrary, he cites those associated with Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus in the early 1900's as others who dabbled as he does now. The difference between the Bauhaus and Graves, however, can be summarized in one word: marketing (his recent work for Target stores is well-known).

As Robert Schirmer, Professor of Architecture, Emeritus, at Princeton University, where he taught for almost 40 years, Graves is an influential theorist as well as a diversified and prolific designer. Since the early 1980s, his work directly influenced the transformation of urban architecture from the abstraction of commercial modernism toward an interest in context.

The architectural practice encompasses a wide variety of building types, including large scale mixed-use projects; office buildings and corporate headquarters; university buildings of various types; civic institutions such as courthouses and municipal buildings; educational and cultural facilities such as public libraries, museums, and theaters; hotels and resorts; facilities for sports, entertainment and retail enterprises; healthcare facilities; apartment buildings; and singlefamily residences.

Among Graves' well-known projects is The Humana Budding, a corporate headquarters tower in Louisville, Kentucky, which, in addition to receiving local and national AIA design awards, was cited by TIME Magazine as one of "the 10 best buildings of the decade [1980s]." Other notable buildings are Disney's corporate headquarters in Burbank, California, a Federal Reserve Bank in Houston, Texas, and the much-acclaimed state-of-the-art headquarters and training center for the Philadelphia Eagles. The award-winning 1.1 millionsquare-foot headquarters of the World Bank Group's International Finance Corporation anchors one end of Pennsylvania Avenue at Washington Circle in Washington, D.C.