A vast arc of glass with an upswept front awning, it is a kind of monument to the difficulty of predicting the future. Saarinen imagined that transformative ideas would emerge from groups of scientists working in meeting areas, where recliners and coffee tables still sit beside soaring windows. Instead, the scientists spend much of the day hunched over computer screens in their offices: small, windowless dens, which seem to have been created as an afterthought.

I don't think he gives it enough credit. Saarinen actually had an egalitarian notion: no one gets a window office, because the shared hallway is one giant window. You can see what I mean in this shot: http://www.research.ibm.com/people/a/alpert/watson_night.jpg

The building is long, not high. The two main hallways that go the length of the building (the inner and outer parts of a semicircle; aerial shot here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/de/IBM...) are floor-to-ceiling window. The spokes that actually have offices are short hallways between these two long, main hallways.

I like this building. I get to see the outside world as I walk around the building - not in glimpses, but in full. During the day, there is a lot of natural light coming from the large hallway windows. More than other office buildings I've been in, I have a constant sense of where I am, physically, with respect to the outside world. I like the notion that everyone - even the executives - get the same kind of office. (Some are a little larger, but not more than twice the size of a normal office.) And unlike cube-farms, we have private offices with doors we can close.