Soul-Sucking Office Cubicles Were Invented in Ann Arbor

If you’ve spent any time in Ann Arbor, you’ve probably driven past the vacant lot at 2285 S State Street a bunch of times. It’s about a mile north of the Briarwood Mall, right across the street from the University of Michigan’s tennis center.

It’s overgrown and has a few concrete barriers out front, blocking the driveway that used to be there. It’s so nondescript that you would never guess that one of the most significant innovations in American history was invented at that very spot.

That’s right: It’s the birthplace of the office cubicle.

Back in 1968, that site in Ann Arbor was home to the Herman Miller Furniture Company’s research office, and that’s where an inventor and artist named Robert Propst came up with a modular system for offices that featured divider walls wrapped in fabric.

They muffled the sound from neighboring desks and offered a tiny bit of privacy, and best of all for the corporate bosses, they could be used to pack dozens of workers into a single space.

They called them “office cubicles,” and they quickly became the most popular innovation in the history of office furniture.

Yes, they also crushed the soul and became a hellscape for every worker who was being told to use the new cover sheets for their TPS reports, but hey, everything can’t be perfect.

Propst himself came to hate the office cubicle just as much as everyone else did and greatly regretted that he ever invented it in the first place. Kind of like how Alfred Nobel came to regret inventing dynamite and Al Pacino was ashamed he once made a movie with Adam Sandler.

Whether you hate the office cubicle or not, though, it’s fascinating to know that it was invented at a vacant lot that people in Ann Arbor drive past a million times a day. So here’s the story of how 2285 S State Street became one of the most infamous locations in American corporate history.

The story starts way back in 1905, when the Star Furniture Company was founded in Zeeland. It later became the Herman Miller Furniture Company, and in 1942, the company entered the office furniture market. Herman Miller started to become known for its sleek designs and innovative chairs, tables, and storage units.

The company eventually lured an artist, sculptor, and inventor from Colorado named Robert Propst to come to Michigan to head up Herman Miller’s new research division. Propst said he didn’t want to live in West Michigan, so Herman Miller agreed to build its research facility in Ann Arbor.

That led them to State Street, where they built out what was basically a big garage where Propst could dream up some new office furniture. That was in 1960, and four years later, Propst unveiled a new creation that Herman Miller called “Action Office.” It featured a number of innovations that provided for more flexibility in the workplace, including furniture that could be easily moved around and a stand-up desk.

Action Office proved to be too expensive and hard to assemble, so Propst went back into his garage on South State Street and tinkered around some more.

In 1968, Propst and Herman Miller unveiled “Action Office II.” This one was wildly successful and popular. Importantly, it included flat panels that could be configured into an individual space for each worker.

The advertisement said, “At last! Office furnishings that give hyper-flexibility! It is a collection of modular units that can fit together just about any way the user wants them to fit.”

They called it “the office cubicle.”

Propst was excited about it at first. He thought it would give workers the flexibility to design their workspace any way they wanted and allow employers to do away with the rows of desks that marked traditional offices.

Instead, employers found ways to cram as many workers as possible into cube farms that became fodder for jokes in the comic strip “Dilbert” and the movie “Office Space.”

“I spent 16 years working in a cubicle,” said “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams in 2007. “I still remember walking into the office and having the life drained out of me as I approached my fabric-covered box.”

Zillions of people have done time in an office cubicle since it was unveiled back in 1968, including many of us in the state where it was invented. I’ve done a couple stints working in a cubicle myself, and although I wouldn’t go so far as to say it destroyed my soul, it certainly wasn’t a joyful way to spend the workday.

Which brings us back to Propst. Although his legacy is most certainly the office cubicle, it’s a shame to define his life by that singular invention. He was a brilliant and visionary inventor who had more than 120 patents, including a quality-control system for concrete, an electronic tagging system for livestock, and a vertical timber harvester. Until the day he died, there was no moss gathering on Robert Propst.

He passed away in 2000 at the age of 79, and three years before he died, he gave a series of interviews in which he expressed great regret for what his signature invention had become.

“An organization that doesn’t give a damn and wants to pack the maximum number of people in a minimum amount of space can wreck the mental health of employees,” he said.

Preach, Robert Propst! Preach! The man went to his grave with a clean conscience.

As for Herman Miller, the company that made billions off his invention, it continues to make and sell office cubicle systems. Plenty of employers still find value in the modular systems, so plenty of people are still working in them.

It’s also worth noting that because of Herman Miller and a couple other furniture giants that are based here (Steelcase in Grand Rapids and Haworth in Holland), Michigan manufactures more office furniture than any other state. We make the vehicles that get you to work and the furniture you sit on once you get there.

Which takes us back to 2285 S State Street. It ceased being the site of Herman Miller’s research department in 1972 when the company moved to larger quarters on Varsity Drive in Ann Arbor.

The building on South State became a print shop and then a series of restaurants—a Salvadorian place called Pilar’s Café and then a Lebanese restaurant called LaZamaan and then a lunch spot called Bowls Soup Shop, which barely lasted two weeks. Finally, it was a Mexican restaurant called Burrito Borimex.

That place closed around 2010, and then the building where the office cubicle was invented just sat empty. It eventually became a dilapidated eyesore that was still standing as of late 2024, but sometime in the last year or so, the building was razed and the site became a piece of vacant land.

I would argue that given its status in American corporate history, there really needs to be a Michigan Historical Marker there: “On this site in 1968, the office cubicle was invented, and the American workplace was forever changed.”

If nothing else, that would allow people to flip the bird as they drive by.