Nice editorial Steve, but I always find discussions of office layouts most curious - as though arranging furniture and amenities is really going to have all that much effect one way or the other on how an office "runs". A great example of this would be a company I once did a consult in that used the "open office" concept, but the two weeks I spent there was more like being at Gestapo headquarters in World War 2. The guy who ran the place forbade people from chatting and I have been in churches and libraries with more noise during the day - the people were uptight and did not engage each other except in whispers. No one seemed all that happy at their jobs, and worse, everyone steered clear of this fellow whose management style was to get angry, be angry and stay angry.

I have come to think that its all well and good to provide a nice place for people to work, but that is really only half the job. No matter how nice your surroundings are, offices are for people and if you don't have people who feel comfortable, no amount of furniture, murals, employee amenities are going to make a difference. Companies, after all, are made up of people - not furnishings.