In This Months Business Monthly

Getting the cooks tour of the former Rouse Company headquarters in Town Center last month was akin to visiting a place I used to live. Our work places after all are where we spend most of our day and they hold memories both good and bad. A workplace like the large open Frank Gehry designed lakefront building was a community in its own right. When I worked there in the early eighties I was one of 500 or so employees who populated the space. I was also fortunate enough not to be always confined to just one area. Our department interacted with other departments and I had friends in other areas as well. It was a neat building to move around in. It remains one of the nicer environments I have ever labored in.

These days it is a different place. No longer the corporate headquarters of a public company with nationwide operations, it is now a bit of a white elephant, inefficient and underutilized. Though Gehry himself once suggested that it be torn down, instead it is poised to become a signature building in the redevelopment of Columbia Town Center. Plans are well underway for the repositioning the building for a new role.

You can read this month’s column here.