Just before he died in 2000, Robert Probst, the man who came up with the cubicle configuration so prevalent in office spaces today, apologized deeply for unleashing the “monolithic insanity.” Fortune magazine says his intentions had been well-meaning.

The cubicle was not born evil, or even square. It began, in fact, as a beautiful vision. The year was 1968. Nixon won the presidency. The Beatles released The White Album. And home-furnishings company Herman Miller in Zeeland, Mich., launched the Action Office. It was the brainchild of Bob Propst, a Coloradan who had joined the company as director of research.

We staff at World of Wonder feel lucky that we never had to work in the typical cube environment. Our floors are laid out in a fluid pattern of concentric circles (see floor plan), with the WOW Report desk at the chewy caramel center. Unfortunately, we don’t get many visitors.