Goodbye, View
On Wednesday, we’ll be starting our day in a new office in Cambridge. It seems nice enough. But, I’ll miss our spot on the 12th floor at 200 State Street, in Boston.
I love this neighborhood. The old buildings intermingled with newer ones, all of them made to fit the curvy cow paths of Boston. The water is beautiful, too, and has a draw — my kids would surprise me at work from time to time after a trip through the Aquarium across the street. And the fond memories from the watering holes around these parts, where we built new ideas and tried to fix old, tired ones.
More than anything, though, I’ll miss the view. From any corner of our office, any meeting room, is a wall-to-wall, nearly floor-to-ceiling view of Boston. We see the Zakim and the North End. Faneuil Hall and the financial district. The Greenway. Bunker Hill. The water. The sky.
The aesthetics are what hit me first. But what really grabbed me was the expansiveness of the view. The uncountable nooks and crannies of the buildings. The big sky. The horizon out past the buildings and the water.
We moved here from a dark and gloomy office in the leather district, a startup darting between the footfalls of stomping giants. Our old office had no view, no natural light, and tracings of the foul dust of startup dread.
All of that changed when we arrived at 200 State Street. We were in a new space, flooded with light, with a view of the world. What gloom? We could see out past our issues, to the broader world we were trying to reach.
Right after we finished unpacking, we were acquired by IBM. It was an outcome fit for our view. Our job was to help move Big Blue to the Cloud.
We got to work before the ink was dry. Our mandate has expanded three times since we moved here just over 2 years ago, from overseeing an acquisition inside IBM, to overseeing a portfolio of cloud offerings, to overseeing all of that plus a huge chunk of heritage IBM business.
We’ve seen a lot from here.
On Tuesday, IBM is moving us to a new office on Binney Street, in Cambridge. Second floor. We’ll be sharing the space with other teams from around IBM.
A move can be a good thing. I’ve seen it first-hand. As for the new office, I’m sure it’s fine. But, I’ll miss what I can see from here.
Goodbye, 200 State Street. Thanks for the view.
