Slobo, Rob and Fred,
I understand your points, and agree with them to an extent. But there is a distinction between an office, which is supposed to bring oder out of chaos and operate like an efficient machine (which we all know is bullshit), and an artist's studio or a house. Thus with commercial, we get the Modern aesthetic because the aesthetic, if not the original intent of the early European Modernists, is to show order and mastery, much like a 14th century church. Especially in America where the real religeon is buiness.
As Fred pointed out, modernism and minimalism is expensive to maintain. One thing out of place and its a problem. This reality, and the American interpretation of Modernism as a style rather than an overarching ethos of social, cultural and political order, ensured Modernism's failure. At least in the US. Remember the introduction of Modernism in America was Phillip Johnson's show "The International Style" at MoMA. For the original European Modernists, it was anything but a "Style". It was a revolution. The style didn't comport with actual machine age principls, either. It was style, rather than substance. Meanwhile Buckminster Fuller was taking the machine age ideas and making them reality, and Frank Lloyd Wright was building humane modern residences, but Mies and SOM received the money and had the influence. A shame.
For residences, Modernism can only work if you have a staff to keep it maintained. Otherwise it just feels shitty. Same goes for public buildings, the unmaintained hulks of which litter the earth.
All that being said, I like these interiors. I work in a similar environment, and so long as I can still find privacy when I need it, the entire experience is agreeable.