IBM Locations At Which I Have Worked

Useless trivia, courtesy of Google Maps. Some of the main locations within IBM at which I have worked over the last quarter century.

1. IBM Gaithersburg - 800 North Frederick Avenue Gaithersburg,MD - Main Site Bldg 181. July, 1984 - November, 1984. This was the longstanding main IBM Gaithersburg site. B181 was showing a lot of wear and tear when I was there and the spiffy new Bldg 183 (part of the same complex) was just opening up. But this building still retains sentimental value
2. IBM Gaithersburg - 778 Quince Orchard Rd, Gaithersburg, MD - November, 1984 - May, 1985. This was one of a collection of I believe 3 or 4 satellite buildings down the road from the Main Site that sat between Quince Orchard and Firstfield Rd. Seems that IBM hired so many people in 1984 (and thank God for that), they didn't really have any place to put them. This was definitely temporary quarters (2 stories with a tiny soup and sandwich cafe in the basement). Since my apartment complex was a couple of hundred yards behind it, it worked great for me. Walking to work. Imagine that!
3. IBM Rockville - 1301 Piccard Drive Rockville, MD - "Calculon Building" - May 1985 - November, 1988. When Federal Systems branched off into Systems Integration Division, this was the location to which the SID projects were moved. When still living in G-burg, this was a longer commute, but not too bad - avoided I-270 and took MD-355 to Shady Grove Road. When we moved to Frederick, I would have to leave my apartment by 6:00 AM anyway to beat the mess on I-270.
4. IBM RTP - 3039 Cornwallis Road Durham, NC - 002 Complex - Bldg 062 - November, 1988 - April, 1993. This building housed the development lab for NetView and other network management products. It was part of the massive RTP main site complex, which bordered the Durham Freeway and stretched from Alexander Drive down to Cornwallis Road.
5. IBM RTP - 4205 South Miami Blvd Durham, NC - 500 Complex. April 1993 - February, 2000. This complex almost was brand new when I got to RTP - I think it opened in 1987 and was the primary programming lab for all the major Networking Software products within RTP.
6. IBM RTP - 4400 Silicon Drive Durham, NC - IBM had leased a couple of these buildings off Chin Page Rd adjacent to Cree Semiconductor. I only spent about half a year there in 1994 when our group was being moved between 062 and the 500 Complex.
7. IBM RTP - 3901 South Miami Blvd Durham, NC - Bldg 510 - February, 2000 to Present. IBM bought Tivoli Systems in 1996 and plans were put in place to build a dedicated development lab for the system management products developed as part of the Tivoli brand in RTP. Right across the street from the 500 Complex, but, for awhile anyways, was the envy of all of RTP with free perks and a really nice cafeteria.

Just in looking at these satellite images, I am struck by how much more pastoral (and calm) Research Triangle Park appears to be when compared to the I-270 Technology Corridor.

While living in Montgomery and Frederick County, I had become increasingly disillusioned by the traffic, congestion, and cost of living in the outer suburbs of DC.

In Frederick I was commuting 35 miles one way just to get to work in Rockville, which was still 25 miles outside of DC. At this point in time, I-270 was undergoing massive construction, so if I didn't get to the I-270 interchange in Frederick by 6:00 AM, I was screwed. The commute home was always an adventure.

The DC Metro area has a ton of advantages (all the aspects of living in a major cosmopolitan area and an incredible array of varied high-tech jobs). But I could never get past the congestion and cost of living hurdles.

That, combined with a desire to move into commercial product development within IBM and away from federal work, led me to the Carolinas. RTP had all the professional advantages for a software engineer at a much lower cost of living and at a much more measured pace.