” , which stars Sandra Oh as the first woman of color to head the English department at fictional Pembroke University. Alie researched images of Dartmouth, Yale and Harvard for that traditional Ivy League look and found that throughout the eras, the furniture hardly changed at all.
In true hierarchical fashion, Professor Joan Hambling, played by Holland Taylor, who’s become unpopular with the students as she gets on in years, has her office moved to the basement of an athletic facility. Alie laughs when recalling how she detailed the design of that space, with paint peeling off the wall and dead plants due to lack of light in a room isolated from the rest of the English department.
Alie’s design is in line with the traditional, often accurate, academic offices depicted in film and TV. Professor Sean Maguire’s office in “Good Will Hunting” might be one of the most honest of college professors’ domains — notoriously dark and claustrophobic.