Interestingly enough, at my old job we had a large control building that had a very large basement. Like 10,000 sq ft large. Rumor had it that when it was designed and built in the late 80’s/90’s they needed very large computers, known then as “cans” to operate the plant. The layout of the plant would be up on the cans like a light bright, with colors and indicators that light up for various reasons. The plant was divided up among a certain amount of computers to control certain areas. Sometime between the original design and the completion they went to what we called Op Stations ( mid 90’s). These were DEC computers, later Alpha stations. Everything became point and click, and we only needed one can per computer. They also realized that a basement was a bad idea for sensitive electronics, so everything got moved upstairs.
Anyways, for decades, we had this big, empty basement that just sat there gathering dust, with odds and ends stored there like old furniture and models of the plant. Finally around 2013 they finished it out and built offices and meeting rooms for some project that needed space.
