Landon's description of early Apple office space sounds like a nice compromise.
The OS group was in one “pod” of Infinite loop’s building One (we were one of the first groups to move in, having done our bit of purgatory in an off-campus building on Bubb road for a number of years). The floor layout was a big improvement over a sea of cubicals; the building architects had designed very workable areas in each corner of the building. Each corner pod had about a dozen offices (with doors!) surrounding a living-room sized area that had couches and lots of whiteboard space. If you left your office door open you could halfway participate in the conversations happening in the central area, and if you wanted privacy you just closed your door (which was a nice, solid hunk of wood that stopped sound pretty well). The setup was designed to let people both collaborate and to get quiet think-time. After years of working in cubicals, it was great.