The research evaluated the remodeled lobby and reception office of the Linn- Benton Housing Authority, Albany, Oregon. Programming goals identified five needs: protect client privacy, provide for orderly queuing at the reception counter, decrease contact time between clients and staff, and improve reception office for attention focused tasks and for space intensive tasks. These five goals formed the basis of a post-occupancy evaluation (POE) of the lobby and reception office. Concepts from cognitive theory and culture and methods from ethnography and environment-behavior research were used to study public visitors and staff in these areas. Data were analyzed according to cognitive cultural categories then compared to criteria specified for building performance. The performance was measured and evaluated for concordance between the criteria and performance. Ethnographic methods provided insights into the knowledge, beliefs, and values of the users of the study area. This information served as a measure of building performance reflecting cultural meanings attributed to the study area; it provided information about how visitors and staff used these meanings to mediate their experiences within the building. Data was compared to data from the programming study and from an earlier series of exit interviews with public users after the remodeling was completed. Information from the programming phase was used to develop the criteria for building performance. Exit interviews were based on open-ended questions about activities, impressions, and feelings about the housing authority lobby. This contributed to the measures of performance. Data collected for this research was based on ethnographic interviews, semi-structured interviews, ethnographic observations, and behavior maps. These four methods allowed triangulation of data to ensure adequate and reliable coverage of the complexity and variety of behaviors and activities within the study area. This information provided the major data for evaluating building performance. The evaluations of the five programming goals indicated generally positive results for privacy, queuing, contact with staff, and space intensive tasks. There was a negative evaluation for attention focused tasks. Cultural meanings attributed to the remodel design include an improved sense of self-worth, sense of confidence and trust identified as professionalism, improved staff security, and improved valuation of privacy. / Graduation date: 2004 / p.58 missing from both paper copies. Author unavailable to supply.