While working for Design Interpretive, the Industrial Design Group of Bell Northern Research (which is now Nortel), a challenge was presented: to address the issue of mass production of the Buried Cable Terminal which was formerly made of dark green painted sheet steel.

These terminals are placed at reasonable distances from each other in residential and rural areas where telephone cables are buried. If there are service problems, technicians are able to work between the terminals, to run tests and locate possible line breaks.

In order to have the terminals fit their surroundings, they were designed to appear as posts. An irregular (as opposed to flat) surface was used, to make attaching posters difficult and their removal easy. The units were to be extruded aluminum, with an integral door hinge, floating central plate and die cast cap, all of which would be anodized dark brown in colour, again to blend in with the environment. These were design-registered to Ross J. Slade for BNR/Nortel and may be seen dotting the North American countryside.