Aperture Science Enrichment Center

"Good people don't end up here."

- GLaDOS

The Aperture Laboratories are the headquarters of Aperture Science and the main location of Portal and Portal 2. Located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, the facility is monitored by the computer GLaDOS. Parts of the place were damaged when GLaDOS was "destroyed".

Pre-GLaDOS era
Built in Cleveland, Ohio sometime between the founding of Aperture Science in 1953 and 1973, the Aperture Laboratories is the main headquarters for the company. Although it is unknown if the same complex was used during the time Aperture was a shower curtain manufacturer, it is likely, as the earliest mention of the facility was in 1973.

In 1979, after Cave Johnson had contracted mercury poisoning, he laid out a three-tier plan for the future of Aperture: the Heimlich Counter-Maneuver, the Take-A-Wish Foundation, and most notably, the "Portal" Project, which gave birth to the development of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. Testing for the Portal Project called for the construction of the Enrichment Center, a large area of Aperture Laboratories consisting of test chambers and offices, where subjects utilize the Handheld Portal Device. However, some evidence suggests that testing was planned as early as 1976, as seen in a confidential letter from Cave Johnson, describing the most suitable test subjects to be found.

In 1986, Aperture Science hear of similar portal technology being developed by Black Mesa, and counter this, and construction of the first Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System begins in Aperture Laboratories, with the aim to help accelerate the Portal Project.

GlaDOS' control
Several years after 1996, GLaDOS is completed, and is switched on during the Aperture Science's first annual bring-your-daughter-to-work-day. What exactly happens after this is unknown, but what is known is that GLaDOS becomes self aware, and flooded the Enrichment Center with deadly neurotoxins, hoping to seize control. She failed this first attempt, and a morality core was installed and security added to her control room to insure she was kept under control. GLaDOS still managed to wrestle control of the facility however, and was soon in full control of the Enrichment Center, with several test subjects as her rats, including Aperture employee Doug Rattmann. What goes unexplained however, is that for some reason or another, the entire facility was abandoned, leaving it in a state of disrepair, with seemingly no attempt made to stop GLaDOS.

An undetermined amount of time after GLaDOS' takeover, Chell is awakened from some sort of stasis pod, and guided as a test subject by GLaDOS, utilizing the completed Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. Chell finds the facility showing clear signs of decay and neglect, with GLaDOS showing signs of instability. Chell later comes across hidden alcoves in the chamber walls, where desperate messages are written on the walls by Doug Rattmann, who seemed to have gone mad during his testing. At the conclusion of Chell's testing, instead of the cake that was promised, she is met with an incinerator, which she narrowly escapes. It is here that GLaDOS reveals her true murderous nature, but attempts to convince Chell to return to the testing area and wait for a "party associate". Chell ignores her, and makes her way through the decaying maintenance areas of the facility, where none have clearly been for years. After much abushes by GLaDOS and her turrets, Chell finally finds herself in GLaDOS' main control center. After destroying GLaDOS' morality core, GLaDOS, now free of her murderous restraints, begins to once again flood the building with neurotoxins. Chell manages to incinerate the A.I.'s Personality Cores before being consumed by the toxins however, and GLaDOS is seemingly destroyed, and Chell is transported outside to the parking-lot outside, where she is dragged away by the previously mentioned "party associate" and put into stasis back inside.

Despite her apparent destruction however, GLaDOS files a letter to Chell, claiming to be "still alive" and that she is not angry with her. GLaDOS then activates a series of Personality Cores and re-captures Aperture Laboratories, which was heavily damaged after GLaDOS' explosion.

Hundreds of years pass and the facility is falling apart, with test chambers crumbling and foliage rampant throughout. The personality cores become restless, showing concern for the ruined state of the complex. One such core, Wheatley, awakens Chell from stasis, and convinces her to escape the facility, bringing Wheatley with her. Chell agrees, and the two set out across the building complex. After navigating through the maintenance areas, with Wheatley babbling incessantly, the pair find an elevator, which Wheatly attempts to activate. It begins to descend however, and before Wheatley can stop it, the two find themselves facing GLaDOS, who sits in ruin in the remains of her control room. GLaDOS, bitter towards Chell, forces her to abandon Wheatley and proceed to the testing area, where she is once again given the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device for testing. Due to the state of the facility however, GLaDOS is trying to keep the test chambers stable at the same time, so reluctantly forces Chell to proceed into the maintenance areas to pass, where Chell is free from GLaDOS' watch for the first time.

Enrichment Center
The computer-aided Enrichment Center is apparently the main Aperture Laboratories facility. It is used to test one of Aperture Science's most successful achievements, the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device.

GLaDOS once filled most of the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin, leading to her Morality Core being added.

Test Chambers
The Enrichment Center contains numerous "Test Chambers" where test subjects are trained to perform simple to complicated tasks with the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. The tests are monitored by GLaDOS and security cameras. Aperture Science scientists can watch the tests in small offices spread around the test chambers.

Each test subject is accommodated in a "Relaxation Vault" with no privacy, as it is set within a test chamber, with transparent walls, and connected to the outside with a portal. A Relaxation Vault typically features a bed, a radio, a toilet saying "Your business is appreciated." after being flushed, and a small table. Located in Test Chamber 00, Chell's vault also contains on the small table a "Portal Test Sequence - Hazard Identification Card" clipboard, and an empty cup.

A notable feature among the Test Chambers is the stark atmosphere. All of the walls and floors are a plain gray, and the overall feeling is one of a clinic or clean room. This motif continues until Chell escapes, at which point the atmosphere becomes dark and foreboding while Chell navigates through the innards of the Enrichment Center. The known Test Chambers range from Test Chamber 00 to 19.

Maintenance areas
These areas are in a very bad condition, suggesting they have been abandoned for a while. There can be seen a pneumatic tube network (with occasional broken tubes) that brings the Weighted Companion Cube and Weighted Storage Cubes into the Test Chambers, elevators bringing the Sentry Turrets and other machinery.

During her tests and then her escape, Chell also comes across Ratman dens while going through the maintenance areas. These dens often have obscure scribblings and advice on how to advance.

Offices
The offices are rooms that the Aperture Science staff used to watch test subjects executing their task in the Test Chambers. They contain chairs and computers and seem to have been last used long ago. Computers seem to be stuck into some sort of loop, some are disconnected, their cases open, and several chairs are knocked over. Clipboards and empty cups are scattered on the desks. Other offices contain projection rooms where a looping slideshow called "Dollar$ and SENSE: Competing with BLACK MESA" can be seen twice.

It is currently unknown if the Test Chambers offices were still used after GLaDOS was created.

GLaDOS's room
GLaDOS is stored in a big room with a small amount of computers, hanging from the middle of the ceiling.

Trivia

 * The projectors used for the "Dollar$ and SENSE" slideshow appear to be based on the model LC-XT1 by the Eiki company. The texture file includes a remote not seen in-game.


 * One of the ambient sounds heard in the Test Chambers is recycled from one of the Ravenholm's.


 * "Arbeit Laboratories" ("Arbeit" = "work" in German) can be seen on some crates inside the original Borealis. It is possible this name was recycled into "Aperture Laboratories".

List of appearances

 * ApertureScience.com
 * Portal
 * Half-Life 2: Episode Two
 * Portal ARG
 * Portal 2