Bell Laboratories (a.ok.a. Bell Labs), situated in Holmdel, New Jersey, was designed by Eero Saarinen within the Fifties. The scientific and analysis facility for the Bell Phone Firm that helped develop the cellular phone and the communications satellite tv for pc was much less expressionist than the modernist structure grasp’s company plans for IBM and Common Motors; however the campus’ oval web site, with its water tower within the form of a transistor, had the identical epic scale and clear strains, all set amongst lakes, lawns and bushes. An enormous glassy foyer fashioned the constructing’s coronary heart – it’s exactly this component that options within the Apple TV+ collection ‘Severance,’ serving because the setting of the dystopian workspace of Lumon Industries.
Season two of “Severance” premiered 17 January 2025 on Apple TV+ – seen right here, the imaginary inside of the constructing, as interpreted within the collection’ story
(Picture credit score: Apple TV+)
Bell Labs: a quick historical past
Saarinen’s utopian office design for Bell Labs grew to become a actuality when the constructing was accomplished in 1962. It was additional expanded within the Nineteen Seventies. The dramatic modernist advanced expressed a brand new imaginative and prescient for workspace structure in all its modernist glory – massive scale and assured volumes that kind a landmark composition in its wider suburban setting. The dramatic, reflective glass-enclosed central quantity with its open atrium and uncovered, inside-out hallways fashioned a central characteristic throughout the campus.
After Bell Labs closed within the Eighties, it modified a number of homeowners – builders had been all in favour of its historical past, sq. footage and potential however had bother translating it right into a financially viable plan. Considered one of them, Lucent, wished to eliminate it, as most bidders noticed an on the spot upscale suburb: tear down the Labs and sprinkle the lawns with McMansions. Conservationists had been alarmed, however the odds had been in opposition to them; on the time no less than, Holmdel had few hipsters out there for a loft, and in any case, Bell Labs’ workplace areas had been largely artificially lit and reasonably drab.
Within the noughts, the location’s homeowners, Most well-liked Actual Property Investments, vowed to maintain it zoned for enterprise, preserving the landscaping, however condemned Saarinen’s constructing as unworkable and a candidate for demolition. Extra uproar ensued, and the ultimate plan was one other compromise, stripping again the additions to uncover Saarinen’s authentic glass construction, foyer included. The panorama was additionally retained.
From Bell Labs to Bell Works
Quick-forward by extra discussions, and at present, present proprietor Impressed by Somerset Growth owns the two million-square-foot workplace advanced in Holmdel which has been redesigned into what the developer calls a ‘metroburb’ – a phrase they coined to explain a web site bringing metropolis life into the suburbs. Their acquisition in 2013 was adopted by a brand new identify – Bell Works – and a redesign led by architect Alexander Gorlin. The brand new mixed-use masterplan consists of places of work, eating places, procuring, housing, a public library and extra. Open seven days every week and a vibrant hub for its area people, the constructing certainly is a world away from its ‘Severance’ iteration – a stripped-down, uncanny model of a contemporary workspace.
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Supply: Wallpaper
