101 Crawfords Corner Rd., Holmdel Township, New Jersey. County/parish: Monmouth.
Added to the National Register of Historic Places June 26, 2017. NRIS 16000223.
1 contributing building. 1 contributing site. 1 contributing object.Also known as:
The Bell Labs Holmdel Complex (later known as Bell Works) is a development in Holmdel Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. It functioned as a research and development facility for the Bell System and later Bell Labs between 1962 and 2007. The centerpiece of the campus, a modernist structure designed by Eero Saarinen, was dubbed "the biggest mirror ever" for its mirrored exterior. Roche-Dinkeloo, the successor firm to Saarinen's architectural practice, designed two expansions to the original structure.
The complex, landscaped by Sasaki Associates, includes a series of plantings and one-way roads. A pair of elliptical roads surrounds the core of the complex, which is divided into parking lots and lakes surrounding the main building. The structure itself contains about 2 million square feet (190,000 m2), spread across six stories. The building has a rectangular massing, with a concrete pedestal and a facade made of black anodized aluminum and reflective glass. Each elevation of the facade has an entrance. The first story is partially below ground level due to the site's slope. Internally, the original building is divided into four pavilions (formerly containing labs and offices), connected by passageways on the building's perimeter. The pavilions surround a large cross-shaped atrium running along the building's major axes.
Bell Labs had owned the site since 1929, conducting experiments and technological research there. Saarinen was commissioned in April 1957 to study the site; he was hired in 1959 to design the building, and the first two pavilions were fully operational by September 1962. To accommodate the company's growing needs, two additional pavilions were constructed between May 1964 and September 1966. The building was expanded again in 1982 to its final size. Restructuring of the company's research efforts reduced the use of the Holmdel Complex, and in 2006 the building was put up for sale. The building has undergone renovations into a multi-purpose living and working space dubbed Bell Works. Since 2013 it has been operated by Somerset Development, which redeveloped the building into a mixed-use office for high-tech startup companies.
The complex is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been the subject of several awards. A number of film, television series, and commercials have been filmed in and around Bell Works, including Severance, The Crowded Room, and Law & Order: Organized Crime.
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