[Infowarrior] - Holmdel Bell Labs facility update: it stays!

[Richard Forno]

Holmdel Bell Labs facility update: it stays!

Posted Sep 1st 2006 7:16PM by Ryan Block
http://announcements.engadget.com/

Well here's a good bit of news to kick your weekend off with. Remember that
piece we did profiling the Bell Labs Holmdel Facility that was looking like
it was about to be razed by a real estate development firm which recently
purchased the property? Well, after the public outcry that followed in the
blogosphere and abroad (which apparently resulted in a deluge of calls,
letters, and emails), it looks like the development firm, PREI, isn't only
going to keep a huge portion of the site, they're going to do more to
further its historic value. At a Holmdel Community Center meeting attended
by Joe Ferrara (who originally tipped us off to the situation), PREI
announced that the landscape, oval, tower and two of the original Phase I
Eero Saarinen-designed buildings will remain (including the 80-foot tall
center lobby), in addition to developing a historic library to highlight
Bell Labs' artifacts and paraphernalia related to the facility. Also being
built are five new adjacent buildings (in orange, above), though two of the
original Phase II buildings (and two wings that were added later) will be
demolished. Kinda sucks the facility couldn't be left entirely intact, but
they're keeping the core of the Labs and Saarinen's work -- which is really
all we can ask for -- and are adding to the office space without taking away
from the pastoral surroundings. Apparently the new tenants are expected by
2009, and we can only hope they'll appreciate their digs and live up to the
Holmdel legacy of innovation.

P.S. -To anyone who wrote, called, or TPed PREI, we thank you, and
technology history thanks you. Have a nice Labor Day!