Holmdel, New Jersey, was home to a huge, beautiful, and empty headquarters of the now defunct Bell Labs. Now the campus is home to tech startups, a library, and a host of other businesses.
Bell Labs' giant, former headquarters sat empty for years. "The company’s 2 million-square foot complex was zoned for office use by a single tenant. Coming to terms with the impossibility of finding a single tenant for the building, the town’s zoning committee consented to alter the site’s zoning to accommodate multiple uses, "Anthony Paletta writes for CityLab.
A project to revitalize the building included modernizing the utility spaces and getting rid of a lot of cubicles among other things. But the unique building maintains its midcentury charms. "The office floors are now 70 to 80 percent leased by a variety of tenants—mostly tech and coworking companies—and one is headed by a former Bell Labs employee," Paletta writes.
FULL STORY: A New Urbanist Developer Gives Saarinen a Reboot
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This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
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