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Experts Roll Out Plan to Save Bell Labs

HOLMDEL, NJ-The 70-page proposal for the Eero Saarinen-designed complex is the result of a charrette conducted by a coalition of experts.

By Eric Peterson | Updated on January 20, 2009

HOLMDEL, NJ-Plans for redeveloping the sprawling former Bell Labs complex here have taken a step forward with the publication of a final report of a multidisciplinary charrette held in 2008 by a coalition of state and national organizations. That effort “developed design approaches for the preservation and sympathetic and sustainable reuse of the internationally significant modernist landmark,” says architect Michael Calafati, an organizer of the charrette.

The complex designed by Eero Saarinen consists of two million square feet on six floors on 470 acres in this Monmouth County community. Bell Labs completely vacated the premises in 2005, and it’s currently owned by that company’s successor, Alcatel-Lucent. Preferred Real Estate Investments had a deal on the table to buy it for $250 million, but the offer fell apart in late 2007 after PREI failed to get its mixed-use redevelopment plans approved.

The 70-page charrette book summarizes the work of 36 design professionals and scholars who assembled over a three-day period and worked collaboratively to explore solutions to adapting the Bell Labs site to new uses while protecting the site’s landscape. The book provides a history of the Saarinen-designed building and the Sasaski, Walker and Associates-designed landscape, which have been deemed eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. The book also includes oral histories from former employees at Bell Labs.

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