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A New Urbanist Developer Gives Saarinen a Reboot

A suburban megacampus for corporate giant Bell Labs makes way for a more diverse second life.
“Wherever [Bell Labs] could squeeze in cubicles, [they did]. We knocked that all out and brought it back to the original vision,” says developer Ralph Zucker.
“Wherever [Bell Labs] could squeeze in cubicles, [they did]. We knocked that all out and brought it back to the original vision,” says developer Ralph Zucker.Peter Dant Photography

In 2007, the future looked bleak for Eero Saarinen’s Bell Labs building in Holmdel, New Jersey. Once a factory of innovation, the Bell System monopoly that sustained it had dissolved—the remnants of a mighty 6,000-person workforce gone with no replacement tenant in sight. Now, all has been saved with the building reborn as Bell Works.

Developer Ralph Zucker, President of Somerset Development, was intrigued by the building. In spite of hesitant brokerage houses and potential tenants, as well as the site’s restrictive zoning, he finally bought the building in 2013. “People said it was obsolete,” Zucker commented during a recent tour of the structure. “The building is amazing, an ahead-of-its-time, Mid-century Modern marvel. [But] the building had been zoned into obsolescence.”