It’s history—in more ways than one.
The decades-long reign of Bell Labs’ research campus in Holmdel, New Jersey, as a major force worldwide in technological discovery and development is over, and so is any chance for the building to recapture its former years of glory. Parent company Lucent Technologies is selling the 6-story, 2-million-square-foot industrial research laboratory to a private developer who plans to demolish it, probably next year.
The building’s size, combined with its lab-specific design—a windowless structure with a series of deep cement bays every 40 feet on each floor and a vast amount of common space—makes it economically infeasible to operate as is or to convert into an office building. The building was opened in 1962 by then-parent company AT&T during its fat and sassy years as a monopoly. Lucent was spun off in 1996, 12 years after AT&T was broken up by federal antitrust legislation.
“No...
