Bell Labs former R&D center sold
Bell Labs, once dominant innovators in the field of technology has long since fallen from glory. Their old research center, where many of their inventions took shape (including the touch-tone telephone!) has been vacant since 2007. Now, it looks like the historical building is finding new life.
As far back as the 1930s, the site was a research center for AT&T. The scientists who toiled here were pioneers in developing the transistor, cellphones, touch-tone dialing and fiber optic communications, amassing seven Nobel Prizes.
But since 2007, when the property was closed by Alcatel-Lucent, which had acquired it in a spinoff from AT&T, the structure's fate has been uncertain. At one point, another developer proposed demolishing it, setting off an international outcry from scientists and architects who feared the loss of a piece of intellectual history and an architectural gem.
...The redevelopment plan, which would cost well over $100 million, could transform the former Bell Labs building into a commercial center for Holmdel, a community of about 17,000 people. With no downtown, most of the town's retail properties now sit along busy Route 35.
Oxfordshire's Leafield Technical Centre is now home to several race car and other high tech companies. Beautiful buildings in a lovely rural setting.
"The site was originally taken on by Marconi, on behalf of the Post Office, in the early part of the twentieth century and came to play a hugely influential role in British telecommunications during the two world wars. Subsequently it became a BT training facility, before being sold in 1993 to TWR and the Arrows F1 team. The facility was bought by MCT in 2003 and was home, briefly, to the Super Aguri F1 team."