Top of page

Photo, Print, Drawing Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, Bell Laboratories Road, Holmdel, Monmouth County, NJ Bell Telephone Laboratories Bell Labs Holmdel Laboratories

View 45 images in sequence.
[ Photos from Survey HALS NJ-7  ]

More Resources

View 6 images in sequence.
[ Drawings from Survey HALS NJ-7  ]
[ Data Pages from Survey HALS NJ-7  ]
[ Photo Captions from Survey HALS NJ-7  ]

About this Item

Title

  • Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, Bell Laboratories Road, Holmdel, Monmouth County, NJ

Other Title

  • Bell Telephone Laboratories Bell Labs Holmdel Laboratories

Names

  • Historic American Landscapes Survey, creator
  • Somerset Development Bell Works
  • Toll Brothers
  • Bell Laboratories
  • Dinkeloo, John
  • Roche, Kevin
  • Saarinen, Eero
  • Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo & Associates
  • Sasaki, Walker and Associates
  • Sasaki, Hideo
  • American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T)
  • Lucent Technologies, Inc.
  • Jansky, Karl G.
  • Frank Briscoe Construction Company
  • Kiley, Dan
  • Bell Telephone Laboratories
  • Western Electric Company
  • Alcatel-Lucent
  • Eero Saarinen and Associates
  • Toll Brothers, sponsor
  • Stevens, Christopher M., transmitter
  • Harshbarger, Patrick, historian
  • Hunter Research, Inc. , historian
  • Harnsberger, Douglas J., photographer
  • Stevens, Christopher M., delineator
  • McNatt, Jason W., delineator
  • McPartland, Mary, transmitter

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 2000

Headings

  • -  campus - Modern
  • -  corporate headquarters
  • -  suburban life
  • -  Modern architectural elements
  • -  gardens - Modernist
  • -  forests
  • -  fields
  • -  driveways
  • -  parking lots
  • -  ponds
  • -  water towers
  • -  lawns
  • -  shrubs
  • -  hedges (plants)
  • -  trees
  • -  maples
  • -  laboratories
  • -  testing laboratories
  • -  office buildings
  • -  science
  • -  research
  • -  research facilities
  • -  meadows
  • -  trails & paths
  • -  agriculture
  • -  agricultural land
  • -  New Jersey--Monmouth County--Holmdel

Latitude / Longitude

  • 40.36516,-74.16747

Notes

  • -  Significance: Bell Laboratories Holmdel was constructed from 1959 to 1966 according to a plan and design of Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen (1910-61). Although Saarinen passed away in September 1961 before the project was completed, his proteges Kevin Roche (1922- ) and John Dinkeloo (1918-81) finished the work as Saarinen had envisioned. Bell Labs is a significant pioneering example of a type of modern American suburban landscape that has been variously termed a corporate campus, corporate estate, corporate villa or industrial Versailles. Bell Labs was one of five of Saarinen's completed corporate campuses; the other four were the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan (1948-1956), the IBM Manufacturing and Administrative Center in Rochester, Minnesota (1954-1956), the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown, New York (1956-1961) and the Deere & Company Headquarters in Moline, Illinois (1956-1964). While General Motors was the earliest of the five and arguably the most influential, the others illustrated how basic design features centrally-located large-scale modernist buildings, entry drives, prominent water features, parking lots and an encompassing pastoral landscape could be arranged in various ways to project a powerful corporate presence. It was a distinctive type of new postwar suburban landscape designed at an automobile scale, very different from prewar corporate headquarters, which had been mostly located in downtown skyscrapers or adjacent to manufacturing facilities. At Holmdel, Saarinen placed a six-story, 700-foot-long cubical, modernist building within a site of over 460 acres (the building was expanded to 1,000-foot-long in 1982-85 by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo & Associates). The building is best known for its innovative use of mirrored-glass curtain walls, which reflect pools and pastoral landscape back at the outside viewer. It also has been noted for its high-tech modular interior spaces, which were designed to Bell Labs' exacting requirements. Traffic circulation was provided by a grand entry drive or esplanade, side entrance drives for employees and service vehicles, and an elliptical belt road surrounding the building. Service buildings were strategically placed outside the ellipse and hidden by graded mounds or trees. Visitors parked near a grand reception lobby while thousands of employees parked inside the ellipse and used less-conspicuous side entries. The main "spray pool" at the front of the building was symmetrical with fountains forming a curtain wall, while the side pools were asymmetrical, softening the edges and providing a transition between the formality of the main building and the surrounding pastoral landscape. The side pools were replaced with additional parking when the main building was expanded in the 1980s. A rear pool and walking path were constructed behind the lab to replace the side pools. This amoebic-shaped pool was planted with specimen trees and shrubs and included fountains and an island connected to the shore with a pedestrian bridge. While Saarinen was fully in charge of all aspects of design and known for his incredible attention to detail, he collaborated closely with his clients and sub-consultants. At Bell Labs and several of his other corporate campuses, Saarinen worked with Japanese-American landscape architect Hideo Sasaki (1919-2000), founder of Sasaki, Walker and Associates. During the 1950s and 1960s, Sasaki and his students at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design became known for a multidisciplinary approach to landscape architecture, and this approach meshed well with Saarinen's equally strong feelings about comprehensive design concepts, flexibility to clients' demands, and a balance of idealism with pragmatism. Although the fundamental scheme for Bell Labs was Saarinen's, Sasaki worked within the natural flat topography to create a landscape plan that eased the square and hard-edged building into a park-like setting. He retained elements of the landscape's agricultural past, notably tree-lined streams, broad lawns where there had once been fields of corn, and copses where there had once been farmhouses. Near the building itself, the landscape became more formal with rows of trees and shrubs planted in geometrical patterns that reinforced the division of drives, parking lots, walkways and building entrances. Bell Labs, when its first phase opened in 1962, was immediately recognized as a significant blending of architecture, engineering and landscape design. Architectural critic Allan Temko described it as "Bell's palatial baroque park, which, in this country at least, is unrivaled as a formal setting for a technological building." It was a fitting monument to Bell Labs, a leader in advanced information, communications and military technologies.
  • -  Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N140, N141
  • -  Survey number: HALS NJ-7
  • -  Building/structure dates: after 2006 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1959-1966 Initial Construction
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1982-1985 Subsequent Work
  • -  National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 16000223

Medium

  • Photo(s): 45
  • Measured Drawing(s): 6
  • Data Page(s): 41
  • Photo Caption Page(s): 4

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HALS NJ-7

Source Collection

  • Historic American Landscapes Survey (Library of Congress)

Repository

Control Number

  • nj1850

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • image
  • pdf

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress does not own rights to material in its collections. Therefore, it does not license or charge permission fees for use of such material and cannot grant or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute the material.

Ultimately, it is the researcher's obligation to assess copyright or other use restrictions and obtain permission from third parties when necessary before publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the Library's collections.

For information about reproducing, publishing, and citing material from this collection, as well as access to the original items, see: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscape Survey (HABS/HAER/HALS) Collection - Rights and Restrictions Information

Obtaining Copies

If Digital Images Are Displaying

You can download online images yourself. Alternatively, you can purchase copies of various types through Library of Congress Duplication Services.

HABS/HAER/HALS materials have generally been scanned at high resolution that is suitable for most publication purposes (see Digitizing the Collection for further details about the digital images).

  • Photographs--All photographs are printed from digital files to preserve the fragile originals.
    • Make note of the Call Number and Item Number that appear under the photograph in the multiple-image display (e.g., HAER, NY,52-BRIG,4-2).
    • If possible, include a printout of the photograph.
  • Drawings--All drawings are printed from digital files to preserve the fragile originals.
    • Make note of the Survey Number (e.g., HAER NY - 143) and Sheet Number (e.g., "Sheet 1 of 4"), which appear on the edge of the drawing. (NOTE: These numbers are visible in the Tiff "Reference Image" display.)
    • If possible, include a printout of the drawing.
  • Data Pages
    • Make note of the Call Number in the catalog record.

If Digital Images Are Not Displaying

In the rare case that a digital image for HABS/HAER/HALS documentation is not displaying online, select images for reproduction through one of these methods:

  • Visit the Prints & Photographs Reading Room and request to view the group (general information about service in the reading room is available at: https://aj.sunback.homes/rr/print/info/001_ref.html). It is best to contact reference staff in advance (see: https://aj.sunback.homes/rr/print/address.html) to make sure the material is on site. OR
  • P&P reading room staff can provide up to 15 quick copies of items per calendar year (many original items in the holdings are too old or fragile to make such copies, but generally HABS/HAER/HALS materials are in good enough condition to be placed on photocopy machines). For assistance, see our Ask a Librarian page OR
  • Hire a freelance researcher to do further selection for you (a list of researchers in available at: https://aj.sunback.homes/rr/print/resource/013_pic.html).
  • You can purchase copies of various types, including quick copies, through Library of Congress Duplication Services (price lists, contact information, and order forms for Library of Congress Duplication Services are available on the Duplication Services Web site):
    • Make note of the Call Number listed above.
    • Look at the Medium field above. If it lists more than one item:
      • The entire group can be ordered as photocopies or high-quality copies.
      • All the items in a particular medium (e.g., all drawings, all photographs) can be ordered as photocopies or high-quality copies.

Access to Originals

Please use the following steps to determine whether you need to fill out a call slip in the Prints and Photographs Reading Room to view the original item(s). In some cases, a surrogate (substitute image) is available, often in the form of a digital image, a copy print, or microfilm.

  1. Is the item digitized? (A thumbnail (small) image will be visible on the left.)

    • Yes, the item is digitized. Please use the digital image in preference to requesting the original. All images can be viewed at a large size when you are in any reading room at the Library of Congress. In some cases, only thumbnail (small) images are available when you are outside the Library of Congress because the item is rights restricted or has not been evaluated for rights restrictions.
      As a preservation measure, we generally do not serve an original item when a digital image is available. If you have a compelling reason to see the original, consult with a reference librarian. (Sometimes, the original is simply too fragile to serve. For example, glass and film photographic negatives are particularly subject to damage. They are also easier to see online where they are presented as positive images.)
    • No, the item is not digitized. Please go to #2.

  2. Do the Access Advisory or Call Number fields above indicate that a non-digital surrogate exists, such as microfilm or copy prints?

    • Yes, another surrogate exists. Reference staff can direct you to this surrogate.
    • No, another surrogate does not exist. Please go to #3.
  3. If you do not see a thumbnail image or a reference to another surrogate, please fill out a call slip in the Prints and Photographs Reading Room. In many cases, the originals can be served in a few minutes. Other materials require appointments for later the same day or in the future. Reference staff can advise you in both how to fill out a call slip and when the item can be served.

To contact Reference staff in the Prints and Photographs Reading Room, please use our Ask A Librarian service or call the reading room between 8:30 and 5:00 at 202-707-6394, and Press 3.

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Historic American Landscapes Survey, Creator, Somerset Development Bell Works, Toll Brothers, Bell Laboratories, John Dinkeloo, Kevin Roche, Eero Saarinen, et al., Harnsberger, Douglas J, photographer. Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, Bell Laboratories Road, Holmdel, Monmouth County, NJ. Holmdel Monmouth County New Jersey, 2000. translateds by Stevens, Christopher M.Mitter, and Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/nj1850/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Landscapes Survey, C., Somerset Development Bell Works, Toll Brothers, Bell Laboratories, Dinkeloo, J., Roche, K. [...] McNatt, J. W., Harnsberger, D. J., photographer. (2000) Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, Bell Laboratories Road, Holmdel, Monmouth County, NJ. Holmdel Monmouth County New Jersey, 2000. Stevens, C. M. M. & McPartland, M., transs Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/nj1850/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Landscapes Survey, Creator, et al., photographer by Harnsberger, Douglas J. Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, Bell Laboratories Road, Holmdel, Monmouth County, NJ. trans by Stevens, Christopher M.Mitter, and Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <aj.sunback.homes/item/nj1850/>.