Renowned landscape architect, Hideo Sasaki (1919–2000) led the firm of Sasaki, Walker and Associates in designing the landscape around the Holmdel labs, which sits on 134 acres of land A water tower, designed by Saarinen, meant to invoke the shape of a transistor has become a local point of interest.

Image Courtesy of Egils Zarins

Eero Saarinen (1910–1961) was born in Finland, son of an architect, and grew up in Michigan. Considered one of the top modernist architects of the twentieth century, he designed the Gateway National Arch in St. Louis and Dulles International Airport. His sudden death in 1961 meant that he did not see the completion of several projects, including Bell Labs of Holmdel.

Image Courtesy of Aline Saarinen Collection, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Some called the building the “Black Box.” And while it may have looked that way from the outside the interior was sun filled. Saarinen described “Emerging from concentration in a laboratory or office, the individual will come upon the sweeping, uninterrupted views of gently rolling hills and formal planting and of the winter-garden interior court.” 

The building was expanded again in 1982 and then sold in 2013. Today it is Bell Works, a metroburb with offices, a public library, dining, and retail. 

Image Courtesy of Egils Zarins

The Holmdel location eventually had 6,000 users on their PBX (private branch exchange). Peter Warwick who came to Holmdel from Manhattan in 1965 worked on creating a digital switching network to connect terminals to computers. He designed the electronic interface for the relay control which allowed any data and voice user to call any other user in the data network.