Inside the Real-Life 'Severance' Building | Image Source: www.curbed.com
HOLMODEL, New Jersey, March 09, 2025 – If you have seen Severance, the mysterious Apple TV+ series that explores the consequences of the surgical division of labour and personal identities, it is likely that it was captured by the star and imposing headquarters of Lumon Industries. What if you could visit this building in real life? You can. The now iconic structure duplicated as Lumon is none other than Bell Works, a former research centre in Holmdel, New Jersey, which has become a place of pilgrimage for entertainment lovers.
How to do Bell’s work becomes the face of the Lumon industries?
According to the New York Times, when designers began exploring places for Severance, they needed a corporate headquarters that felt cold, carefree and chaired, like the company itself. It was then that Bell Works, the modernist complex designed by the legendary architect Eero Saarinen in the 1960s, was discovered. Originally built like Bell Labs, this vast glass installation once housed some of the brightest minds in telecommunications.
Director Ben Stiller and designer Jeremy Hindle immediately recognized his potential. According to Hindle, the design of the building perfectly reflected the themes of the show: a sterile but strangely captivating space that embodies the dissonance between the “innies” and the “outies” of Lumon’s employees. “There was a part of me that couldn’t believe how perfect it was,” said Cat Gagné at the New York Times. “It was that mental moment.”
What’s the story of Bell’s labs?
Before becoming a business dystopia scene, Bell Labs was a centre of innovation. As Curbed pointed out, the facility has seen innovative technological advances, including the development of fibre optic communications, satellites and cellular phone technology. At its peak, it employed more than 15,000 people, including 1,200 doctoral students. His scientists have even won several Nobel Prizes, especially to detect cosmic microwave background radiation – Big Bang evidence.
By the early 2000s, however, Bell Labs had declined. After the breakup of the 1980s and the restructuring of its research arm, the facility was abandoned in 2007. Developer Ralph Zucker saw an opportunity and turned it into Bell Works, a mixed space that now houses business, restaurants and even coworking spaces.
Why does Bell work to become a tourist attraction?
After Severance’s premiere, fans quickly identified Bell Works as the main stage of the show. According to Travel + Leisure, the building has become a popular destination, as visitors often pose in their large halls and geometric corridors to recreate scenes of the series. “I heard that we have a lot more people entering and taking pictures of themselves in space,” Zucker said Curbed. “We have a whole team working on social media, and they’re flooded.”
While Severance paints Lumon Industries as a sterile and lifeless vacuum, Bell Works is everything but. In fact, it is established with life, full of workers, entrepreneurs and families who visit their public spaces. Zucker recognizes the contrast by saying: “Although Severance depicts headquarters as an empty, lifeless space, we are literally full of life. »
Can you visit Bell Works?
Yeah, but with a few restrictions. Although Bell Works is open to the public, there are no official visits to Severance. Visitors can explore the lower levels, including the atrium, but access to the upper floors is prohibited. “They don’t leave the cameras on the cut ground,” a fan joked on social media.
If you plan to visit Bell Works, remember that Bell Works is still an active workplace. Employees work every day in the building, and as the film school points out, visitors must be respectful. This means not interrupting business or trying to sneak into restricted areas. However, fans are welcome to take pictures outside and in the public courtyard, soaking in the disturbing but fascinating architecture that led Lumon Industries to life.
For those who are fascinated by places in the real world that shape our cultural imagination, Bell Works offers a rare opportunity to enter a piece of television history. If you are a Severance fan or simply intrigued by the modern architecture of the middle of the century, this building is worth a visit.
