Elvis Has Left the Building | TotalPicture Radio - The First Podcast for Career Advancement, Employment Trends, Recruiting, and Leadership Development

Elvis Has Left the Building

Tuesday, 20 June 2006

Another Sad Chapter in the Tragic Destruction of AT&T Unfolds

Bell Labs - Photo: Charles Hayden

Driving up to Bell Labs in Holmdel, New Jersey, was an experience itself. The scale of the building is immense. Like driving up to the Mall of America. This was once the Research Center for America. For all of those who still believe great brands are somehow immune from CEO hubris, and executive egos run amuck, look no further than AT&T. Just ten years ago, AT&T was ranked number 5 on The Fortune 500.

The New York Times reports on the demise of Bell Labs.
“For 44 years, a six-story, two-million-square-foot structure nestled here in a 472-acre exquisitely pastoral setting was a habitat for technological ferment. The vaunted Bell Labs, whose scientists invented the laser and developed fiber optic and satellite communications, touch-tone dialing and cellphones, modems and microwaves, was housed in the glass building, set far off the road, providing the community with some luster — not to mention a tax bonanza. These days, the building's lobby, with its magnificent glass ceiling, is off limits to all but those having formal appointments with Lucent Technologies, which disassembled and dispersed much of Bell Labs after the collapse of the technology market in 2000. "Few outsiders have viewed its breathtaking scale or walked along the perimeters to admire displays of technological breakthroughs like a 1929 movie camera or an early office switchboard straight out of "Bells Are Ringing." But now, the building has been sold, and the public will be invited in for at least one date while it remains, which may not be much longer. The developer who will create a future for the property says the structure will have to be demolished.”

I’ve spent many hours working here, thanks to a long relationship with AT&T - the former AT&T - not the current incarnation of SBC buying the brand at a fire sale price. I wrote and directed an annual event film for AT&T called the “Spirit of Innovation.” The series celebrated the accomplishments of Bell Labs , and AT&T Labs researchers and scientists.

Lucent still uses “Bell Labs Innovations” as its tag-line. But the heart, soul, and Talent that was once Bell Labs - that once innovated, dreamed, and created in this building, is long gone.

Aerial Photo: Charles Hayden (former Bell Labs researcher)