Man who bought the ‘Severance’ building for $27,000,000 completely changed future of development
He spent $273 million and a decade transforming the site
While Adam Scott's Mark Scout is pitched as the main character of Apple TV+'s Severance, we'd argue that Lumon Industries itself is the MVP.
Despite only having produced 19 episodes, the weird retrofuturistic aesthetic of Lumon and its various corporate drones have made Severance one of the most unique shows around.
Although it came as no real surprise to any of us, Apple TV+ just confirmed Severance season 3 is on the way and that we hopefully won't have to wait another three years for the next series.
With this in mind, the cast could soon find themselves heading back to the old Bell Labs Holmdel Complex in New Jersey.
Advert
The fact that Keanu Reeves voiced the Lumon building in Severance season 2 only reiterates the prominance of the location, which has also become something of a tourist hot spot that's been swamped since the series became so popular.
In a video, Ralph Zucker explained what it was like to overhaul the former AT&T research center after buying it for $27 million in 2013. In the end, it would take another $273 million and a decade to renovate it into the Severance-worthy site it is today.
Saying it was a 'thrill' to see the team transform Bell Works into Lumon, Zucker gushed: "The retransformation of Bell Works back into what it was beforehand, this space devoid of life, devoid of humanity.
"And the juxtaposition of that to what Bell Works really is -- this amazing place, teeming with life, with people, an inspired place to work was just mind blowing."
Severance production designer Jeremy Hindle said that their minds 'exploded' when they came across the restored Bell Labs, with them having to put in some serious work to turn it from Zucker's vibrant hub into the 'brutalist' halls of Lumon.
Zucker continued: "For me, walking in one morning and seeing what the Severance crew had done to Bell Works with their incredible magic was jarring.
"It literally made my heart skip a beat. I had to remember that this was temporary. This was just the movies, and it would be over within a few weeks."
He explained how it started in the 1950s as Bell Labs and was designed by the legendary Finnish architect Eero Saarinen to serve "as an incubator, an ideas center."
Sadly, AT&T's restructuring led to Bell Labs falling into decline in the '80s. By the time it got to 2006, owners Alcatel-Lucent had even considered demolishing the building.
Saying that he found it 'devoid of life' when he first stepped inside, Zucker continued to outline his plans: "We could take this great atrium and turn it into a pedestrian street, bring life into the building, create what we now know to call a 'metroburb'."
It apparently took five long years to get through all the red tape, claiming that it couldn't all be done at once. Instead, they tackled different spaces at different times and leased them as they went.
Now boasting a library, a nursery, and a community feel, Hindle compared it to Lumon: "I really don't find it that dissimilar in a strange sort of way. It just happens to be the nice version."
The video explains how Apple spent $5.1 million filming in New Jersey for season 1, upping it to a jaw-dropping $24 million in season 2, and it seems it's paid off for all involved. In 2025, Bell Works is now 98% let and leases to companies including Cisco and Nvidia.
Zucker concluded: "Bell Works is a canvas, a blank slate for people to paint the picture of their daily lives.
"You can paint a gray, boring, mind-numbing world. You could paint a vibrant, alive space."