The modernist building that stands in for the Kafkaesque workplace on the Apple TV+ series Severance is a real-life mixed-use development encompassing offices, retail spaces, and restaurants situated not far from New York City.
The structure in question is the Bell Works building (101 Crawfords Corner Rd.) in Holmdel, New Jersey, which can be reached from Manhattan by car in about an hour via the Garden State Parkway.
Opened in 1962, the facility was designed by architect Eero Saarinen, famous for coming up with, among other things, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and for having a first name beloved by crossword puzzle creators.
For many years, the Holmdel building was a research and development center for AT&T's Bell Labs. Today, Bell Works, as the building was rechristened in 2013, serves as office space for several tech companies.
And on Severance, the Bell Works exterior and striking, window-filled atrium serve as the headquarters of the fictional Lumon Industries, which, in the dystopian world of the show, severs the consciousness of employees into separate “innie” and “outie” personalities for being at work and being in the rest of the world, respectively.
There’s no public tour offered at Bell Works, according to Curbed, but Severance fans can drop by to gawk at the building’s outdoor spaces and stroll the big central atrium, with its enormous windows and distinctive ring of rectilinear walkways. Food and shops can be found in retail space on the main floor.
Developer Ralph Zucker, who brought about the Bell Labs–to–Bell Works revamp, told Curbed that the complex is growing increasingly popular with social media users ever since Severance came along.
The space has previously appeared onscreen in numerous commercials, movies, and other TV shows such as American Horror Story and Law & Order: Organized Crime.
Severance fans should prepare themselves for a space that doesn’t have quite the same dystopian chill in person. There’s a lot more natural light and the interior design scheme incorporates more colors than Lumon allows.
“We always understood that people would realize that [the show] was not, you know, real life,” Zucker told Curbed.
Another thing Severance tourists should know: They can’t go upstairs at Bell Works. People are trying to work up there and most of the show’s scenes are shot on soundstages so there’s nothing Severance-related to see on the upper floors of Bell Works anyway.
So go out to Holmdel and snap a pic of the Bell Works building’s mirrored exterior and have a look around the atrium, but don’t make a nuisance of yourself.
Nobody wants a repeat of the days when Breaking Bad fanatics would throw pizzas on the roof of that privately owned home in Albuquerque.