Former site of AT&T’s Bell Laboratories was converted to live-work space for artists. On October 25, 2011, Landmarks designated the Bell Telephone Laboratories Complex, now known as Westbeth Artists’ Housing, in the Far West Village as an individual City landmark.

The complex comprises five buildings on the block bounded by West, Bethune, Washington and Bank Streets. The complex was built between 1861 in 1926, and stands as a rare example of 19th century industrial architecture. AT&T’s Bell Telephone Laboratories used the complex as a research facility for nearly seventy years, until relocating to New Jersey in 1966. The complex’s primary architect was Cyrus Eidlitz, a Jewish- Austrian émigré and noted designer of industrial and institutional structures. The buildings are generally neo-Classical in style and clad in buff brick. In the early 1930s, the complex was altered to accommodate New York Central’s construction of its elevated railway, now known as the High Line, through the third floor of 51 Bethune Street.

In 1968 the National Endowment for the Arts, with funds provided by the J.M. Kaplan Fund, converted the complex into an artists’ colony with 383 live-work spaces, a gallery, and a performance space. Architect Richard Meier oversaw the conversion, which was his first major project. Meier lived in the complex, as did choreographer Merce Cunningham and photographer Diane Arbus, among other artists.  (read more…)