The Scientist November 2019

mended the demolition of 20 pharma-

related buildings in the last decade.

Facilities that used to manufacture anti-

biotics such as penicillin and cephalo-

sporins are particularly likely to meet

this fate: without complete decontam-

ination, there’s a risk that antibiotic

remnants could contaminate any future

products made in such a building, pos-

ing a risk to customers allergic to these

compounds. Testing for contamination

is expensive, and drug companies are

required by law to finance this, so “most

Western companies choose to demolish

and build anew,” Wiederseim says.

But some facilities, such as Pfizer’s

Brooklyn building, find new lives out-

side of pharma. In 2006, biofuel com-

pany Xethanol Corporation decided to

purchase a manufacturing plant owned

by Pfizer in Augusta, Georgia, and ret-

rofit the site with equipment to produce

ethanol from biomass waste streams from

industries in the surrounding area. And in

2011, Florida-based Caribbean rum maker

Club Caribe bought an old GlaxoSmith-

Kline plant in Cidra, Puerto Rico, to use

as a distillery. Wiederseim also has several

clients looking to repurpose pharma facil-

ities into ones that specialize in cannabi-

diol processing. However, such extreme

repurposing is still unusual, Wiederseim

stresses. Because pharmaceutical facilities

were built for very specialized purposes,

“they make very poor Walmarts.”

Back in Brooklyn, the Pfizer plant is

reaching the end of its transformation

into a modern hub for local food manu-

facturers, performance artists, and small

companies—a community that Acumen’s

Rosenblum says reflects the diversity of

the surrounding neighborhood. The con-

struction debris and ancient steel pulp-

mixers were finally removed from the

fifth floor in August—a difficult feat, as

construction workers had to blast through

the formerly windowless brick walls to

get some of them out—and the Blue Man

Group moved into the space in September.

While overseeing the building’s transi-

tion, Rosenblum has salvaged several trin-

kets in remembrance of Pfizer’s legacy. A

doormat bearing the company’s logo is vis-

ible as one enters Acumen’s office on the

sixth floor. Near Rosenblum’s desk sits a

flattened, two-foot-wide ring of stainless

steel—once part of a submarine-like hatch

used to open up the pulp-mixers if any-

one needed to go inside for cleaning, he

explains. In an industry undergoing such

rapid changes to the way it treats property,

these are pieces of history. g

Katarina Zimmer is a New York–based

freelance journalist. Find her on Twitter

@katarinazimmer.

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Pfi zer’s birthplace has become

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cramped neigh borhoods.