by Christine Chen
Fall 2017 Intern
Before joining PSG as an editorial
intern, I worked as a chemist in Cambridge, MA, in a six-story structure that
once belonged to the New England Confectionary Company—famous for their
colorful wafers and conversation hearts, and more commonly known as Necco.
Back in 1928, the Necco candy factory
embodied
the “promising future of American architecture,” but in 2001, with
manufacturing industries moving out of the Cambridge area, Necco sold the
building to a pharmaceutical company. The building was gutted out to include an
open space at the center. Glass-enclosed elevators moved between floors of
biomedical research laboratories.
The cafeteria where I’d meet my
colleagues for lunch used to be the power plant. A “winter garden” with
tropical plants had replaced the loading dock. The water tower, once painted in
colorful stripes like the Necco wafers, was replaced with a double-stranded
helix of DNA.
How amazing that a candy-making
factory became a center for a cutting-edge research facility, a place where I
had been going day in and day out mixing chemicals to synthesize new molecules.
The same place where, years ago, workers had mixed batches of sugars and
flavors to churn out Necco treats. There were days my lab mate swore he caught
a whiff of peppermint candies!
No comments:
Post a Comment