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T
he hallways of Pfizer’s first-ever facility once swarmed with more than 1,000 workers tasked with making some of the most popular drugs of our time, including the erectile dysfunction treatment Viagra and the antibiotic Zithromax. Nowadays, the building in Brooklyn, New York, carries scents of chocolate, baked goods, beer, and a lingering waft of construction.
Pfizer began to wind down its production of drugs here decades ago, and the last of the company’s Brooklyn employees had to leave in 2008 when the pharmaceutical giant closed down the site as part of a wave of modernizing changes. But Pfizer’s birthplace has since become a much sought-after space in one of Brooklyn’s most cramped neighborhoods, with about 1,600 people now working in the building.
The eighth floor, which used to be reserved for the offices of Pfizer’s chief executives, now hosts counterterrorism training run by ...
