Cars & Concepts

A deep dive inside GM Design

(Michelle & Chris Gerard via AUTOWEEK)
BB
By:
Brett Berk
November 28, 2017 05:00 AM

General Motors originated the automotive design department back in the 1920s -- treating styling as an integral part of the vehicle creation process, as opposed to something totally secondary to engineering, was one means to differentiate itself from the competition.

The tactic, developed under the leadership of the dynamic Harley Earl, worked. By the 1950s, GM controlled more than half of the domestic car market and was the largest private employer in the world.

So in the post-World War II era, when the company set out to create a cutting-edge site in Detroit dedicated to car design, it needed something that suited the division’s primary role.

GM executives initially wanted to hire the firm of Albert Kahn -- designer of the Motor City’s premier factories, municipal buildings and homes -- but Earl insisted on the office of Eliel Saarinen, another Detroit-based group known for inspired art nouveau compositions. ­

Unfortunately, Eliel passed away before the project could get underway. Fortunately, his son Eero, a rising modernist, ended up spearheading the commission, his first major project and one that secured his reputation. (Eero went on to design landmarks that include the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the TWA terminal at JFK Airport and corporate headquarters for IBM, CBS and John Deere, as well as some of the most iconic Knoll furniture of the midcentury modern era.)

 

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Now a National Historic Landmark, much of the 710-acre General Motors Technical Center -- its buildings, interiors and famed Thomas Church landscapes — have been kept just as they were when they were completed in 1956, preserving not only an incredible array of site-specific furnishings, art and objects, but a rich legacy of inspiration.

“These Saarinen buildings were a whole environment created specifically to facilitate the design and engineering of cars and trucks,” says Michael Simcoe, almost reverentially, while seated in one of the two built-in semicircular couches in his pristine Saarinen-designed office, which overlooks the larger of the complex’s man-made lakes. Simcoe, a 33-year GM veteran, is the company’s vice president of design. “You can get blasé coming in here every day, but it’s incredible to work in a Saarinen original. Nothing has changed in all of those years — except for the people who occupy this space.”

The biggest change to the campus is about to begin: a new design studio to be constructed on-site. “It’s simply a need for space,” Simcoe says. “We’re held back by our ability to put physical properties in the space we currently have.”

The hemispherical metallic dome and broad outdoor brick patio that sit along the property’s y-axis have long been icons of the Design campus, used to view new models and concepts and demonstrate them for approval by team members and top executives. But these buildings have always stood off to one side of the complex as a sort of theatrical stage. The new building will surround these spaces in a U and hug them in toward the current offices and studios. “The Dome and Patio are symbols of Design,” Simcoe says. “Now, rather than being outliers, they become central -- our town center.”

 

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Designing a new building to fold around a revered and holistic benchmark of high modernism is no simple task. We were present at Design for the unveiling of a model of the new structure, created by Tony Warren, a GM senior creative designer, and we were pleased to see that it seems sensitive without being mimetic. “The new building takes the character of the Saarinen building without aping it,” Simcoe says.

In addition to the clever siting, some of this connection will be accomplished via the use of consistent materials and finishes, figuratively and physically linking the two structures.

Some will be done via a similar interplay of light and views. And some will be done via an attention to detail and furnishings, which aim to be as considered and accomplished as those in the original building.

Interior designers are working with storied modern furniture company Herman Miller, also with headquarters in Michigan. Their goal is to create innovative ergonomic solutions to the giant open-plan space that guarantee collaboration and privacy while staking out a unique but congruous focus on advancing the design conversation.

Of course, this is Michigan, where the weather is frosty for more than half the year and everyone is used to driving everywhere. One of the core questions from stakeholders about the new building -- being constructed on what is now an employee lot -- pertained to parking.

A new multistory garage has been discussed as close in as possible -- the first structure built as part of the new plan -- but the scale of the new studio is indisputable. “Let’s put it this way,” Simcoe says. “When we create the new building, a lot of people will easily be getting in their 10,000 steps per day.”

 

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