The GM Technical Center is a
General Motors
The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
facility in
Warren, Michigan
Warren is a city in Macomb County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The 2020 Census places the city's population at 139,387, making Warren the largest city in Macomb County, the third largest city in Michigan, and Metro Detroit's largest suburb.
T ...
. The campus has been the center of the company's engineering effort since its inauguration in 1956. In 2000 it was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
; fourteen years later it was designated a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
, primarily for its architecture.
History
The "Tech Center" was designed by architect
Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer noted for his wide-ranging array of designs for buildings and monuments. Saarinen is best known for designing the General Motors ...
, with construction beginning in 1949. The original campus was completed in 1955 and ceremonially opened by
President
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*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
on May 16, 1956. The facility cost the company approximately
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
100 million at the time.
In the following decades, the number of buildings at the Tech Center increased with the massive Vehicle Engineering Center (VEC), several wind tunnels, a battery development area, and most recently a pre-production operations (PPO) building. This growth was spurred by increasing amounts of technology in vehicles and by General Motors continuing centralization of engineering.
Description
The "Tech Center" is a 710-acre campus located in Warren, Michigan. The center includes 38 buildings and can house over 21,000
employees. The campus is bounded by Van Dyke Avenue on the east, by Mound Road on the west, by Chicago Road on the north, and by 12 Mile Road on the south. The Tech Center is divided by a north-south railroad right-of-way: the western half includes research, design, and advanced engineering activities while the eastern half includes more planning, current engineering, pre-production, and service activities.
The site offers an advanced technology business atmosphere emphasizing flexibility, efficiency, innovation, quality, safety, and security. It includes of roads and of tunnels, 2 water towers as well as 2 lakes one of which is at least . The lakes are used as emergency fire reservoirs in the event of a catastrophic fire. Fire safety has been a priority at GM since the historic industrial fire occurred in 1953 at the GM
Hydramatic plant in Livonia, Michigan.
West Area
* Research & Development ( )
** The Metallurgy Building
** The Administration Building and exhibition hall
* Design Center ( )
* The Lake
* Sloan Engineering Buildings (North, Central, and South)
* The Central Cafeteria ( )
* Manufacturing Centers
** Manufacturing A Building
** Manufacturing B Building
* Wind Tunnels
** Aero Lab
** Climatic Wind Tunnel
East Area
* Cadillac Headquarters
* CCO Building (formerly Chevrolet Headquarters)
* Vehicle Engineering Center (VEC)
* Advanced Engineering Center (formerly Powertrain Engineering)
* Pre-production Operations (PPO)
* Training Center
* Service Engineering Center
* After-sales Engineering
Architectural significance
![General Motors Technical Center, Warren, Michigan, 1945; 1946-56](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/General_Motors_Technical_Center%2C_Warren%2C_Michigan%2C_1945%3B_1946-56._Dome-00060v.jpg)
The Tech Center was the first major independent project of Eero Saarinen after leaving
his father's firm, and proved to be foundational to his later success. The architectural style and collaborative methods of development he practiced were used in his successful applications in other large-scale corporate campus environment for clients including
Bell Labs
Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984),
then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996)
and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007),
is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...
,
IBM, and the
John Deere World Headquarters
The John Deere World Headquarters is a complex of four buildings located on 1,400 acres (5.7 km2) of land at One John Deere Place, Moline, Illinois, United States. The complex serves as corporate headquarters for agricultural heavy equipme ...
. His design for the Tech Center received architectural accolades beginning in 1956, when it was hailed as "one of the great 20th Century compositions born out of the sense of civic responsibility of a great corporation" by
Max Abramovitz
Max Abramovitz (May 23, 1908 – September 12, 2004) was an American architect. He was best known for his work with the New York City firm Harrison & Abramovitz.
Life
Abramovitz was the son of Romanian Jewish immigrant parents. He graduate ...
, and it was described as an "Industrial
Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...
" by ''Architectural Forum''. Its architectural importance was cited as the primary reason for the center's 2014
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
designation.
The
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...
honored it in 1986 as the most outstanding architectural project of its era.
See also
*
List of National Historic Landmarks in Michigan
The National Historic Landmarks in Michigan represent Michigan's history from pre-colonial days through World War II, and encompasses several landmarks detailing the state's automotive, maritime and mining industries. There are 43 National H ...
*
*
Canadian Technical Centre
Notes
Further reading
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External links
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{{Authority control
Eero Saarinen structures
National Historic Landmarks in Michigan
National Register of Historic Places in Macomb County, Michigan
Buildings and structures in Macomb County, Michigan
Technical Center
Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan
Industrial buildings completed in 1955
Warren, Michigan
1956 establishments in Michigan