General Motors Tech Center Island, Warren, Michigan |
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"The challenge for the future of General Motor's Tech Center Campus is twofold: the consolidation of vehicle design and engineering into an integrated campus, and the extension of Eero Saarinen's historic 1950s design into a relevant and prescient workplace for GM's next century of innovators. The Master Plan, developed in collaboration with KMD and Ove Arup & Partners, creates a clear organization of public perimeter and dual private interior spaces, each centered on lakes of equal size. The pedestrian Saarinen Mall links the two quads. The Master Plan seeks to restore the interrelation of nature and artifice in a vision that integrates 21st Century technology and campus amenities within a more sustainable environment." - Hargreaves.com
As the GM project consumed nearly every single employee in the firm, I was fortunate enough to work (my) island almost exclusively, at first. The island served as an important counterpoint to the new Tech Center (blue) building while also meant to be a major campus gathering space for corporate private events as well as public car unveiling events. The island featured a major round landform that's been sliced on one side to function as an amphitheater while I, still fresh from working for Dan Kiley, proposed a large bosque of Honey Locust to provide shade with paths running beneath. Unfortunately there are no site photos of this island in its completed state and worse, the island is now completely removed for a new parking garage completed since 2019. What is salvaged here are, Google Earth images and old photos of the model. Note latest Google aerial photos taken March 2020, no cars in parking lot and probably the garage. Owner: General Motors Architect(s): KMD Architects Year: 2000 Role: Landscape Designer while at Hargreaves Associates External Link(s): Project Location |