The General Motors Technical Center is one of Eero Saarinen’s most acclaimed projects. Dedicated in 1956, the “Corporate Cranbrook” was years in development, starting with initial designs by Eliel Saarinen and J. Robert F. Swanson (with Eero consulting) in 1945.
After a hiatus in the project by GM and reorganization of the Saarinen Swanson office, Eero completely redesigned the scheme in late 1948. The new design is high modernism at its finest: clean lines, experimental materials, and a lot of flat roofs. We can see Eero’s boxy proposal here, a treasured sketch from Cranbrook Archives:
Eero Saarinen sketch of General Motors Technical Center, Warren, Michigan, 1949. Copyright Cranbrook Archives.
As the son of a world-famous architect building for one of America’s greatest companies, the project drew lots of attention well before it opened. Architectural Forum, in fact, featured the Tech Center as its cover story in July 1949. But what to show of the yet-constructed campus?
Glen Paulsen drawing depicting Eero Saarinen’s proposed General Motors Technical Center, Saarinen Saarinen and Associates, 1949. Copyright Cranbrook Archives.
Eero turned to a talented young architect in his office, Glen Paulsen, to delineate the Tech Center for the magazine cover. Paulsen was known for his complex and sophisticated architectural renderings, and had worked for various firms as a renderer before coming to Saarinen’s office in 1949 as a design architect. He sketched out several different options for Forum , and my favorite includes the entire layout of the cover, not just the buildings:
Concept art for cover of Architectural Forum by Glen Paulsen, depicting Eero Saarinen’s proposed General Motors Technical Center, Saarinen Saarinen and Associates, 1949. Copyright Cranbrook Archives.
Finally, in June 1949, the magazine hit the presses with a crisp, color drawing by Glen Paulsen depicting Eero’s General Motors Tech Center.
Architectural Forum 91, no. 1 (July 1949). Cover art by Glen Paulsen of Saarinen Saarinen and Associates. Courtesy of Cranbrook Academy of Art Library.
—Kevin Adkisson, Curatorial Associate
Cranbrook Kitchen Sink 
THREE THINGS SHOULD BE MENTIONED:
EERO OPENLY SAID THAT THIS PROJECT WAS MESIAN THAT HE HONORED MIES IN IT’S DESIGN.
THE OTHER WAS THAT THIS PROJECT SPARKED A TREND IN THE BUSINESS WORLD TO DEVELOP BEAUTIFUL, MODERN CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS, MANY OF WHICH WERE STUNNING.
ONE OF MY FAVORITE ONES IS THE JOHN DEERE HEADQUARTERS IN MOLINE.
THERE CAN BE NO QUESTION THAT MODERN DESIGNS INSPIRED MODERN PRODUCTS.
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