Chrysler Headquarters and Technology Center - Design

Design

CRSS Architects designed the Chrysler Technology Center in a cross-axial formation where its elongated atrium topped concourses converge with an octagonal radiant skylight at its center. The rounded-off exterior corners are meant to evoke a polished car body. It was reported on an NPR game-show that according to a Businessweek article, the Chrysler headquarters was designed so that it could be converted to a shopping mall. It was later reported, based on mall industry analysis and speculation from local real estate investors, that the mall design story was a hoax. Chrysler also has executive offices at the landmark Chrysler House in downtown Detroit.

The facility includes a full laboratory level with various wind tunnels, 1.8 mile evaluation road, noise/vibration facility, electromagnetic compatibility center, environmental test center (able to create rain, snow, and extreme temperatures), pilot production plant, and wind tunnel with thermal testing capability. A 57,000 square foot training center was included from the start, with a teleconferencing center and fitness center. The basement hallways are large enough for two cars to pass each other, allowing some testing within the building; and the test cells have their own separate foundation, to avoid vibrating the rest of the complex.

Read more about this topic:  Chrysler Headquarters And Technology Center

Famous quotes containing the word design:

    With wonderful art he grinds into paint for his picture all his moods and experiences, so that all his forces may be brought to the encounter. Apparently writing without a particular design or responsibility, setting down his soliloquies from time to time, taking advantage of all his humors, when at length the hour comes to declare himself, he puts down in plain English, without quotation marks, what he, Thomas Carlyle, is ready to defend in the face of the world.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life ... for fear that I should get some of his good done to me,—some of its virus mingled with my blood.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    To nourish children and raise them against odds is in any time, any place, more valuable than to fix bolts in cars or design nuclear weapons.
    Marilyn French (20th century)