GM Technical Center Celebrates 60 year anniversary

[Keith Seymore]

From the Tech Center news:

Sixty years ago today, the GM Technical Center was dedicated on May 16 at a remarkable ceremony with 5,000 of the nation's leading figures in science, engineering and education - including President Dwight D. Eisenhower as guest speaker.

The vision of the size and scope of the Tech Center came from two very influential leaders of GM - Alfred P. Sloan Jr. and Harley Earl. In 1956 the Tech Center cost around $100 million - or about half a billion in today's dollars - to develop and was staffed by around 4,000 scientists engineers, designers and other personnel.

Fast forward to today, the Tech Center is now home to more than 19,000 employees who design, develop and build the world's best vehicles. The Tech Center was known in 1956 as one of the largest industrial research centers in the world, and is now a National Historic Landmark for its significance as one of the most important works of modernist architect Eero Saarinen.

In May 1956, The New York Times quoted GM President Harlow H. Curtice as saying "I do not believe I exaggerate when I say that the center is unique with respect to size, scope and the vision behind it. There is not another facility like it in the world."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWMhpp9TTns

Tech Center postcard from my files: