GM’s mid-century modern legacy shines in its new Detroit HQ |
However uncertain the outlook is for the American auto industry in the age of tariffs, growing competition from China, and the rise of EV upstarts, the view inside the new boardroom at General Motors is stylishly optimistic.
Part of the automaker’s new corporate headquarters that’s opening January 12, the boardroom is a large and elegant space with a massive marble table surrounded by mainstay elements of mid-century modern design. Fluted wood wall treatments, subtle curves, geometric overhead lighting, minimalist bench seating, and sweeping views of a changing downtown Detroit combine to create a physical manifestation of how GM sees itself evolving through the 21st century—drawing on the past while looking to the future.
When so much of the car industry can feel tossed in an ever-changing sea, the boardroom and the rest of GM’s headquarters evoke a steadier throughline of ambition and legacy.
“It’s culture setting,” says David Massaron, GM’s vice president of infrastructure and corporate citizenship. “I think this space really does a great job of being a beacon of who we want to be, what our identity is. … A headquarters really serves as a reinforcing notion of our culture, of who we are.”
Filling four floors and about 200,000 square feet in a brand-new 12-story tower in Detroit, the headquarters will serve as permanent office space for GM executives and employees in the finance, legal, marketing, and communications departments, and will have open workstations. In contrast to GM’s previous headquarters in the troubled Renaissance Center complex a mile away, the new space is much smaller and more manageable, with room for hundreds of employees, not thousands.
Its design draws heavily on........