LABORATORY OF THE MONTH Tomorrow's Product from Today's Research F RESEARCH is technological insurance for the future, as General Motors believes, the large "premium" paid by GM for its huge new Technical Center at Warren, Mich., should prove to be good assurance for future technological advances. The new center, by providing complete facilities, is intended to extend even further the company's already large basic and applied research and development program. The Technical Center consists of 25 buildings with a total square footage of 2,250,000, ranging from gate houses to large laboratory, office, and shop buildings. I t employs more than 4000 men and women. The buildings, which occupy 320 acres of a 900-acre site, house five major organizations: research, engineering, process development, styling, and service. The administration building, 690 feet long, is the nerve center of the network of research laboratory buildings. I t houses the major administration offices, 250 other offices and laboratories, a 126-seat lecture hall, a 24,000-volume library, and a cafeteria that seats 240.
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The research staff has 11 departments engaged in continuous science research, engineering development, and miscellaneous large and small service problems for GM's many divisions. The applied sciences departments are industrial hygiene, physics and instrumentation, chemistry, electrochemistry, and fuels and lubricants. Engineering research work is handled by the following departments: engineering mechanics, metallurgical engineering, automotive engines and garage, mechanical development, special problems, and gas turbines. The various departments work together closely. The administration building framework is black structural steel based on a 10-foot module. Metal panels, 2 inches thick and of heat-insulating gray porcelain enamel, and greenish heat- and glare-resistant glass constitute the north and south "curtain walls." The glass and panels are set in prefabricated aluminum extrusion frames, 10 feet wide and 1 story high, and sealed with Neoprene weather-seal gaskets. The end walls are of deep red glazed brick.
A 24,000-volume technical library, 6 0 by 1 30 feet, with ample space for future expansion, features a serene color scheme of various shades of gray. Small reading rooms, adjacent to stacks, run full length of the library
The isotope laboratory is modern and well-equipped to use this technique in such applications as studies on engine wear and plating solutions By use of modular construction, movable partitions, and utility columns 10 feet apart, which have hot and cold water, gas, electrical outlets, compressed air, distilled water, and vacuum, the Chemistry Department laboratories and all others may be altered with maximum ease 52 A
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Utility and striking architecture go hand in hand in General Motors' new Technical Center site. The Research Staff a d ministration building, with a glass-walled lobby entrance, houses major administrative offices, 2 5 0 other offices and laboratories, a 126-seat lecture hall, a cafeteria for 2 4 0 persons, and a huge technical library
The vertical columns, spaced at 10-foot intervals, carry all utilities to the laboratories thus providing previously unknown flexibility and interchangeability. Utilities can be tapped off at any story level or at any point on any floor. Lighting and air conditioning can be changed without changing outlet or lighting fixtures. Specially designed benches, keyed to the module, have built-in switches, taps, and valves. Emergency showers are located outside each door. A battery of fans on the roof exhausts fumes from the laboratory. Corridor walls consist of interchangeable bookcases, wardrobes, and cabinets. Luminous ceilings provide 95 foot-candles at desk height. Laboratory work is supported and supplemented by the activities in the research manufacturing, metallurgical research, engineering research, and fuel blending buildings. Attempts have been made to make these industrial and factory-like buildings efficient and handsome as well as functional. Colored bricks, tinted glass, and careful selection of color help attain this goal.
Shadowless lighting from luminous ceilings in the Industrial Hygiene Department laboratory is typical of GM's new laboratories •
Use of ion-exchange resins in analytical work is studied experimentally with a view to furthering this application VOLUME
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1956
Vacuum fusion equipment, used to determine gases in metals, is one of GM's complete array of instrumentation 53 A
