Car designers plugging into surging SoCal scene

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When General Motors Corp. unveiled the PUMA electric vehicle at the New York auto show last week, the automotive world took notice.

The tiny two-wheeled, two-person vehicle is capable of traveling 35 miles at 35 miles per hour on a simple three-hour charge from a wall outlet. But the vehicle wasn’t developed in Detroit; it was the brainchild of the automaker’s design studio in Burbank.

Surprising that GM would design a vehicle of the future in an area where the last major automobile factory closed in 1992? Not to those who know that Southern California is called “Detroit West” because of its cluster of design studios.

“There is tremendous pressure on us to develop more alternative ways of transportation that are green,” said Frank Saucedo, director of design at GM’s Los Angeles Advanced Design Center. “California is a market of early adapters. It will play in Middle America if it does well here.”

The entrepreneurs and car makers who are hoping to transform the auto industry with a new generation of electric vehicles are now drawing on that heritage and foundation by locating their design operations here.

Tesla Motors Inc. designed its latest car, the Model S, out of temporary headquarters in Hawthorne, and plans to soon build a permanent local design studio. Fisker Automotive designed its Karma plug-in hybrid luxury sports sedan in Irvine.

Those facilities form a direct line from the region’s very first design studio, which was established by Toyota Motor Corp. in 1973, and later was joined by ones from Honda Motor Corp., Volkswagen AG and competing Asian and European auto companies.

“Los Angeles has a great voice in design and what it wants from design. Car design studios may change in size but overall I don’t see them going anywhere else,” Saucedo said.


New era of design

Car designers have a natural attraction for Southern California and its car culture.

It’s the nation’s No. 1 car market and a place where designers are imbued with consumers’ thirst for fresh designs. It’s also the leading destination for Asian imports and the U.S. headquarters of several Japanese car makers.

Other attractions are the top-notch talent churned out by the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena Saucedo is a graduate as well as air regulators’ demands to replace old gas guzzlers with the cleanest and most fuel-efficient vehicles.

But for a few decades leading up to the 1970s, the design college’s graduates headed to Detroit, Japan or Europe. That all changed when Toyota opened its design studio in a warehouse near Los Angeles International Airport, then later moving to Newport Beach when the space became too small, according to Stewart Reed, chair of the school’s transportation design program.

“It was a bold move and allowed for a new era of design to be born,” Reed said. “Los Angeles was viewed as a place of many cultures and languages where companies from all over the world could meet, influence and challenge each other.”

Honda, which established U.S. headquarters in Torrance in 1959, has emerged as a leading design force in Los Angeles County, operating no fewer than three studios: two in Torrance, including one for its luxury Acura division, and one in Pasadena that develops concept cars and is led by Dave Marek, an Art Center graduate.

Indeed, Marek is far from the only Art Center alumnus to head up a design studio. There is also Chris Chapman at BMW/Designworks in Newbury Park, Freeman Thomas with Ford Advanced Design Center in Irvine and Geza Loczi at Volvo Monitoring and Concept Center in Camarillo.

“There are professionals teaching you at the center, so your projects reflect what they are doing in the industry,” said Loczi, who graduated in 1965. “That allows you to hit the road running, right after graduation.”

And their output has been prodigious. Among the cars that have been designed by the school’s graduates, according to Reed, are the Chevrolet Corvair, Ford Mustang, Porsche Boxster, the Ferrari Enzo, the Toyota Prius, and a few models of the Hummer H2. There also have been a few notorious misses, such as the Ford Pinto.


Keeping secrets

The design process has changed over the years with the advent of revolutionary digital modeling software, but the basics are essentially the same. Designs often start with a hand sketch and end with a clay model. It’s a process nearly invisible to the public compared to a big automotive assembly plant.

But one of the main reasons that the region’s status as a center of design isn’t particularly well known is that automakers are famously secretive about their design work. New automobiles are covered in fabric or plastic even when they are street tested, and most studios will not allow the press past the front lobby.

At Volvo’s studio in Camarillo, the exterior doors are kept locked and six layers of tinted film cover the central design studio’s window so people can’t see in. At BMW/Designworks’ studio in Newbury Park, visitors must sign a form promising not to reveal for 15 years any confidential information they learn while at the studio.

“It’s just part of design culture,” said Franz von Holzhausen, design director for Tesla Motors and a previous designer for Mazda Motors, GM and Volkswagen. “It’s kind of like the CIA. We don’t allow pictures in the studio and restrict public access to minimize eyes on the design right up to the very end because there is a lot of capital at risk.”

There also have been some recent bumps in the road. Two advanced car design studios have recently shuttered Chrysler’s in Carlsbad in March 2008 and Mitsubishi’s in Cypress last month amid the collapse of the auto industry, which has threatened GM and Chrysler with bankruptcy.

Still, despite those closures, Southern California’s leadership in auto design seems assured given the size of the auto market here and the continuing push by air quality regulators to move to automobiles with zero emissions.

Electric car makers Tesla and Fisker have opened design studios here, with Tesla designing its Model S at a temporary studio in Hawthorne. Von Holzhausen said his staff of 12 will move into a permanent local facility this year.

“I’ve seen a downsizing in staff at car design studios in general and know that some car designers are looking to acquire skills to learn design for products beyond just cars,” von Holzhausen. “But California is a leader in embracing the new, and as long as that stays the same, design won’t leave anytime soon.”

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