An American Versailles: The General Motors Technical Center Designed by Eero Saarinen

On View through December 31, 2025

An American Versailles explores the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan, designed by celebrated architect Eero Saarinen.  Curated by GM’s Lead Curator and Archivist Natalie Morath, it is the first time this material, which includes art, furniture, photographs, and video, has been shown beyond Detroit.

Eero Saarinen’s (1910 – 1961) first major architectural project was the GM Technical Center.  Construction began in 1949, and the $125 million campus officially opened on May 16th 1956 with an address by President Eisenhower.  Saarinen wanted the center to be a symbol of future industrial design with buildings that were both beautiful and functional.  With its steel domed showroom, the Technical Center campus was dubbed “The Industrial Versailles” by Life Magazine and “An American Versailles” by LOOK. 

Saarinen convinced GM to fund a kiln to produce glazed bricks to “reflect the sun as autumnal leaves,” and commissioned sculptor Alexander Calder to create “Water Ballet” a fountain that features jets of water that rise, fall, and rotate in patterns, supplied by an enormous manmade lake in the center of the campus.  The exhibition contains a replica of this brick wall, actual glazed bricks, and video of the performing fountain in both daylight and darkness.

Saarinen’s career left its mark on the American landscape.  Celebrated, unorthodox, and sometimes controversial, he was in many ways the architect of what has been dubbed “the American century,” the post-World War II era when the United States emerged as an influential world superpower.  His optimism and technical genius can be seen throughout this exhibition.