Monday, February 4, 2008

Building #84 Service And Parts

A nice (north) view of the new Buick Service and Parts building. At the left, along the Pere Marquette main line, is the freight office for Pere Marquette. That is Hamilton Avenue in the foreground. Factory #28 is visible over the roof. Bridge #23 is visible in the distance. You can also see that factory #34, the old Weston-Mott #4 has only been partially removed, and is still evidently being used in 1939.  Service & Parts New York branch.


A north-west view of #84. That is St John st. (now James P. Cole blvd.) in the foreground beyond the billboard. This was before St. John st. and the Hamilton ave bridge were re-routed.


This photo from a booklet specifically on this building is facing north.


This is looking east on Hamilton avenue, showing #84 on the left.


This photo with the lady in the car is from August 5th, 1941. You are facing north with Buick parts and service #84 in the background.


This building #84 viewed from the south across Hamilton Avenue, was built between 1939-1940. Originally for Buick parts and service it became Buick engineering in 1947, continuing in this capacity until 1999. This building was built on the same footprint as the old Imperial Wheel Company factory built in 1900. In 1927 Alfred Sloan created a new department at G. M., he called it "The Art and Color Section" and placed Harley Earl at the helm.  1929 art & color news story. Harley Earl supervised five car design studios, one for each GM division, he did no design work himself. The only mock-ups I ever seen "personally" in this building were made out of Plexiglas. I suppose they were checking future parts for fit. The next photo I post will be a full-size clay model, but am unsure as to the location.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My aunt worked for 49 years in this building. Do you have more photos of it, or a photo of the clay model?