Designed by Holger Schubert, this carport is about as dissimilar from the ones you'll find scattered throughout upscale trailer parks as catfish and ahi tuna. For starters, it's attached via a driveway/bridge to a 1953 Ranch-style modernist home overlooking western Los Angeles instead of West Virginia. The 1,200 square foot space includes an 8x12' designated parking spot for the vehicle, leaving the rest free for a couch and a hide-away flatscreen. While that sounds far from our ideal garage space (where isthe kegerator supposed to go?) it does function as a car pr0n gallery with recessed LED lights intended to create reflections of the car on the white walls at night.

Of course, no snobby carport would be complete without greenwashing, so there's solar panels on the roof that power the under floor heating and the home attached to the garage. Conveniently, there's also a ramp that raises up when the car is ready to exit the garage, ensuring exhaust fumes don't mar the white paint. [DesignDriven via CoolHunting]

BusinessWeek published an article two weeks ago about the value of Chrysler’s various assets in anticipation of its bankruptcy, which has since happened. Here’s the most interesting bit:

The Chrysler headquarters building is a spectacular sight from I-75 in Michigan. But the Auburn Hills edifice and its sprawling campus sit in the middle of one of the most economically depressed areas in the country. When the building was erected in the early 1990s, it was designed so it could be repurposed into a shopping mall without too much modification if the perennially troubled Chrysler should go out of business. But there is no interest in another shopping mall in a commercial corridor where unemployment and foreclosure rates are both above 20%, and one of the best-performing malls in the state, The Somerset Collection, sits 15 minutes away in Troy, Mich.

Unsurprisingly, no mention of this is made on the site of SmithGroup, the company which designed the building in the 80s:

Chrysler’s mandate for their new U.S. headquarters was that it be “forward looking, contemporary, and strong with a prominent signature.” Its curved glass tower is an aerodynamic exclamation point to the 500-acre site, and is highly visible from Interstate 75. The 35-foot tall Pentastar window at the top of the tower proclaims a powerful corporate identity and reflects changing conditions of natural light. Inside, the Pentastar is a dramatic accent for the top floor.

Glass-enclosed offices and dome-shaped skylights enliven the workplace throughout the building. Teamwork concepts are facilitated by the design of the complex, helping Chrysler to operate more efficiently on every level.

We learned of the building’s dual-use design from a segment on NPR’s May 2 edition of Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me—which is online now.

UPDATE: We did forget one minor distinction between Chrysler's HQ and a mall.

Source: BusinessWeek, Photo Credit: USGS, SmithGroup, Hat Tip to Samu Szemerey

The delivery center was designed by Wolf Prix of Coop Himmelb(l)au, a extremely famous architectural firm. The obvious justification for a building like this is to enhance the car-buying experience. Allowing users to test out vehicle features in a virtual reality simulator, having rotating platforms, driving the car off the showroom floor and more all make consumers feel like they bought something really special (and not necessarily a BMW).

The center is located in Mun and took six years to construct. If you have an eye for architecture, give this so-called delivery center a shot. If, however, you just want to pick up your BMW, go with the run-down BMW dealership off the interstate. You're getting the same car, minus all of the bullshit. [NY Times, BMW Welt, Coop Himmelb(l)au]
(Images via NY Times)

Zaha Hadid, Iraq-born architect and darling of the deconstructivist movement (you know who you are) is not exactly best known as a car designer. In fact, most gearheads would be hard pressed to pick her out of a crowded newsroom at the BBC. Regardless, she's debuting her Z-car concept at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City this weekend. While some would say architects have as much business meddling in car design as Camillo Pardo does messing with buildings, artistes will do as they do. Plus, she's designed the central building for BMW's new plant in Leipzig, Germany, which gives her requisite cred points.

[via Paper Mag]

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Full Metal Ponytail: Camilo Pardo on Fashion [internal]

BMW released imagery of what its museum will look like after a three-year refurbishment is complete a year from now. The 30-year-old complex in Munich is being extended to encompass more than 16,000 square feet and, according to the company, feature "all the important aero-engines, motorcycles and cars of the BMW brand." The interior space will get an avant-garde ramp system that appears to float, along with with interlinking paths to the exhibition areas. The architecture is designed as an urban traffic complex comprising streets, buildings, squares and bridges. No word on whether it'll have iDrive. [Click through for more pics.]

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BMW Museum

Related:
BMW Building an Original 2002tii from Scratch for Public Viewing [internal]