Hasta La Ideas

“‘The profession was invented in this room,'” says Richard Rogers, president of the College for Creative Studies (CCS), as he stands in the dusty construction site that used to be the General Motors Argonaut Building.”

The profession Rogers is referring to is automotive design, and the excerpt is from Autoweek’s article on GM’s Argonaut Building in Detroit, GM’s former design center and the birthplace of many American motoring classics. The building is being donated to the Center for Creative Studies, to help breathe life into a new crop of designers:

The massive 11-story Argonaut Building, built in stages in 1928 and 1936, is in the midst of a $145 million renovation. It is one of the few bright spots on Detroit’s horizon these days. The project will redevelop the 760,000-square-foot building, donated by GM, as “an integrated educational community focused on art and design.”

…The Argonaut will offer space for CCS programs, including new graduate programs, with dining and dorm space for 300. The building also will house a new sort of middle and secondary school, devoted to design. The idea is to hook inner-city kids early in the creative process and foster them along the way. Students of all ages will be able to learn from one another so, the theory goes, talent can be seamlessly encouraged and developed from first budding to full blooming.

Read all about it here.

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