General Motors Testing Laboratory
2001 E. Roosevelt in Phoenix Arizona.
Architect: Austin Co., from Cleveland OH
Photos and info courtesy Elgin MacMillan
Built in 1937 as the General Motors Testing Laboratory, this is the best
example in Phoenix of the streamlined style of the modernistic movement.
The building was constructed as a testing laboratory for automobiles and
armored tanks prior to WWII. The site was General
Motors' first permanent proving ground in the West and was in use until
1953.
The building is exclusively streamlined modern in design and is
the first structure in Phoenix to have
exploited the extensive use of glass block as "modern" material.
There are painted-over glass blocks underneath the louvers.
The above text has been excerpted from:
A Guide to the Architecture of Metro Phoenix by the Central Arizona
Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, 1983.
Many thanks to Elgin MacMillan for referencing this information.
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