August 12, 2022
DALLAS—August 12, 2022—When the globally renowned British automotive brand McLaren decided to move North American operations for its elite sports car division from New York to Texas, it turned to Dallas-based Merriman Anderson Architects (MAA) to conceptualize and design the 31,000-square-foot campus in Coppell. MAA masterminded the architecture and interiors for the showroom, training center, workshop, executive suite, and administrative offices. It’s a marvel of design for a building representing an illustrious high-technology brand.
McLaren Automotive creates luxury, high-performance supercars. Each vehicle is assembled by hand at the McLaren Production Centre in Surrey, England, and retailed through over 100 retailers in 40 markets worldwide.
The new campus provides ample space in a suburban environment. The overall design concept is that the visitor sees a laboratory’s inner workings. A large footprint is dedicated to dealer sales, technical training, and executive and administrative offices. All areas enjoy a perspective of the inner workings of McLaren. Previously, McLaren warehoused its cars nationwide, complicating their inventory maintenance issue. Now, the entire fleet is housed in one place, enhancing their engineering and diagnostics flow under one roof.
“The new headquarters’ design reflects the luxury and innovative brand of McLaren Automotive,” says Derek Dizon, MAA’s Project Architect. The space is meant to display the genius of McLaren Group’s Automotive division and serve as the home base for North American operations.”
The supercar showroom is designed as two separate spaces that can join and divide for flexible function capacity. The “Meet and Greet” area is an entertainment-type space for hosting small events and features a high-speed movie screen projecting images and videos. This area is used to showcase samples and assist clients in custom-designing their vehicles. Furnishings are contemporary, flexible, and multi-purpose. An art gallery features McLaren Automotive and racing memorabilia, images, souvenirs, and awards. This area doubles as an event space and can accommodate two vehicles.
The “Presentation Room” is located behind the movie screen and features a recessed screen that rises to reveal a featured vehicle. MAA implemented a 12’ by 8’ screen that a manufacturer in Italy customized and then motorized to rise and fall at ultra-fast speed. Dramatic lighting was designed into the alcove to showcase the unique vehicles. This area will be used for “sneak peeks,” whereby unreleased models can be revealed to dealers, focus groups, and media before being announced to the public.
The McLaren Special Operations area customizes cars for specific individuals. This area brings together the customer, McLaren designers, and engineers to brainstorm unique specifications.
The “Workshop” is utilized for maintenance and as a training facility for the highly specialized mechanics working on these exceptional vehicles. Two training bays, each with an auto lift and sophisticated audio/visual capabilities, and two dedicated classrooms. The classrooms are functionally flexible, and an infinity cove was designed within a white workshop for vehicle photography purposes.
The project’s overall color and material palette include a crisp combination of light and medium gray with anodized aluminum window mullions. The interior color and material palette of white, charcoal, pewter, and light gray complement the glossy white resinous floors in the service and tech bays and the white oak wood accents in the interior spaces. The statement is contemporary and polished, focusing on the car models. A sleek wood grid ceiling system is an updated architectural response to an exposed roof system and houses LED channel lighting. An enfilade of aluminum louvers makes a statement along the gallery walkway between the reception and Meet and Greet spaces. The furnishings throughout are contemporary minimalist.
The project challenges included renovating an existing office/warehouse to complement the construction of the new showroom and display space. Significant demolition was involved, and the existing plumbing provided limited options for water delivery. MAA resolved constraints by re-appropriating space within the footprint.
The design team puzzled over the design of the overhead doors at the rear of the building, which were initially built for 18-wheeler deliveries abutting to 4’ docks. New ramps were required at ground level for the sports cars and required a low clearance. MAA engineered the solution by introducing a steel vehicular ramp into the space and adding additional ramps to even the ground level.
MAA interfaced with McLaren’s London headquarters at every step of the design process to create a consistent global brand image for McLaren Automotive.