Chris Mount on CALTY's Lessons Learned from Southern California

The Southland is home to design studios for several of the major car companies, among them Audi, Honda and Toyota. But fear of industrial espionage is so high they are typically as inaccessible to the public as Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Last month however, CALTY, Toyota's Design Research Center in Newport Beach, opened its doors to a group of journalists and auto design experts, among them Chris Mount. Chris recently moved with his family to LA from New York to take the director of the Pasadena Museum of California Art; his illustrious resume includes 14 years curating architecture and design shows -- several focusing on auto design -- at the Museum of Modern Art, and five as director of exhibitions and public programs at Parsons the New School for Design. He spent a day at CALTY studying a new car, the Venza, and tinkering with the modeling clay himself; and had this to say (through his Manhattan lens) about CALTY and what Toyota gains from having a foothold in Southern California:

The CALTY Design Research center in Newport Beach is hidden behind a large Baptist church on a small road; the center houses 94 employees and has been kept relatively secret since its founding back in 1973. Remarkably, it was the first design office for an automotive manufacturer on the West Coast.  Constant reminders of this are early photos of longhaired, bearded, corduroy jacket wearing young designers proudly standing around the first Celica from 1978. Now of course California is an active design center but in 1973 the state was probably more famous for producing Richard Nixon. Despite this, somebody at Toyota realized that the “rebellious, liberal” culture of California has a significant amount to offer and perhaps was going to be a place where the future of America was going to be shaped.  You have to tip your hat to Toyota, the best-selling car manufacturer in the world, for having such foresight.  

The first question one might ask when visiting the 85,000 sq. ft. site is, “why have a separate design office so far away from headquarters in Toyota City, Japan?”  A separate office that even competes for work with the other four design offices the company has spread around the world in Nice France, Ann Arbor, and of course Japan. The simple answer is to address the needs of the North American market. CALTY is the eyes and ears of the company here, helping the company to adapt and develop products for our tastes—globalism at its most efficient, effective, and flexible with American designers trained at America design schools making things for Americans. 

Kevin Hunter is the Research Center’s President, the first American to be given that role. He has served as chief designer for many well known automobiles including the 1996 Tacoma, 2000 Avalon, the last version of the Celica, and my favorite the last Supra (which was almost responsible for sending me to a prison near the Taconic Parkway for speeding). Some other famous cars to come out of CALTY’s studio create an eclectic list and include the Scion xB , FJ Crusier, Matrix, Solara and the first Prius. As Toyota Japan tends to think small, with an obvious understanding for their culture, CALTY seems to think a little bigger, more in line with American tastes. Interiors are designed and colors chosen for these cars at the Newport center.  

In addition to getting a chance to see the complicated process of car design, which begins with sketches and then moves to small clay models then large models and full-scale prototypes, the group was also introduced to a new product. Designed by Ian Cartabiano, Exterior Project Chief Designer for the new Venza. The four-door, rear-wheel drive car is extremely deceptive in pictures for there is little sense of scale and one might even assume it was a kind of Matrix-like hatchback. But in person it is much larger than initially expected, more crossover-wagon—the sort of car that suggests a synthesis of where the market may be going and certainly where Toyota feels it is. The big swollen SUVs of old are out, and, although Americans have gotten use to the luxury of extra room, they are turning to smaller-type automobiles with better gas mileage and much better handling. This is exemplified by the Venza with its gently sloped sides that suggest movement and a certain fluidity unusual in a car this size. 
 

While GM and Ford struggle to sell their bloated trucks, minivans and SUVs you have to wonder how Toyota gets so much right. The reason behind waiting lists for the Prius and the huge success of the Camry and Corolla are all a little clearer now. I mean, gee-whiz, Toyota was even hip to California back in the seventies when the Eagles were the states largest cultural export.