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Mercedes picks Gensler to design new Atlanta HQ

Mercedes is planning to move of its US headquarters from Montvale, NJ, to Atlanta, GA – and with over a thousand employees to house, the project will surely be massive. In order to pull it off, the automaker is going to need the right architects. And Mercedes seems convinced that Gensler is the way to go. Never heard of Gensler? The San Francisco-based architectural giant (incorporated as M. Arthur Gensler Jr. & Associates, Inc.) has done the headquarters for Facebook, Coca-Cola and General Electric. It designed the Shanghai Tower, the tallest building in China, and crafted the master plan for the Olympic Games set to take place in Rio de Janeiro next year. It's done hotels, sports arenas, military facilities, airport terminals... the works. It also redesigned Cadillac's showrooms and Hyundai's new US headquarters, and among the many offices it operates in 46 cities and 16 countries around the world, it has a branch in Atlanta. So of the dozen firms Mercedes considered for the task, Gensler got the nod. The 250,000-square-foot facility is earmarked for completion in 2018, occupying a 12-acre plot at the corner of Abernathy and Barfield roads in Sandy Springs, Georgia. In the meantime, MBUSA is preparing to move temporarily from its current offices (pictured here) in Jersey down to another facility in the Atlanta area, also being set up by Gensler, in nearby Dunwoody – just a couple of miles down the road from where the permanent site will be. Mercedes-Benz USA Selects Gensler As Architect For New Atlanta Headquarters Facility Award-winning global firm to design 250,000-sq-ft office building in Sandy Springs, GA April 30, 2015 - MONTVALE, N.J. Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) today announced it has selected Gensler as the architecture firm for its new headquarters facility in metro Atlanta. Gensler will design an approximately 250,000-square-foot office building that will house around 1,000 MBUSA employees upon its completion in 2018. "We talked to many, many firms and saw some amazing designs, but Gensler was the one that stood out for us," said MBUSA President and CEO Stephen Cannon. "They understood our brand and our culture, along with the ambitious goals we have for the next chapter of Mercedes-Benz in this market, and they were able bring that to life in their designs." MBUSA selected Gensler from a dozen global design firms for its creative building concept, which seamlessly integrates functionality and the beautiful surrounding landscape.

2015 Spanish F1 Grand Prix makes its Deutsche mark

The first race of the European Formula One season inaugurates the second phase of the Championship. Teams overhaul their cars with the big updates they've been working on since Australia, and at the end of The Battle of Spain we find out how the positions on the field have changed. Mercedes-AMG Petronas driver Nico Rosberg brought a big update to his psychology, straight-up beating teammate Lewis Hamilton to take his first pole position of the season. Mercedes owns the front row and Ferrari maintains its status as primary challenger, Sebastian Vettel lining up in third. Williams proved it's been hitting the books to do better in class, though, Valtteri Bottas slotting into fourth. And Toro Rosso's visit to a track that rewards strong aero rewarded them with the best team grid position since the Italian Grand Prix in 2008: Carlos Sainz secured fifth, ahead of Max Verstappen in sixth. Kimi Raikkonen's bout of Saturday woes – it seems the Finn is always handicapped by lots of tiny issues – continued in Barcelona with one of his sets of prime tires getting cooked by malfunctioning tire warmers. He recovered well enough to take seventh on the grid, but he's got some strong competition ahead of him. He led three other drivers in the Continuous Issues department, Daniil Kvyat unable to wrestle his Infiniti Red Bull Racing higher than eighth, Williams driver Felipe Massa getting it wrong in Turn 3 to fall five places behind his teammate Bottas, and Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull enduring another engine change and sloppy car behavior to get tenth. And while it turned out to be a steady race a little rough around the edges, the positions on the battlefield just might have changed. A little. Of the 66 laps in the race we might have seen Rosberg for three of them – maybe. The German got a smashing start, had a clear lead into Turn 1, and after that we checked in occasionally during his two pit stops and again at the checkered flag. He owned the entire weekend the way we're used to seeing his teammate do, and the cameras left him alone to run his race. No one got within seven seconds of him during the first third, and as the pit stop strategies played out that cushion grew. He finished seventeen seconds ahead of Hamilton, and 45 seconds ahead of third-placed Vettel. Hamilton, on the back foot all three days, stumbled out of the gate.

Formula One speeds towards radical thousand-horsepower shakeup

The teams, the drivers, the fans, the circuits... few, if any, were satisfied with how Formula One has shaped up since the current regulations took hold last year. But that doesn't mean they aren't working on it. At a recent meeting of the F1 Strategy Group, the leading parties in the sport outlined a new framework that would radically shake up the cars themselves while keeping costs in check. And the biggest change could see the engines producing around 1,000 horsepower. Although a proposal put forth by Ferrari to ditch the current V6 hybrid engines in favor of new twin-turbocharged units was rejected by Honda and Mercedes, the members of the group approved in principal to increase the fuel flow in the existing engines to dramatically boost output. As it stands, the current 1.6-liter turbocharged V6 engines develop around 600 horsepower, with an additional 160 or so kicked in by the electric Energy Recovery System, for a combined output of about 760 hp. What's not clear at the moment is whether the increased fuel flow would necessitate either the return of mid-race refueling (currently banned) or the installation of larger fuel tanks. Red Bull and McLaren also submitted proposals to radically redesign the shape of the cars as well, however a more evolutionary approach was adopted instead. Though far from finalized, the new design would keep the same basic form of the current chassis, but with adjustments to make them more aesthetically pleasing while producing more downforce. Wider tires are also said to be part of the mix. With more power and more grip from the tires and aero, the resulting cars would most certainly end up going much faster than the current ones, which are already starting to nudge the lap records at some of the circuits, many of which were set during the V10 era. The F1 Strategy Group is made up of representatives of the FIA, Formula One Management and six leading teams. The next step will be for the teams' technical directors to iron out how to implement what their bosses have agreed to. If they settle the details fast enough, the revised regulations could be pushed through in time for next season. News Source: AutosportImage Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Motorsports Ferrari Honda Infiniti McLaren Mercedes-Benz F1