The world’s oldest, largest auto testing facility is in Michigan (and it just turned 100)

DETROIT – General Motors has spent a lot of time in Metro Detroit. While its time at the RenCen may be coming to an end, it spent roughly a tapir’s lifespan at the iconic building.

Zebras also have a lifespan of about 30 years, so you can use that as a length of time if a tapir is too strange of a metric and you want something more normal.

It’s not the first time an automaker has left its Detroit headquarters. Famously, the Renaissance Center was built for Ford Motor Company, who sold the building to GM in 1996. While it would be hilarious if Stellantis moved in next, that’s incredibly unlikely. I don’t think its North American headquarters is going to leave Auburn Hills anytime soon.

General Motors was founded in 1908 and its first permanent HQ in Detroit started construction in 1919. The General Motors Building was an Albert Kahn-designed high-rise office located on West Grand Boulevard. It served as GM’s world headquarters until 2001 when the automaker moved the last of its employees into the Renaissance Center.

The General Motors Building has since been sold to the State of Michigan and houses multiple state agencies. It was renamed Cadillac Place in 2002 and currently serves as the Detroit office for both the Governor and Michigan Attorney General.

The oldest, still operating GM structure in Metro Detroit is also one of its largest. You might know the Milford Proving Ground as a place one of us tried to sneak into through questionably legal means as an unruly teenager 20-something years ago. (Allegedly. Sources say.) It opened in 1924, turning 100 this year.

What’s so cool about the General Motors Milford Proving Ground? I initially was indifferent to the Proving Grounds, not knowing much about it. It could just be that growing up in Metro Detroit, the auto industry has been normalized to me to the extent that I’ve become desensitized and it’s not that interesting anymore to regularly see prototype vehicles with dazzle camouflage even though that is actually really cool. (Objectively.)

In addition to its intense secrecy and security, the more than 6 square mile facility in Milford is not only GM’s lead proving grounds, it is the very first automotive testing facility in the world. It has 132 miles of unique roads to help simulate the conditions vehicles would see in the wild.

It’s not just used to test GM vehicles. The automaker regularly allows access to other organizations, including allowing the grounds to be used for special EV training for first responders.

Even 100 years in, it remains the largest automotive testing facility in the world.