corvette  experiencecenter

Corvette is a brand that strives to produce high performing cars at an affordable price, and in our design for the Corvette Experience Center we have created a design that is shaped by performance. The building is shaped by the venturi effect, utilizing two wind channels lined with operable windows that considerably reduce the heating and cooling load. The building is oriented to capture the summer winds, which happen to line up with the long straightaway of the existing track creating views in the restaurant, museum, and winter garden spaces.

 

The Corvette Experience Center brings Corvette’s R&D center to Bowling Green, the site of the National Corvette Museum (NCM), the NCM Motorsports Park, and the only Corvette assembly plant in the world. The experience center connects the existing programs of the site, containing spaces for an extension on the museum and spaces for learning about the vehicle design process through labs and working with Corvette engineers in the makerspace and small scale wind tunnel. There is also a simulator room to bridge the learning gap between learning how to drive like a racecar driver in a classroom format as existing on site and driving real Corvettes on the track. 

 

The programs of the building are also good for the community of Bowling Green, a city already rooted in the culture of Corvette. The winter garden and restaurant spaces offer spaces with a view of the track and the cars driving on it, allowing the Corvette Experience Center to be a more family friendly experience not to mention the appeal of driving simulators to young Corvette enthusiasts. The large space under the overhang of the space truss roof structure is utilized as a drive-in theater with a retractable screen, a classic American experience for the classic American sports car.