(11:57 Feb. 04, 2004)
BMW reorganizes design houses, van Hooydonk takes over at BMW autos

Chris Bangle, the oft maligned maestro of BMW design, has been officially kicked upstairs to Director of BMW Group Design, and will oversee a reorganized set of design departments including Mini and Rolls-Royce.

Individual studios have been set up for BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce as well as for BMW Motorrad and BMW M. The new studios will be involved in new model development from the first sketches to production.

The heads of departments responsible up to now for the design of Mini, Rolls-Royce MC, BMW Motorrad and BMW M will head the respective brand design studios: Gert Volker Hildebrand (Mini), Ian Cameron (Rolls-Royce MC), David Robb (BMW Motorrad) and Ulf Weidhase (BMW M and Individual).

The new member of Bangle's team is Adrian van Hooydonk, who will head the BMW automobile brand studio. Van Hooydonk had been president of DesignworksUSA, the Californian design studio of the BMW Group.

Below is an overview of the heads of the brand design studios of the BMW Group:

BMW Automobiles

Adrian van Hooydonk, 40, has been a designer at BMW since 1992 and president of DesignworksUSA, the Californian design studio of the BMW Group, since 2001. The Dutch designer developed the exterior design of the current BMW 6 Series and 7 Series among other projects.

BMW Motorrad

David Robb, 48, came to BMW as an exterior designer for automobiles and later headed the exterior design studio. In 1993 he took over as head of BMW Motorrad design.

BMW M and Individual

Ulf Weidhase, 51, came to BMW in 1988 and has headed the design team for BMW M Automobiles and BMW Individual.

Mini

Gert Volker Hildebrand, 50, has headed the Mini design team since 2000. Before this appointment he headed design teams at Volkswagen, Seat and Mitsubishi.

Rolls-Royce Motorcars

Ian Cameron, 53, came to BMW in 1992 as an exterior designer and among other things was project manager for the design of the 3 Series and the current Range Rover. In 1999 he was appointed the head of the newly-created design team of Rolls-Royce Motorcars.

http://www.autoweek.com/cat_content...._code=05800170

Just a side note, it would appear that this guy Adrian van Hooydonk is to blame for the 7- and 6-series rather than Bangle himself.

 

How in the hell could they have PROMOTED Bangle? :upset: He needed to be demoted and given less authority over vehicle design, not more.. :squint: It doesn't sound like things are going to improve at all. :a:

 

Well the article does say that some other dude is the one who designed the 6- and 7-series cars. Maybe Bangle delegated the task to the other guy and then signed off on the final product. I mean as has been pointed out in the past, Bangle has been the chief designer since long before the current crop of funktified models was introduced.

 

Great. Now Bangle gets to fudge up Rolls-Royce as well..... hell, why not let him ruin Ferrari. Mabe some new "forward looking" 575 Maranello.

 

Great. Now Bangle gets to fudge up Rolls-Royce as well..... hell, why not let him ruin Ferrari. Mabe some new "forward looking" 575 Maranello.

 

I guess German corporations have the same problems American corporations do.

I suppose this is a good thing and shows BMW has been responding to customer complaints and has finally shaken things up. Lets see how much control Bangle still has and even if he stays.