MARCH 2, 1998

Sir Norman Foster to design McLaren factory

THE new McLaren factory at Mizens Farm in Woking is to be designed for the team by Britain's best-known architect SirÊNormanÊFoster. Foster's previous projects include Stansted Airport, the award-winning Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Corporation headquarters in Hong Kong, the new Hong Kong Airport, the Bilboa Metro system in Spain and the German Parliament building. The often controversial architect was knighted from service to architecture in 1990.

McLaren is hoping that its new grandiose 350,000 sq. ft. headquarters, which is scheduled to be finished in 2001, will become a landmark both in terms of architecture and as a world-class automotive research center. The facility will eventually house all the companies in the TAG McLaren Group but will also include a 50,000 sq. ft. Visitor and Learning Center, which will be run in conjunction with Britain's National Museum of Science and Industry.