Core77

Walking through Calty, you're only hit occasionally by the importance of where you are: with all the palm trees, the chatty hosts, the leisurely lunches, and the clay-carving sessions, it's easy to forget that this is the North American design headquarters of the most successful car company in the world. The company that led the New York Times Magazine to ask in a cover story last year whether it "has evolved into the world's most sophisticated modern corporation."

For all that, it's not so overwhelming. The campus is modern and bright, but smallish. One of the media specialists joked that it's "hidden behind a church," and that's actually kind of right: a suburban mega-church with a one acre parking lot, but still.

The main studio is in Toyota City, Japan, of course, and there are sites in France, Michigan and elsewhere in Japan, but Calty has cranked out a lot of cars familiar to American drivers, especially lately: the "designed and built here in America" claim that Toyota makes about the 2007 Tundra, their presumptive F-150 killer, is because of Calty. So is the RAV4, one iteration of the Prius, and several of the recent Scions (see concept cars above, and more after the jump).

Once inside, things are calm and business-like. There are some concept models in the lobby, similar to what you might find at an end of year show at ArtCenter, an hour north of here in Pasadena, if a bit less blue sky.

While a five hour tour isn't enough to come to any conclusions about why Toyota has surged while others falter, the specific example we were presented offers some hints. The Venza was the primary focus of the visit, a five-seater aimed at the slot between sporty sedan and SUV, primarily targeting North American empty-nesters, and the level of follow-through on initial design was telling. We got the top-down view first--sporty, big wheels, high beltline, lots of room--then presentations by three of the car's primary designers: Benjamin Jimenez, a CIA grad working in the Ann Arbor studio doing interiors; Wendy Lee, chief color designer; and the previously featured Ian Cartabiano.

To anyone who's taken a design project from start to finish, especially one three-plus years in the making, the degree to which the finished product resembles the initial concept is astonishing. The sketches have big wheels; the Venza comes with 20" rims. The initial form called for a 1:1.8 ratio at the beltline, and there it is on the finished product. Even something as nebulous as "continous, sculpted surfaces" comes through clearly in the end--check the above image of Ian, drawing a curve with his hand that starts at the roof and cascades all the way to the front bumper.

To hammer the point home, the presentations were given outside, in front of a concept model sitting right next to an early production unit, and the similarity is clear, especially given the two years or so that separate them.

One good explanation for this level of continuity is, paradoxically, the relatively small number of designers they have working on a project. Cartabiano mentioned during that Photoshop demo that Toyota, and Calty in particular, are well-known for limiting the number of spoons in the pot, expecting the small design team to fight for their concept, then take it all the way through to final production if it receives approval. This is apparently a rare strategy in the auto world.

Below: Clay sculpting studio, two Scion concept cars