BMW reorganizes design houses, van Hooydonk takes over at BMW autos; Bangle named group design chief

Automotive News / February 04, 2004

Chris Bangle, the oft-maligned head of BMW design, will give up direct supervision of the brand's styling operations.

Bangle will take over as Director of BMW Group Design as part of a reshuffling of the design department. He will oversee a reorganized set of styling departments including Mini and Rolls-Royce.

Adrian van Hooydonk will head the BMW automobile brand studio. Van Hooydonk had been president of DesignworksUSA, the Californian design studio of the BMW Group.

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).

Here 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 thi 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

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They sort of got rid of him... not really. Buy your Minis and Rolls-Royces soon, because the designes are about to be ruined

Also, notice the part that I boldfaced. Does this mean we can't blame Bangle for the 6 and 7 series?

 

Thats good news, Bangle cant do much to mess up the current Rolls anyhow!

Thats a good question about the 6 and 7 though, I wonder

 

If I read the press release correctly, Bangle is not directly responsible for car designs but it looks like he is now overseeing all the various design groups.

"Bangle will take over as Director of BMW Group Design as part of a reshuffling of the design department. He will oversee a reorganized set of styling departments including Mini and Rolls-Royce."

Hard to say what this means but it looks like Chris is now in charge of everything from Mini to RR with bimmer in between. And why not? You have to reward what he has done for the brand.

 

that's a promotion for bangle if you haven't read it clearly

 

Yeah I was reading a E60 forum and they explained it as Bangle has been promoted, and Hooydonk, responsible fot the mis-named "Bangle-butt" is taking his place

 

I hear Bangle has his sight set on moving over to the Toyota motor company and heading the Lexus design team! How you guys feel about that?

LOL! Just Kidding! Oh gawd! Imagine what he would do to the beautiful GS!! (GASP!!)

 

oh boy, you kid me!

 

Well, Mr. Romini.....moderator......is this grounds for tossing this guy off the forum?
To even SUGGEST or KID about Bangle coming to Lexus is a crime.