Architecture & design / Auto industry
Virgil Exner
1909–1973 · automotive designer, creator of Chrysler's Forward Look
Ann Arbor–born designer whose Forward Look gave Chrysler its soaring 1955–1963 tailfin cars and set off a styling race with GM.
- Born
Ann Arbor, Michigan- Died
Royal Oak, Michigan
aged 64- Birth name
- Virgil Max Exner
- Detroit years
- 1934–1938, 1949–1973
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Exner was born in Ann Arbor, adopted as an infant and raised in Buchanan, in southwest Michigan. He studied art at Notre Dame, drew ads in South Bend, and in 1934 joined Harley Earl's styling staff at General Motors in Detroit, where he headed Pontiac styling before he was 30. He then worked for Raymond Loewy and Studebaker, finishing the 1947 Studebaker Starlight coupe. In 1949 he joined Chrysler's advanced styling group in Highland Park and soon led the company's design. His Forward Look for 1955 and the dramatic, finned 1957 Chryslers, Plymouths and DeSotos shocked GM into rethinking its own designs. A heart attack in 1956 and the awkward downsized 1962 models weakened his position, and he left Chrysler in 1962 to run his own design firm. He died in Royal Oak in 1973.
Highlights
- Head of Pontiac styling at GM before age 30
- Final designer of the 1947 Studebaker Starlight coupe
- Chrysler's Forward Look, 1955–1963
- The 1957 Chrysler line pushed GM to redesign its cars
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1949–1962
Highland Park Chrysler Plant and headquarters
Demolished · 1996
Chrysler's headquarters and styling base while he created the Forward Look; the complex was later demolished.