GM Has A Clever Way To Stop Visitors From Taking Photos In Its Super-Secret Design Center

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Last week, in town for the 2014 Detroit Auto Show, Business Insider Senior Video Producer Will Wei and I had the chance to visit the General Motors' Technical Center.

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Built in the early 1950s and designed by famed architect Eero Saarinen, the 330-acre campus is home to a design center, engineering facilities, and manufacturing centers. It's a cool place, which is why it's too bad GM didn't let us take any photos or shoot video. (They're always pretty strict, and we visited when various GM execs were there to check on the progress of yet-to-be-revealed products. So they were extra strict.)

To make sure we didn't ignore their rules while walking around the design center, we checked in with a security guard at the entrance, who slapped these stickers on the cameras on our phones:

general motors design studio pic patch camera phone

Alex Davies / Business Insider

Both cameras:

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general motors design studio pic patch camera phone

Alex Davies / Business Insider

And to make sure visitors don't take the sticker off, snap some shots, then pop it back on, the stickers change color once peeled off:

general motors design studio pic patch camera phone

Alex Davies / Business Insider

Had we been bent on getting some photos (and probably destroying our relationship with GM), we could have snuck in another camera phone - they didn't search us. Same goes for GM employees, one of whom told us most value their jobs enough not to try that out.

Fortunately, there are some photos of the Technical Center on GM's website. It is a neat place:

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GM Technical Center

General Motors

Here's a shot of the center's dedication in 1956:

general motors Dedication Technical Center

General Motors