Landry-Newman has a history with Behr, having designed the company's existing 80,000-sf headquarters building. That facility recently won a "Best of Troy" award for its aesthetic contributions to the city.

"The expansion of our Detroit-area headquarters and technical center reflects the rapid growth of our business activities in North America," says Hans Lange, president of Behr America. "Behr has made significant investments here to better serve domestic automotive customers such as DaimlerChrysler, General Motors and Ford, and expand with international customers."

The new addition will house human resources, purchasing and accounting activities for the company's North American operations, employing about 60 people.

Behr also announced it has begun equipment installation in the company's $15 million wind tunnel facility, which is slated to open next year at the local complex. The wind tunnel will have the ability to test heating-and-cooling systems on all classes of light-, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles.

"Behr America calendar-year sales nearly tripled last year, increasing from $230 million in 2001 to $684 million in 2002," Lange says. He adds that the company's acquisition last year of Ohio-based Dayton Thermal Productions had a major impact on our year-end results. "North American operations excluding Dayton posted significant gains as well, climbing 16% compared with previous-year totals," he notes.