Right outside of Birmingham is a world-class museum serving as home to more than 1,500 rare and vintage motorcycles. Beckoning riders and enthusiasts from all over the globe to our city, Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum has recently acquired yet another reason it is a must-see – the new Barber Advanced Design Center on the museum’s top floor, offering spectacular views of the on-site motorsports park and the opportunity to get up close and personal with the creative muses of exceptional motorcycle design.
An instrumental part of the Barber Museum community since 2019, Brian Case previously co-founded a local motorcycle manufacturer known as Motus before he got a phone call from George Barber’s team and the invitation to “brainstorm ideas with them about the future of the museum.”
“Several months into the process, after researching the museum, which is basically a motorcycle mecca, I came up with an idea of how to inspire people — which is our number-one goal,” Brian explained. “So we created the design center component.”
Birmingham Lifestyle had the opportunity to learn more about the history of the museum and the design center, and how the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum puts the Magic City on the motorcycle map.
Share some background about the founder and why he chose Birmingham.
George Barber is from here — Birmingham is his home. His background was in the dairy business, and when you see Barber’s Dairy in the grocery store, that’s his legacy. Interestingly, he was not a motorcycle rider. He raced cars and loved mechanics, but he was not a motorcycle person specifically — though he appreciated the art of the motorcycle.
When he started collecting, there were no world-class motorcycle museums. He started collecting motorcycles in the early 1990s, and it grew to 400 or 500 during that time period. Then he was asked to do a Guggenheim exhibit on the art of motorcycles in the late 90s, and it was the highest-attended show at the art museum to date. Prior to that, he’d been keeping the collection in a warehouse where the milk trucks were — a nondescript building in downtown Birmingham. Then, he decided to build the museum 20 years ago. He built a huge facility of 230,000 square feet, and it has grown over the years so it’s the largest motorcycle museum in the world.
What can you tell us about the design center?
The BADC is a visceral creative space designed to spark ideas. Mr. Barber was the one who gave me the inspiration to add on to the space he always envisioned. The goal was to create a space that design professionals from around the world would want to come to Birmingham to see. From an interior design perspective, we let the workspace function dictate the form — not an easy task surrounded by glass on all sides. There are five main areas to the design center: a clay modeling platform, a digital lab, a prototyping workshop, a virtual conferencing center and a cozy, mid-century modern lounge.
Which well-known motorcycle designers have projects inside the design center or have visited?
One recent project completed at the BADC was a design collaboration with renowned ex-Ducati motorcycle designer Pierre Terblanche. The project spanned four months in 2021 and resulted in a futuristic concept motorcycle that was entirely 3D printed at the museum. Pierre traveled to Birmingham from his home in South Africa at the start of the project. He immersed himself in the history of the collection at the museum, which includes several of his Ducati designs. One of those designs was the basis for inspiration to re-imagine his concept using these new digital tools. The concept will remain on display at the BADC to be used as an education tool. The Barber Museum is one of the main reasons Pierre decided to purchase and maintain a second home in the Birmingham area.
What should a visitor to the BADC expect to see and do?
The new 11,000 square-foot facility is a high-tech workspace for industrial design exploration, located on the top floor of the museum with panoramic views. Inside are computer workstations, 3D scanners and 3D printers that have dramatically streamlined design processes. These tools not only speed up design work, they also allow highly accurate reverse engineering of vintage components.
The center is open by appointment only for students and designers from around the world. Public access will be restricted, except for open houses during regularly scheduled events on the race course.