Ed Welburn talks about the Buick Riviera concept
At the Max Fisher Music Theater in Detroit yesterday, GM VP of Design Ed Welburn and Buick Design boss Dave Lyons showed off the Buick Riviera concept for the first time in the US. Yes, we know the Riviera is hardly new. It debuted at the 2007 Shanghai Motor Show and was in fact designed and built by GM's Shanghai Tech Center. This concept is important, however, for a number of reasons. First, it shows that while Chinese manufacturers may largely have their heart set on creating cheap knock-offs of established designs from the west, Chinese designers are actually capable of creating some great designs. Although GM refuses to say whether Buick will get a new coupe based on the Riviera, they do say that design elements of the car will appear on a new production Buicks to be unveiled later this year as well as other future models.
[Source: Buick]
PRESS RELEASE:
COMPELLING BUICK RIVIERA CONCEPT SHOWCASED AT NORTH AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL AUTO SHOW
DETROIT – The Buick Riviera, a stunning concept car designed to showcase Buick's new global design direction, makes its North American debut at the Buick stand during the North American International Auto Show.
Unveiled at China's Auto Shanghai 2007, the gull-wing, front-wheel-drive Riviera concept coupe was developed with global design input by the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center (PATAC), a design and engineering joint venture between General Motors and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC). PATAC is headquartered in Shanghai.
"We said last year the Riviera concept made us realize how small the world was – it's not East; it's not West. It's Buick," said Ed Welburn, vice president, GM Global Design. "The reaction to the car around the globe proved that to be very much the case."
Engineered to accommodate a new hybrid system that will go into production this year at Shanghai GM (SGM), GM's flagship joint venture with SAIC, the Riviera features several technological and manufacturing advances. They represent the latest achievements of GM and its partners in the promotion and development of alternative propulsion technologies in China.
"The Riviera concept underscores the diversity, strength and depth of the GM global design and engineering network," said Welburn. "It also reflects PATAC's growing role within the GM Design family and China's significance as the world's largest Buick market."
The Riviera marks the return of a renowned Buick nameplate after an eight-year hiatus. Between 1963 and 1999, GM sold more than 1.1 million Rivieras in the United States.
"The Riviera concept, with its tightly stretched carbon fiber body panels, combination of positive and negative curves, strong front and rear identities and gull-wing doors, captures the essence of Buick classics, while presenting a thoroughly 21st century design," said Welburn. "It certainly lives up to the nameplate's reputation for bold design. The Riviera communicates the global design vocabulary of the Buick brand and sets the stage for General Motors' design, engineering and manufacturing centers to work together on the next generation of Buick midsize luxury cars."
Riviera's enticing curves and "earth and water" interior tones are drawn from diverse inspirations including classic Buicks, ancient Chinese artifacts and modern electronic icons. To PATAC designers, the car, inside and out, communicates universal beauty – a look that transcends cultural or national boundaries.
A sense of existence
To establish their design direction, PATAC designers looked, in part, to Buick icons such as the original Y-Job concept of 1938, the 1960s LeSabre, Electra 225 and the Riviera coupes of the 1960s and '70s.
The Riviera design is structured around the Buick tri-shield logo, sitting proudly on a trihedral waterfall grille that is formed by three intersecting planes. This takes the traditional Buick treatment to a new level of sophisticated boldness.
The Buick logo leads into a reflective strip through the hood, a mark of respect to the distinctive mid-hood crease prevalent in classic Buicks. Elongated LED headlamps flow up the hood sides to three-section, top-mounted chrome portholes as a single piece of jewelry.
The logo, hood strip, headlamps, side mirrors and rocker covers all have "icy green" backlighting available at night, matched by backlit logo and exhausts at the rear. Designers incorporated several other design signatures from the original Riviera generation, including the "double-sweep spear" line along the body side and a flared tail design.
In this theme, the Shell Blue exterior color was chosen to elicit the right level of attention. The color is metallic silver with light blue accents that highlight the coupe's exterior curves. The gull-wing doors, selected for their exotic appeal, achieve an expansive entrance to the 2+2 seating configuration. Measuring 1,938 mm at their widest point, the doors add to the coupe's sleek sideline. At night, the fully opened doors gently cast the "Buick" name on the ground.
The use of carbon fiber in all body panels allowed designers greater flexibility through reduced mass and added strength. This made the gull-wing engineering demands easier to realize and sharp, tight radius curves possible across the body surface. The side mirrors are sweeping yet unobtrusive, taking a cue from Formula One racecars, and the Riviera sits on 21-inch, 10-spoke forged aluminum wheels that combine polished and satin finishes with low-profile tires.
PATAC designed the Buick Riviera to accommodate the new hybrid system, which will be introduced in China in 2008 prior to the Beijing Olympics. The new hybrid system fits naturally with the Riviera's "earth and water" design theme.
All about relaxation
The Riviera's interior can be summed up with one word: sanctuary. The use of rich blue and subtle creams, representing water and earth, is conveyed in the high-quality leather bucket seats, plush carpet and a luxurious, padded steering wheel. Completing the organic feel, the roof comprises two shaded glass windows offering increased headroom and a celestial connection for occupants.
Designers aimed to have the driver feel relaxed and tranquil inside the car. Earth and water tones were used, and hard, aggressive edges were studiously avoided.
The interior has no discernable start and finish point for the front and sides, creating a comfortable lounge feel. It is immediately futuristic yet somehow familiar. A three-dimensional speedometer, inspired by past classics but utterly modern in design, complements the touchpad styled central console loosely modeled on a computer mouse. An LCD display screen crowns the central console.
Riviera's interior designers were encouraged to consider people's personal belongings to enhance their feeling of familiarity and comfort in the vehicle. Continuing the theme of calm simplicity, electronic shifter pads replace the traditional transmission shifter and controls are kept to a minimum to deter driver distraction.
Ambient light strips are applied across the console and inserted on the door liner, stretching to the front seats. Deliberately imitating precious Chinese jade stone, the lights are tinted a subtle icy green, which also offers tribute to a favored color of historical Buicks of days gone by.
Interior trim treatments befitting the Buick prestige abound: miniature aluminum tri-shields in the front seat headrests; a wooden floor mat in the rear; and a rear central armrest which can move sideways left and right to accommodate passengers of different sizes.
Royal blue Alcantara, a plush, suede-like covering, was chosen for the door, console and roof, while sandy white leather covers the lower door, lower console and seats.
Ancient influences in modern design
The design team set out to create a modern global design. At the same time, they sought to draw from their heritage outside the automotive industry from classic shapes, concepts and artifacts. They wanted to include a subtle Chinese essence and influence if one looked deeply enough.
A strong influence was the yuanbao, a small curvaceous gold or silver ingot used in ancient China as currency and popular today as a symbol of ancient Chinese prosperity.
PATAC designers intended the design convey East and West coexisting in harmony. The design brief was global, taking a portion of Buick's DNA and creating something for the world. The North American debut of the Buick Riviera concept highlighted the achievement of that goal.
# # #
BUICK RIVIERA CONCEPT KEY DIMENSIONS
Body style:
coupe
Number and style of doors:
two; gull-wing
Seating configuration:
2 + 2
Body shell:
carbon-fiber panels
Exterior dimensions:
Wheelbase (in / mm):
113 / 2870
Length (in / mm):
185.4 / 4710
Width (in / mm):
76.3 / 1940 (excluding mirrors)
Height (in / mm):
55.7 / 1415 (doors closed)
Front overhang (in / mm):
36.1 / 918
Rear overhang (in / mm):
36.3 / 924
Front track (in / mm):
64.7 / 1645
Rear track (in / mm):
64.3 / 1635
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
FrankTheCrank @ Jan 11th 2008 8:19AM
Man, that thing is slick. Too bad it will never make it to production. We'll probably end up with something that looks like the Skylark, ugh, I just puked up a bit.
LBuzzer @ Jan 11th 2008 8:23AM
Who decided to put the grille so bloody high?? It looks completely wrong.
Put it where it's suppose to be - this smacks of trying something new (which is fine), realising it looks wrong (which is even better) then doing nothing (which is much worse).
With the grill about 5 inches lower, you got one hell of a good looking Buick!
FThorn @ Jan 11th 2008 8:51AM
I really like that design, sans the top-hinge doors.
Jared @ Jan 11th 2008 8:53AM
I think that is not only the best looking GM design that I've seen but it is one of the best concept cars from any manufacturer in recent memory.
C.W. @ Jan 11th 2008 9:06AM
that is the cheesiest design i have seen in recent memory. way to try and look like Audi!
lame.
FThorn @ Jan 11th 2008 9:07AM
what is in your stable of great designs, currently? Which designs do you consider the fairest?
The Other Bob @ Jan 11th 2008 9:23AM
Audi has a stable of some of the blandest exteriors on the planet now. They are starting to get a little more interesting and the R8 isn't exactly boring, but overall they aren't shaped much different than a Saturn L.
Where does all of this "Audi has great designs" crap come from?
Chase @ Jan 11th 2008 10:51AM
Just to put my two cents in about Audi: People who buy Audis don't want to stand out, but they do care about craftsmanship -- and its apparent in the details that people at Audi took a long time thinking about every part of their cars. Honestly, if you are coming from a vanilla American brand (like Toyota), chances are you won't appreciate the "boring" cars of most european brands until you get to be around one often.
Back to the main reply:
This doesn't look anything like any Audi I've ever seen. If anything, it sort of reminds me of the latest Toyota concepts, but in more of the spirit of it, and not in the details. I think this is _amazing_ coming from Buick. I especially love the tail lights -- that's the first time I've seen that kind of blur effect.
DS @ Jan 11th 2008 4:24PM
Toyota is a vanilla AMERICAN brand?
tanooki2003 @ Jan 11th 2008 9:16AM
Again i must say just how funny it is that it took poor to downright horrible American traditional design, along with shoddy quality, to completely make me despise GM for many years.
It takes Asian inspiration, design and talent to almost completely bring me back to GM. This kind of makes a rather big statement to the American designers, more like sticks it to them. Maybe outsourced talent is the way to go since the American traditionalist who are in charge of designing cars and having them released to the public are totally brainless and clueless about what people are into these days. here's a clue, "Disco is dead and so is borrowing design cues from the 80's + 70's while giving it a modern warmover!!"
On another note I really like the design cues and the aerodynamics of this car without anything borrowed from past retro ugly Buicks. If this car went to production GM would potentially have themselves a great hit and may even win over people who despise GM like me.
tanooki2003 @ Jan 11th 2008 9:16AM
Again i must say just how funny it is that it took poor to downright horrible American traditional design, along with shoddy quality, to completely make me despise GM for many years.
It takes Asian inspiration, design and talent to almost completely bring me back to GM. This kind of makes a rather big statement to the American designers, more like sticks it to them. Maybe outsourced talent is the way to go since the American traditionalist who are in charge of designing cars and having them released to the public are totally brainless and clueless about what people are into these days. here's a clue, "Disco is dead and so is borrowing design cues from the 80's + 70's while giving it a modern warmover!!"
On another note I really like the design cues and the aerodynamics of this car without anything borrowed from past retro ugly Buicks. If this car went to production GM would potentially have themselves a great hit and may even win over people who despise GM like me.
Car Designer @ Jan 11th 2008 1:24PM
Tanooki-"It takes Asian inspiration, design and talent to almost completely bring me back to GM. This kind of makes a rather big statement to the American designers, more like sticks it to them. Maybe outsourced talent is the way to go since the American traditionalist who are in charge of designing cars and having them released to the public are totally brainless and clueless about what people are into these days."
Please read my previous statement about GM design...Dave Lyon is one of those "American traditionalists" you describe, and he was in charge of this car...also, his boss, Ed Welburn oversaw it from start to finish (Also American). I work for an American Car company and there are currently 5 designers in my studio, only 2 of which are American by birth...translation: Global Company, and you can go F yourself...
tanooki2003 @ Jan 11th 2008 2:19PM
Yeah sure whatever you say little boy. You can go run back to your real job snaking toilets and let the real adults discuss cars and car issues here on autoblog. I believe you saying that you working for any car company and your BS about this car as much as I believe Dave Letterman will be the next president of the USA in 2008. Just because you surf Autoblog does NOT automatically make you an employee at any automotive company.
By the way nice touch on the language. It really shows how well your public school has taught you how to debate. Good Job.
That was sarcasm in case you are unfamiliar of the context.
Car Designer @ Jan 11th 2008 2:45PM
ah yes, sarcasm...the ugly step brother to informed and rational responce. Or, as my theology teacher from private school used to say, "sarcasm is the lowest form of humor...now shut the f up" Basically, I get the impression that if you took your own comment, and reversed it on youself, you would be more accurate, and would not need the sarcasm as it would simply epitomise the majority of commentors on this site including you. For the record: private school grades 1-12, private design school with degree in trans., and an actual real-life career as a designer...if you would like to engage in intelligent conversation about design, art, politics, current events etc., come find me. If not, just get right back to playing armchair quarterback of the auto world....NO sarcasm if you aren't familiar with the context.
Chris @ Jan 11th 2008 9:45AM
Velite? Dead in the water. Park Avenue? Not a chance. Why torture us with this? To forshadow another Chinese-only model that US dealers will stupidly reject?
elprogramer @ Jan 11th 2008 1:10PM
There are ways into forcing dealers to play along. GM was renown at it.
Car Designer @ Jan 11th 2008 9:48AM
For the Record, Dave Lyon (no s) is the VP of Interior Design at GM...not the Buick head. He was however heading up the PATAC studio, and thus this concept at the time it was done. In Design at GM there are not typically heads of each brand, other than Cadillac which is becoming it's own focus. For the most part, studios are arranged by platform/vehicle type. For example, there might be NA Premium Rear Wheel Drive and Performance Studio for exteriors, as well as one for interiors. This studio would be responsible for zeta cars and all others that would fall into that studio title. It is also important to note that GM is truely a "global" company, especially in the design process. Designers from all their international studios rotate around so that at any studio, at anytime you have a mix of backgrounds and nationalities. Just thought people would like to know.
chrisdavis @ Jan 11th 2008 12:59PM
Thanks for the explanation. The consistently mention that it was designed in China, but never do they say the designers were Chinese. I'm looking at you Sam at Autoblog...
TriShield @ Jan 11th 2008 10:00AM
It's a decent design with some good elements and a good overall shape, but a bit too Asian tobe a real Riviera.
Buick needs a new Riviera badly and this concept would be a sound basis to create one. With some restyling this could be a stunning luxury performance car, something distinctly Buick instead of something being marketed as a wannabe Lexus.
Buick needs to get back to what made the brand great in it's heyday, this would be a good start.
the law @ Jan 11th 2008 11:06AM
I dont think Gm will use "skylark" until Saturn Sky name is Killed due to the name confusion.
As for this looking like Audi and Lexus, those are two of the modern thinking companies so GM must be doing good to make people think of modern when they look at Buick a once old people carrier, similar to what Saab and Lexus have become