<\/p>\n
Cadillac Director of Exterior Design Bob Boniface stands with the new ATS coupe. (Henry Payne \/ The Detroit News)<\/p>\n
The Woodward Dream Cruise is a rolling art museum, showcase for an age when American design ruled the continent. Masterpieces include 1950s Cadillac Eldorados with jet-aircraft-inspired tailfins swimming like sharks through an urban ocean. Drawn by legendary GM designer Harley Earl, these sculpted vessels symbolized American post-WW2 optimism.<\/p>\n
After decades in the wilderness, that Caddy swagger is back.<\/p>\n
Cadillac Director of Exterior Design Bob Boniface and his team are producing tomorrow\u2019s classics today: The imposing Cadillac Escalade, elegant CTS (2013 Detroit News Vehicle of the Year), and sensual 2015 ATS Coupe.<\/p>\n
As agile as they are beautiful, these vehicles stand with the best of BMW and Mercedes. The CTS and ATS are the sum of Cadillac\u2019s decade-long design resurgence. They are bold. All-American. The product of a design chief who has sketched\u00a0cars Q:\u00a0<\/b>The Art & Science design language has matured since the breakthrough 2002 CTS. What changed?<\/p>\n Boniface:\u00a0<\/b>In the late 1990s we introduced a concept car called the Evoq. That car pointed the way toward Art & Science design language with a lot of creases. The CTS which was the first production car to use that language. I think it was the right thing at the time . . . to say that this was a different kind of Cadillac. It got people\u2019s attention. But it was a severe design language. Since then we\u2019ve taken the things that are good about it: The vertical light signature, the shield-shaped grille, the precise creases on the car. We\u2019ve kept these but the surfacing between the creases is more sophisticated. (The cars) are prettier now.<\/p>\n Q:\u00a0<\/b>This is a conscious decision to evolve the design language?<\/p>\n BB:\u00a0<\/b>Yes. And in the case of the ATS Coupe, we listened to the\u00a0customer Q:\u00a0<\/b>Look at the luxury segment today and there seems to be a German style, a Japanese style. Is there an American style of design?<\/p>\n BB:\u00a0<\/b>I think so. Our cars are very American. A lot of it is the vertical light signature, front and rear. They aren\u2019t tail fins, but it harkens back to that – the blade-like corners of the . . . late \u201860s and \u201870s. We own that vertical light signature. It\u2019s not everyone\u2019s taste, but we\u2019ve evolved it to the point that it\u2019s very tasteful.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/images.intellitxt.com\/ast\/adTypes\/icon1.png\")
<\/a>\u00a0since he was a tike on a trike. His credits include Jeep Liberty and Chevy\u2019s Volt. Get him talking about cars, and the soft-spoken 48-year-old is a kid again, reeling off his favorite designs. I sat down with Boniface in Litchfield, Connecticut to talk about the ATS, tail fins, and the Cruise.<\/p>\n<\/a>. We had an earlier version which is more severe with a lot more wedge and rake to the belt. The side body was thicker. The grille . . . more severe. Customers told us that it looked heavy, inefficient – it didn\u2019t look fun to drive. So we brought that information back to the studio and we took as much visual mass out of the car as we could.<\/p>\n