GM's Solutions to City Traffic Congestion

There's loads of great shots of America's traffic jams circa 1955. While the parking theories herein make a lot of sense, GM was incidentally making a pitch for their city buses...and soon would be expanding their cars to extraordinary lengths!

Modernist automobile showroom #2

The Miesian glass box, with its stark, elegant simplicity, is likewise an effective showcase for elegant things. A frilly, fussy frame would distract the eye from the object within. Case in point this Cadillac displayed in the Thomas Brothers Cadillac showroom in Cincinnati in 1955.



I'm surprised the building not only still exists, but remains a Cadillac showroom. Unfortunately the once sensational expanse of glass has been greatly compromised.

Modernist automobile showroom #1

Perhaps it was merely a happy accident that the dazzling roofline matches the batwing fins of those 1959 Chevrolets displayed inside. Detroit's Dexter Chevrolet still exists, but judging from the photos on their website, the original showroom has either been drastically remodeled or torn down. From the book Stores and Shopping Centers, 1962, published by Architectural Record.

1959 Mercury Park Lane

1960 Ford Thunderbird

My favorite Ford commercial of all time. You must see this to believe it.

1966 Dodge Monaco

1965 Cadillac convertible

The all-new 1965 model year, with stacked headlights, was one of Cadillac's more elegant iterations.