1963 Buick Riviera Convertible & Hatch-Top
The 1963 Buick Riviera is recognized as one of Bill Mitchell’s most beautiful and successful designs. Its bold, striking design continues to be admired to this day by automotive enthusiasts. The Riviera’s strong design identity is partly due to the fact that its exterior sheet metal and interior were completely specific to that body style.
Recently discovered photographs from the GM Media Archive have revealed that Bill Mitchell had additional Riviera body styles under development that were never shown to the public or the media. The most striking Riviera that did not go into production is the convertible shown here with the top down. The photograph was taken in late 1963 on the Design Center Viewing Patio. We can tell from the high degree of fit and finish applied to this design model that the convertible variant was a serious proposal.
The second photograph shows the convertible top in the up-position. The proportions and construction details indicate that the top construction was also well thought out. The fate of this one-off Riviera convertible model is unknown at this time.
A second Riviera concept was found in the same set of photographs. As we can see from this close-up, Mr. Mitchell was also thinking of installing a hatch-like, opening panel in the Riviera’s roof. The hatch-roof would have added another interesting design and customer feature to the program.
We can only speculate at this point as to why neither of these proposals were accepted for production. Perhaps the rapid success of the Riviera made it seem unnecessary to add additional features to an already strong product.
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