Cadillac House by Gensler: 2016 Best of Year Winner for Showroom
In 1902, the Cadillac rolled off the assembly line, right into pop culture, and has stayed there ever since. Even legends need to look forward, however, which brings us to the base of a 1910 warehouse where a branded experience environment by creative director and principal John Bricker merges social space with displays of cars classic and new. “Cadillac was the first American car designed by an actual designer, not an engineer,” Bricker notes.
He took the wheel of the project when Cadillac was shifting gears under new leadership. First move? Removing the glazing from two enormous windows framed by the limestone building’s pilasters, then adding balustrades to turn the front of the 12,000-square-foot space into a sort of veranda or, given the occasional vintage models parked here, a smart wink to a car dealership’s lot. Separating this open-air zone from the interior, proper, is a glass wall—think of it as a windshield. Structural columns that form rows down the center now support tall digitally programmed LED video screens. Cadillac’s leather interiors inspired luxurious, massive door pulls. And those famous grilles reappear, etched in glass, on the doors themselves.
Project Teams: Stefanie Shunk; David Weinberg; Matthew Calkins; Victor Kung; Ranses Galindo; Kevin Carlin; Jamie Carusi; AJ Mapes; Ron Rosenman; Charlie Flexon. Bold: Charlie Dumais; Gary Wong; Wilvin Rodriguez.
