Last week, the Riviera Project hit 60,000 words. With that number written and the 168 pages currently created, I can estimate that completion will come when I get to at least 66,000 words and 182 pages—and likely considerably more. It has taken over two years to get to this point.

I had previously decided to do another test print at 60,000 words (or so), so I uploaded the PDFs to the printer yesterday. By my method of counting, this is revision 17—the previous test print was in December 2020.

Annotations on the title page say this:

Content not complete, brackets indicate questionable data, layout not optimized,
photos largely unedited, color correction not applied

—this is all true. Though I have worked a lot on the general form, there’s still much content left to go, so there’s been almost no attention made to optimizing the layout. Thus, nearly all of the photos and illustrations are in a few standardized sizes to get an idea of page flow and chapter length. Beyond using generic dimensions, I haven’t yet given consideration to cropping any of the photos or illustrations.

I also haven’t attempted any color correction except for the work I did on the exterior paint appendix. I sense that color correction will be fraught and will require some artistic choices—how closely, for example, will I try to get brochure selections to their original and unfaded colors?

Content that is known incomplete includes some option tables for 1973, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1981, and 1983, along with completing the Development chapter and the Annotated Bibliography. Across the book, I keep finding things to add, amplify, and clarify.

The two most lengthy chapters remain those on the sixth generation (1979-1985) and the seventh generation (1986-1993) cars, which were the Riviera generations longest in production at seven and eight model years, respectively. I don’t see this changing because—at least to a certain extent—yearly changes drive chapter length.

Unsurprisingly, by far the most pages per year are for the first generation. However, that count only comes when I combine both the chapter on the Riviera’s initial development and the one on the actual three model years from 1963 to 1965. Otherwise, the second generation (1966-1970) leads, driven by its notably lengthy options lists and the onset of significant competition from Oldsmobile, Cadillac, and Lincoln. All together, the chapters on each of the eight generations currently make up 84% of the book.

We’ll see how this test print looks—no matter how many times I look at something on a display (even a good display), there are always things I miss.

On to revision 18 …

Last week, the Riviera Project went over 55,000 words. With that number written and the 154 pages currently created, I can estimate that completion will come when I get to at least 61,200 words and 170 pages—and likely considerably more. It has taken almost two years to get to this point and over three months to generate the last 5,000 words.

What we still don’t have is a working title—Riviera Project is just a placeholder. I want the title to include some reference to my central thesis; that the Riviera would often differentiate from its competition with exterior design—with varying degrees of critical and financial success. But nothing has yet come to mind that I like.

I have made significant progress recently on several fronts. The chapter on the sixth-generation cars now includes a section on the ground-breaking Delco-GM/Bose Music System, which first debuted in 1983 in the Riviera, the Cadillac Eldorado, the Cadillac Seville, and the Oldsmobile Toronado.

Work with the colors and the options continues to add notable context to the chapters themselves. In particular. I’ve done an extensive analysis of the prevalence of various colors in the seventh generation (1986-1993) and the eighth generation (1995-1999) Rivieras, since there doesn’t seem to be any actual data available.

Some statistics while we’re at it; the two most lengthy chapters remain the ones on the sixth generation (1979-1985) and the seventh generation cars, which were the Riviera generations longest in production at seven and eight model years, respectively.

Unsurprisingly, by far the most pages per year are for the first generation. However, that count is generated when I include both the chapter on the Riviera’s initial development and the one on the actual three model years from 1963 to 1965. Otherwise, the short (only two years) fifth-generation (1977-1978) leads, driven by its origin story, its notably lengthy options lists, and 1978’s 75th Anniversary Package—the first of several special edition Rivieras. The chapters on each of the eight generations currently make up 85% of the book.

Last week, the Riviera Project went over 50,000 words. With that number written and the 148 pages currently created, I can estimate that completion will come when I get to at least 57,700 words and 170 pages—and likely considerably more. It has taken a little over twenty months to get to this point and over five months to generate the last 5,000 words as the writing has become less easy.

I have made significant progress recently on several fronts. Appendix Two, which displays the Riviera’s exterior colors, now has placeholder displays for all eight generations—details on some of the color diagramming considerations are here and here. I also continue to give attention to the options tables, adding more data and cross-referencing what’s already there. This work with the colors and the options is adding notable context to the chapters themselves.

Some statistics while we’re at it; the two most lengthy chapters remain the ones on the sixth-generation and the seventh-generation cars, which were the Riviera generations longest in production at seven and eight model years, respectively.

Unsurprisingly, by far the most pages per year are for the first generation. However, that count is generated when I include both the chapter on the Riviera’s initial development and the one on the actual three model years from 1963 to 1965. Otherwise, the short (only two years) fifth-generation leads, driven by its notably lengthy options lists and the 75th Anniversary Package—the first of many special edition Rivieras. This is interesting (at least to me) because the fifth generation (1977-1978) is one of the “forgotten” generations, along with the fourth generation (1974-1976) and the seventh generation (1986-1993). The eight chapters on each generation currently make up 84% of the book.

As I continued to work on the exterior paint color charts for the Riviera Project, I have been thinking about arranging the colors I display. I’ve been trying to sort visually using ROYGBIV, with some degree of success. After a few months, a seemingly obvious concept finally came to mind—why not just use the color hue values to place them?

I’ll expand: one of the many ways to describe a particular color is the HSB color space—Hue, Saturation, and Brightness. Also named as HSL (Hue, Saturation, and Lightness), HSB is a different way of measuring the RGB color space. The interest here is that it nicely separates hue from other color factors over 360 degrees, with the red in ROYGBIV starting at about 345 degrees.

HSB was initially conceived as a way to add color to black-and-white television transmissions without changing the signal that the black-and-white sets were receiving. It has been around for quite a while—French engineer Georges Valensi invented it in 1938, pre-dating the first consumer color televisions by 16 years. Those first color televisions were astoundingly expensive—the Admiral C1617A’s $1,175 price (about $11,200 in 2020 dollars) gives a hint of why substantial color television adoption would take almost 15 years.

So far, I’ve charted the exterior colors using the print-oriented CYMK color space. Still, Adobe Illustrator (which I’ve been using) and a plethora of other applications have no trouble converting the values displayed to HSB so that I can see the hue value. It was time for some testing—what could go wrong?

I tried this new-to-me color sorting method out on the current beta of the fifth-generation chart. It seems to work decently, but more exploration will be needed. The early results are shown to the right.

While I’ve been testing these sorting revisions, I’ve added the appropriate Buick-assigned two-digit color number and an asterisk if the color is metallic to each paint swatch. So, the charts now also have higher data density.

The charts also show the somewhat confounding color naming inconsistencies that prevailed throughout the Riviera’s life. A color can keep the same marketing name (i.e., Medium Green), but be a different painting formulation (changing from PPG 2694 to PPG 3062). Another color can alter its marketing name but remain the same paint formulation. Finally, the same Buick-assigned color number (63) can change paint formulations (PPG 2970 to PPG 3090) and color names (Gold to Dark Gold) from year to year.

Details, details, details, …

Yesterday evening, the Riviera Project went over 45,000 words. With that number written and the 140 pages currently created, I can estimate that completion will come when I get to at least 53,400 words and 166 pages—and likely considerably more.

I have made significant progress on several fronts. Appendix Two, which displays the Riviera’s exterior colors, now has placeholder displays for half the generations—details on some of the color diagramming considerations are here. With those colors tables now in place, there’s now more precise analysis by year in each of the separate generational chapters.

There’s also been notable work on further rationalizing and extending the index and adding to the books discussed in the annotated bibliography.

Likely the most time-consuming effort over the last two months has been the attention I continue to give the options tables, both adding more data and refining their display. I’ve put extra time into the tables that show the complex 1982-1985 period when the Riviera offered coupe, T Type, and convertible versions.

Some statistics while we’re at it; the two most lengthy chapters remain the ones on the sixth-generation and the seventh-generation cars, which were the Riviera generations longest in production at seven and eight model years, respectively.

Unsurprisingly, by far the most pages per year are for the first generation, though that count is generated when I include both the Riviera’s initial development and the actual three model years from 1963 to 1965. Otherwise, the short (only two years) fifth-generation now leads, driven by its notable options lists and the 75th Anniversary Package. The eight chapters on each generation currently make up 86% of the book.