Ford global HQ unveiled

FORD has opened its new global headquarters, its first new home since the 1950s.

The car-maker’s product development centre, part of the facility, has just opened with the other departments under completion through to 2027.    

Regarded as one of the biggest office, research and design buildings in the US, the centre is the culmination of years of changing real estate locations.

At 195,000 square metres, the building aims to bring Ford into the 21st Century with contemporary workspaces, large areas of natural light, courtyards, common working areas, green space and other amenities.

Built over four stories and with capacity for up to 5000 employees, the new Ford World Headquarters — as it’s officially known — is a stark departure from the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)-designed Henry Ford II World Center, commonly known as the Glass House.

The SOM centre was built in 1956 and has 12 stories, has about half the employee capacity, an all-glass façade and is about 5km away from the new building.

Ford said its new home, which opens in 2027, was part of a longtime effort to consolidate employees into a more centralised area and create a campus-like feel.

Ford’s portfolio as of about a decade ago was 71 buildings totalling about 1.2 million square metres in and around Dearborn.

Contractors include Barton Malow, Snøhetta, IBI Group, Ghafari Associates and Arup.

Designer Snohetta described the work and materials in the building: The building features distinct public and employee lobbies for visitors and employees. The public entrance along Oakwood Blvd, a main thoroughfare, features colour swatches of Ford models, from the Model T to the Mustang Mach-E, adorning the main wall.

The ceiling incorporates red cedar soffits, which can also be seen on the building’s exterior, perforated with white metal panelling that can also be found in the railings. 

There are also wrapped, micro-LED screens for curated programming, while durable terrazzo flooring — just one of the many sturdy materials selected for their longevity throughout the building — helps retain an aesthetic continuity.

Both lobbies also feature large multifunction spaces, while the employee lobby can act as an event space in its own right, capable of accommodating as many as 700 people.

Parts and pieces of a Bronco Raptor, finished in white and sourced from a disassembled vehicle fresh off the line at Michigan Assembly Plant, adorn the wall in the American Road lobby.

The main showroom, part of a comprehensive trio of review spaces, features 10 floor turntables and “hidden” side walls that open to reveal the ‘colours and materials’ showroom and digital showroom, which includes another rotating platform and a 19.5m, micro-LED wall.

These three adjoining spaces allow Ford leaders to conduct comprehensive product reviews. 

The showroom is filled with natural light year-round thanks to the adjacent courtyard and a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows, plus custom indoor lighting. 

A center oculus light fixture is designed to mimic any kind of natural light, during any time of day, anywhere in the world.

The showroom connects to the Savannah Courtyard, which has another three turntables for outdoor product reviews. The courtyard features a mezzanine above, shared by designers in Studios 1 and 2, and is wrapped in a neutral glazed terra-cotta rain screen.

Each of the six new design studios, split between the second and fourth floors, has an identical layout, size, and new technology and equipment for functions such as clay modelling and milling, while flexible workstations allow for collaborative work.

Each room aligns with the customer profiles — Build, Thrill and Adventure — announced with the company’s new global brand strategy. 

The fabrication milling shop on the building’s first floor, known as Design Prototyping, is complete with metal, wood, trim, and paint shops. 

This is where models are constructed and undergo rough milling, a design process used to shape models, before reaching the final clay modelling phase. 

Special freight elevators are available so employees can easily move models between design studios.

Gallery Hall, on the building’s second floor, is the main employee dining area, featuring seven stand-up restaurants ranging from Asian and Mediterranean cuisine to pizza. 

Following the grand opening, this part of the building became open to all Ford employees for lunch and collaborative meetings.

A Hive-branded dining area offering craft coffee and pastries is located on the mezzanine between the first and second floors. It offers booth seating for groups, while other spaces offer blue metal mesh curtains for privacy.

On the second floor, building residents, outside employees, and vendors can gather in special collaboration zones and arrival spaces near Gallery Hall. 

A library area near Gallery Hall allows for open collaboration for informal work and meetings. A Tech Lounge is also in the open collaboration area.

The new Ford world headquarters was designed with 56cm-thick concrete floors to support the movement of vehicles throughout the facility. 

“This allows us to transport vehicles via freight elevators and place them virtually anywhere,including energy rooms,”says Ford.