- Ford is leaving its "Glass House" world headquarters after 70 years and moving into a new building that doubles its space. We had the chance to briefly tour the new building.
- It will be Ford's sixth headquarters and covers 2.1 million square feet spread over four floors, on Ford's sprawling campus in Dearborn, Michigan.
- Ford wants the new building to foster a more collaborative environment, with clever design choices to get its products in front of more employees.
General Motors announced last year that it would be leaving the iconic Renaissance Center, whose seven connected skyscrapers have comprised a prominent portion of Detroit's skyline for more than 50 years. Now Ford is also moving house, with the Blue Oval brand leaving its "Glass House" headquarters in nearby Dearborn, Michigan, which it has called home since 1956. After a grand opening event on Sunday, November 16, the building is slated to be fully complete in 2027.
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We took a brief tour of the new headquarters, which spans 2.1 million square feet over four floors, more than doubling the square footage at Ford's disposal. Roughly 2000 Ford employees are already working out of the new building—the same number as the Glass House could accommodate—but the extra space will allow for between 4500 and 5000 once it's fully open.
The new building is littered with clever design choices. According to Ford, the six design studios in the building are separated into three pairs. While the paired studios can see into each other, the location and angle of the windows mean that anyone outside of the studios won't be able to see products being designed, protecting new material from leaking to visitors. Even the choice in flooring was made with practicality in mind. While most of the building features white or light gray flooring, the flooring in the design studios is a darker gray color intended to mimic asphalt—where the cars will actually live.
Speaking of the product, Ford wanted its cars to be able to move throughout the building so that the people developing them could see the finished product. Because of that, the foundation of all four floors was designed to support the weight of an F-250. When probed about the logistics of driving a GTD up four flights of stairs, Ford kindly pointed out a pair of freight elevators tasked with moving vehicles between the levels.
Ford wants the new building to reflect its history as well as its future. Viewed from the outside, the glass windows are speckled with long, thin lines. Viewed up close, the speckles are actually individual Ford ovals. Get even closer, and you'll spot minuscule strings of letters and numbers, which, according to Ford, represent every patent the company has ever filed. Each new patent the company files will be added to the glass in time as well.
But our favorite bit of Ford history was actually in the machine shop. While the 200,000 square-foot shop is home to state-of-the-art metalworking machines and seven-figure mills for building clay models, it's also home to several vintage tools. When Ford's machinists were between their old shop closing and moving into the new HQ, they took to refurbishing several pieces of old equipment that had been collecting dust. The oldest, a metal lathe dating back to 1948, is fully operational and used by the workers every day.
Ford is also using the opportunity to tie its corporate space together with its retail spaces. Some (though not all) of the furniture found throughout the new headquarters is also making its way into Ford's redesigned dealerships around the country.
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Jack Fitzgerald’s love for cars stems from his as yet unshakable addiction to Formula 1.
After a brief stint as a detailer for a local dealership group in college, he knew he needed a more permanent way to drive all the new cars he couldn’t afford and decided to pursue a career in auto writing. By hounding his college professors at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he was able to travel Wisconsin seeking out stories in the auto world before landing his dream job at Car and Driver. His new goal is to delay the inevitable demise of his 2010 Volkswagen Golf.
