Roast chickens and design secrets

DEARBORN, Mich. — Ford engine is swapping its 1950s-era “Glass House” headquarters for a new, modern industrial facility to promote collaboration and better appease the thousands of employees who have returned to the office in recent years after working remotely.

The new 2.1 million square foot facility in Dearborn, Michigan, ceremonially opens Sunday, although construction is expected to continue through 2027.

It replaces a rectangular-shaped, 12-story corporate headquarters about three miles away in the city that is expected to be demolished. The new building marks Ford’s sixth headquarters since its founding in 1903.

Currently dubbed “The Hub,” the new headquarters will bring together thousands of employees and several previous locations under one, albeit very large, roof. It is ultimately expected to accommodate up to 4,000 executives and employees involved in daily business operations, product design and development.

Operationally, the new headquarters is split equally between design and industrial operations. The design features huge studios with hidden courtyards and a large showroom. The other half should be used for general business operations such as executive offices and common work and meeting spaces.

There are very few actual offices beyond those for senior executives, according to the company. The idea is that employees can work as they wish in different zones, or “neighborhoods,” depending on their work that day, officials said. Estate staking, where employees attempt to make a space their permanent workplace, will be discouraged, said Jennifer Kolstad, global director of design and brand at Ford Land, the automaker’s real estate management group.

“It’s not just a building. It’s a space that is a tool for our employees to be more productive, to be more collaborative and to really contribute to the achievement of the Ford+ plan,” Jim Dobleske, president and CEO of Ford Land, said during a tour of the building.

The Ford+ plan was presented by CEO Jim Farley as a turnaround and efficiency plan for the automaker in 2021.

At the end of last year, Ford employed about 30,500 white-collar workers in the United States. The company continues to own or use other properties throughout the United States, including large bases in and around Dearborn.

Many salaried employees have been expected in offices at least four days a week since the start of the year, after many were given a more flexible hybrid office-home schedule after the pandemic ended.

“We invite them back into a space that is a tool to help them do their best work. And that best work tends to come in collaboration with other teams,” Dobleske said.

Part of this collaboration should happen around food.

The new headquarters features a 160,000-square-foot dining room with eight “kitchen concepts” that will include rotating menus as well as grab-and-go items such as $6 pizza and whole rotisserie chickens, decadent desserts and a juice bar with an herb garden.

“We receive guests from all over the world, so we wanted to make sure our menus paid homage to that diversity,” said Grant Vella, executive chef at the new headquarters. “We wanted to do something different, push the boundaries of business catering.”

Outside of the kitchens and dining rooms, vegetation and outdoor spaces are intended to create a more user-friendly campus compared to the automaker’s previous facility, which was largely locked off from the street and in the parking lot.

“This headquarters is the cornerstone of our campus redevelopment, but we’ve done a lot of work across the entire campus to really connect it and make it much more walkable for our employees,” Dobleske said, pointing to several facilities and areas, including a test track and an 18-acre “Horsepower Park” surrounding the building.

Inside the building are six courtyards, including a two-level courtyard at the center of the company’s new design studios, to allow designers to take their products outside and view them outdoors in natural light. These designer courses are exclusive areas that can only be viewed by surrounding private studios.

Most of the four-story building benefits from natural outdoor light from exterior glass walls as well as skylights and other glazed areas.

In addition to making the outdoor campus more walkable, Ford wants its employees to use specially designed stairs rather than the elevators and escalators that are the primary modes of transportation in its newest 12-story headquarters.

Craig Dykers, a founding partner of Norwegian architectural firm Snøhetta who worked on the building, said each staircase in the building, particularly in its 14 different arrival areas, is prominent and intended to be inviting to use.

“Obviously people don’t naturally want to climb a staircase, so you have to design it very carefully so that people feel comfortable using the staircase,” he said. “Part of the problem is that when you get on one flight, you don’t necessarily see the next flight, so it’s kind of a journey.”

The stairs inside the building’s main lobby are extremely wide and feature seating areas next to the low-height stairs. There is also a cafe bar on a large landing above the main lobby.

The coffee bar overlooks a white artwork depicting vehicle parts – one of several significant artworks purchased or curated by Ford for the new facility. Others are photos or drawings of vehicles, while others are simply non-automotive artistic works.

Inside the company’s design operations are large studios with advanced clay grinding machines, a spacious showroom that will function as a modern-designed dome, and a 64-foot screen displaying virtual reviews and tests.

What employees won’t see much of is the company logo, the famous blue oval surrounding the name “Ford.” There will be a huge blue oval Ford logo on the exterior of the building but not inside. Unless you look closely.

On some exterior glass walls, such as those at the company’s design operations, there is a glass pattern that features ovals accompanied by hidden numbers that represent Ford patents.

Ford declined to discuss the capital spent to build its new headquarters and design center, which was part of a previously announced billion-dollar campus transformation that began under former CEO Jim Hackett, who previously led furniture company Steelcase.

Here’s a look inside the new global headquarters: