Rotisserie chicken and design secrets

DEARBORN, MI — ford motor is replacing its 1950s “glass house” headquarters with a new modern industrial facility to foster collaboration and better reassure thousands of employees who have returned to the office from remote work in recent years.

The new 2.1 million square foot facility in Dearborn, Michigan will open with a ceremony on Sunday, but construction is expected to continue into 2027.

The building will replace the company’s 12-story rectangular headquarters about three miles away in the city, which is scheduled to be demolished. The new building will be Ford’s sixth headquarters since its founding in 1903.

The new headquarters, now nicknamed ‘The Hub’, will consolidate thousands of employees and several previous locations under one much larger roof. Ultimately, it is expected to be home to up to 4,000 executives and employees involved in day-to-day business operations, design and product development.

From an operational standpoint, the new headquarters has an almost even split between design and industrial operations. The design includes a large studio with a hidden courtyard and large showroom. The other half will be used for general business operations, including executive offices and common work and meeting areas.

The company says there are few physical offices other than executive offices. The idea is to allow employees to work in different areas, or “neighborhoods,” as they wish, depending on their work schedule that day, officials said. Jennifer Kolstad, global design and brand director at Ford Land, the automaker’s asset management group, said domain staking, where employees try to make the space their permanent workplace, is discouraged.

“This is more than just a building. This is a tool for our employees to be more productive and more collaborative, and it’s a space that really helps us realize our Ford+ plan,” said Jim Dobleske, Ford Land Chairman and CEO, during a tour of the building.

The Ford+ plan was introduced by CEO Jim Farley as the automaker’s 2021 turnaround and efficiency plan.

As of late last year, Ford employed approximately 30,500 white-collar salaried workers in the United States. The company continues to own or utilize other properties throughout the United States, including large bases in Dearborn and surrounding areas.

As of the beginning of this year, many office workers are required to be in the office at least four days a week, after the pandemic ended and many office workers adopted a more relaxed hybrid office-home schedule.

“We’re inviting them into a space where they have the tools to do their best work, and that best work tends to involve collaboration with other teams,” Dobreske said.

Some of that collaboration is expected to take place through food.

The new headquarters will feature 160,000 square feet of dining area with eight “kitchen concepts” offering daily menus as well as grab-and-go options such as pizza, $6 whole rotisserie chickens, indulgent desserts and a juice bar with an herb garden.

“We have guests from all over the world, so we wanted to design a menu that honored that diversity,” said Grant Vera, executive chef at the new headquarters. “We wanted to do something different and push the boundaries of business dining.”

Outside the kitchen and dining area, there will be vegetation and outdoor space, intended to create a more walkable campus compared to the automaker’s previous facility, which was largely confined to roads and parking lots.

“While this headquarters is the cornerstone of our campus redevelopment, we’ve done a tremendous amount of work across campus to really connect the campus and make it more walkable for our employees,” Dobreske said, pointing out several facilities and areas surrounding the building, including the test track and the 18-acre “Horse Power Park.”

There are six courtyards within the building, including a two-tiered courtyard at the heart of the company’s new design studio, where designers can bring their products outside to view them outdoors in natural light. Their designed courtyard is a special area that can only be seen by the surrounding private studios.

The majority of the four-story building receives external natural light through glass facades, skylights, and other window areas.

In addition to making the outside of campus more walkable, Ford wants employees to use purposefully designed stairs rather than elevators and escalators, which are the primary means of transportation at its modern, 12-story headquarters.

Craig Dijkers, founding partner of Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta, which worked on the building, said each of the building’s staircases, particularly the 14 different arrival areas, were intended to be prominent and easy to access.

“It’s clear that people don’t naturally want to climb stairs, so we need to carefully design the stairs so that people can use them comfortably,” he said. “One of the tricks is that when you go up on one flight, you don’t necessarily see the next flight. So it’s kind of like a journey.”

The staircase within the main lobby of the building is very wide with a seating area next to the actual lower staircase. There is also a coffee bar on a large landing above the main lobby.

The coffee bar overlooks a white artwork featuring vehicle parts. This is one of many notable works of art that Ford purchased or handpicked for the new facility. There are photos and drawings of vehicles, and there are also works of art that are more than just cars.

Inside the company’s design operations is a large studio with advanced clay crushers, a spacious showroom that serves as a modern design dome, and a 64-foot screen displaying virtual reviews and tests.

What employees don’t often see is the company’s logo, the familiar blue oval surrounding the name “Ford.” Ford’s giant blue oval logo appears on the outside of the building, but not on the inside. I have to look closely.

Some exterior glass walls, such as those in the company’s design work, have glass patterns that feature ovals with hidden numbers representing Ford’s patents.

Ford declined to say how much money it spent building the new headquarters and design center as part of a previously announced $1 billion campus overhaul begun under former CEO Jim Hackett, who previously led furniture company Steelcase.

Here’s a look inside the new world headquarters.