Inside Ford's new world headquarters: Scratch kitchens, rotisserie chickens and design secrets

DEARBORN, Mich. — Ford Motor is swapping its 1950s "Glass House" office for a new, modern concern installation to beforehand collaboration and amended appease thousands of employees who person returned to offices successful caller years aft distant working.

The caller 2.1-million-square-foot installation successful Dearborn, Michigan, is ceremoniously opening Sunday, though operation is expected to proceed into 2027.

It replaces a 12-story, rectangular-shaped office astir 3 miles distant successful the metropolis that is expected to beryllium demolished. The caller gathering marks Ford's sixth office since its founding successful 1903.

Currently nicknamed "The Hub," the caller office volition consolidate thousands of employees and respective anterior locations nether 1 — albeit precise ample — roof. It is yet expected to beryllium location to up to 4,000 executives and employees progressive with regular concern operations, plan and merchandise development.

From an operational basis, the caller office is astir divided evenly betwixt plan and concern operations. Design includes monolithic studios with hidden courtyards and a ample showroom. The different fractional is acceptable to beryllium utilized for wide concern operations specified arsenic enforcement offices and communal enactment and gathering areas.

There are precise fewer existent offices extracurricular of those for apical executives, according to the company. The thought is for employees to beryllium capable to enactment arsenic they take successful antithetic areas, oregon "neighborhoods," depending connected what they're moving connected that day, officials said. Domain staking, wherever employees effort to marque a abstraction their imperishable workplace, volition beryllium discouraged, said Jennifer Kolstad, planetary plan and marque manager for Ford Land, the automaker's spot absorption group.

"It's not conscionable a building. This is simply a abstraction that is simply a instrumentality for our employees to beryllium much productive, to beryllium much collaborative, and truly assistance present the Ford+ plan," said Jim Dobleske, Ford Land seat and CEO, during a circuit of the building.

The Ford+ program was introduced by CEO Jim Farley arsenic a turnaround and ratio program for the automaker successful 2021.

As of the extremity of past year, Ford employed astir 30,500 white-collar salaried workers successful the U.S. The institution continues to ain oregon utilize different properties passim the U.S., including ample bases successful Dearborn and surrounding areas.

Many salaried employees are expected successful offices astatine slightest 4 days a week, arsenic of earlier this year, aft galore of them had a much escaped hybrid office-home docket pursuing the extremity of the pandemic.

"We're inviting them backmost into a abstraction that is simply a instrumentality to assistance them bash their champion work. And that champion enactment tends to travel with collaboration with different teams," Dobleske said.

Some of that collaboration is expected to hap implicit food.

The caller office includes a 160,000-square-foot eating country with 8 "kitchen concepts" that volition diagnostic rotating menus arsenic good arsenic take-home options specified arsenic pizza and $6 full rotisserie chickens, decadent desserts and a foodstuff barroom implicit with a herb garden.

"We person guests coming successful from each implicit the world, truthful we wanted to marque definite we person designed our menus to benignant of play homage to that diversity," said Grant Vella, enforcement cook for the caller ]headquarters. "We wanted to bash thing different, propulsion the bound of concern dining."

Outside of the kitchens and eating areas, vegetation and outdoor spaces are meant to marque for a much walkable-friendly field compared with the automaker's prior, mostly street- and parking lot-locked facility.

"This office is the cornerstone of our field redevelopment, but there's been a tremendous magnitude of enactment that we person done passim the field to truly link it and marque it overmuch much walkable for our employees," Dobleske said, pointing to respective facilities and areas, including a trial way and 18-acre "Horsepower Park," surrounding the building.

Inside the gathering are six courtyards, including a dual-level 1 astatine the halfway of the company's caller plan studios to let designers to instrumentality products extracurricular to presumption them outdoors successful earthy light. Those plan courtyards are exclusive areas that tin lone beryllium viewed by the surrounding, backstage studios.

Most of the four-story gathering features extracurricular earthy airy from the exterior solid walls arsenic good arsenic skylights and different windowed areas.

In summation to making a much walkable exterior campus, Ford wants employees to usage purposefully designed stairs alternatively than elevators and escalators that are the superior modes of proscription successful its most-recent 12-story headquarters.

Craig Dykers, founding spouse of Norwegian architectural steadfast Snøhetta that worked connected the building, said each staircase successful the building, particularly successful its 14 antithetic accomplishment areas, are salient and meant to beryllium inviting to use.

"Obviously radical don't people privation to ascent a stair, truthful you person to plan it precise cautiously truthful that radical consciousness bully astir utilizing the stair," helium said. "Part of the instrumentality is that arsenic you spell up 1 flight, you don't needfully spot the adjacent flight, truthful it's benignant of a journey."

Stairs wrong the main lobby of the gathering are highly wide and diagnostic seating areas alongside the existent low-rise stairs. There's besides a java barroom connected a ample landing supra the main lobby.

The java barroom overlooks a achromatic artwork that features conveyance parts — 1 of galore salient pieces of creation Ford purchased oregon has curated for the caller facility. Others are photos oregon drawings of vehicles, portion immoderate are simply non-automotive creator pieces.

Inside the company's plan operations are ample studios with precocious clay milling machines, a spacious showroom that volition run arsenic a modern plan dome and a 64-foot surface showing virtual reviews and testing.

What employees volition not spot overmuch of is the company's logo, the well-known bluish oval surrounding the "Ford" name. There volition beryllium a monolithic Ford bluish oval logo connected the extracurricular of the gathering but not connected its interior. Unless you look closely.

On immoderate exterior solid walls, specified arsenic the company's plan operations, there's a solid signifier that features the ovals accompanied by hidden numbers that correspond Ford patents.

Ford declined to sermon the superior spent to physique its caller office and plan center, which was portion of a antecedently announced $1 cardinal field translation that began nether erstwhile CEO Jim Hackett, who antecedently led furnishings institution Steelcase.

Here's a look wrong the caller satellite headquarters: