After 70 years in Dearborn’s Glass House, Ford employees have a new home.
It’s not every day that a major carmaker builds a new world headquarters. For Ford, the new huge glass structure, in the shadow of the Glass House that has been business central for almost 70 years, becomes the automaker’s sixth HQ.
The new world headquarters, nicknamed “the Hub” to distinguish the new glass edifice from the Glass House that will ultimately be demolished by the end of 2027, is a massive 2.1-million square-feet base spread across its four floors, says chair and CEO of Ford Land Jim Dobleske. It’s more than twice the size of the Glass House and anchors the larger campus in Dearborn, Michigan, that is undergoing a major overhaul over the course of a decade. Ford in December 2020 broke ground for the new headquarters on the site of the former Ford Product Development Center.
As we mentioned, this is Ford’s first new world headquarters in seven decades. Previous HQs, in chronological order, include: Mack Avenue, Piquette Avenue, Highland Park, the Schaefer Administration Building, the Glass House that opened in 1956, and now this.
A fabulous workplace was deemed important to attract employees amid international competition for talent. Enticing workplaces are even more important today with return-to-work mandates after employees spent the pandemic years working from home. Officials say the new headquarters is 83 percent more efficient than the Glass House in terms of offering time and ability for people to move vehicles around and work together. “It brings people coming back to a better space to facilitate the work they do,” Dobleske said, “The space is a tool to do their best work in collaboration with colleagues.”
Step Inside Ford’s New World Headquarters
The first floor has two grand entranceways, one for employees, one for visitors and guests. Artwork is sprinkled throughout, and there is an abundance of natural light from huge windows on every floor and large skylights above. There is what Ford calls “arrival space” where employees can meet colleagues, suppliers, and others without having to go deeper into more secure parts of the building (there are four security levels). There are long tables, big chairs, large windows, an outside courtyard, and WiFi inside and out. The furniture is haute couture in places, and there are bespoke rugs. Wall screens have digital interactive maps to help find specific conference rooms, reserved lockers, etc. Being digital, more information can be added to the screens.
While the building has 34 elevators, many central and connecting stairs make it easy to go up or down a floor. The whole idea is collaboration, so everything was designed to foster that.
Take a Chicken Home
The second floor features the Gallery Hall, a massive food area with about eight kitchens and food themes, and seating for 1,000. There are rotisserie chickens being roasted—you can take home a whole chicken for $6 for an easy dinner.