Ford has announced that it plans on relocating its historic world headquarters to a new building in Dearborn, necessitating that the old building — known locally as the Glass House — be demolished. However, based upon the blueprints, the new facility could just as easily carry on the moniker.
In a letter issued to Ford employees on Monday, the company explained that it would be relocating to the “upgraded and reimagined Dearborn product development campus” located nearby. Blue Oval offered some accompanying promotional materials, including images of what the completed structure should look like. Although, most of that pertains to the finishing touches and landscaping. Much of the foundational and framing work has been completed already, proving that the new space will be significantly larger and more curvaceous than its boxy predecessor. It likewise looks as though it’ll incorporate even more glass.
From Ford Motor Company:
Our new headquarters is designed to make that happen, bringing thousands of our engineering, design, and technology team members together in one collaborative space — twice the size of our current HQ, and built to accommodate double the employees — to innovate and solve problems faster than ever before.
Our team is working hard to wrap construction as hundreds of employees are collaborating in the building already. While the majority of the facility will be complete this year, work will continue through 2027 on a final section of the site.
When that’s done, up to 4,000 people can work from our HQ with a total of 14,000 employees within a 15-minute walk of the new World Headquarters building, enabling greater collaboration in practice and proximity.
This is part of a larger investment in our people and our facilities across the globe. We are committed to providing employees with world-class workspaces, modern technology, and the best tools to do their life’s best work—from our global offices to our manufacturing floors. Our dealers around the world are likewise investing in their stores and service centers to elevate the customer experience.
The new site will be shorter than the old headquarters. But it will occupy a much larger space (2.1 million square feet overall) and accommodate all types of specialized workspaces, rather than the more general purpose conference or office spaces provided by the building it’ll be replacing. Ford also wants to integrate it into the nearby R&D center, instead of having it be a standalone office building, and incorporate an exterior greenspace.
Everything is supposed to be better than what’s been available at the long-standing Glass House HQ and Blue Oval is likewise promising they’ll be twice as much of it — whether we’re talking about space for occupants or amenities.
That said, it’ll still be sad to see the old headquarters torn down. While I have spent a lot of my adult years living on America’s East Coast, I was born in Michigan and have a particular fondness for the building. It’s easily visible from US-12 and typically served as the final landmark indicating that we were nearing the Henry Ford Museum — my favorite place in the world as a child.
The headquarters isn’t a particularly attractive building, however. Completed in 1956, the structure was done in the then-popular “International Style.” It would have certainly been considered ultra-modern at the time of its construction. But the corporate architectural themes of the day have aged rather poorly. Despite losing some ground to the debatably hideous (albeit more-interesting) Brutalist and Federal Modernist architectural designs of the 1960s, the International Style never really came off the menu. It even saw a massive resurgence starting in the 1970s due to being highly functional, simple, and cheaper to produce than alternatives.
Situated near the River Rouge for longer than most of us can remember, the Glass House remains iconic if only because it’s been saturated in automotive history.
“There’s kind of an emotional moment with us leaving the Glass House,” Bill Ford, the company’s executive chairman stated during a recent online briefing. “It’s been our headquarters for 70 years. I’ve been there my whole career, which is coming up on 50 years now. But its better days are behind it.”
Ford has argued in the past that the Glass House simply doesn’t work with how people do business today. But our guess is that it has more to do with the current world headquarters looking a little clapped out and lacking some of the technological amenities Ford wants to incorporate now that it’s allegedly becoming a “software company.”
Is this the best use of Ford’s finances? Well, there’s certainly a case to be made that the business moving into a larger and more-modern facility suggests it has growth on its mind. But we’d argue that the brand still needs to focus plenty of its efforts elsewhere. Quality control has been a major issue in recent years and its pivot into tech (particularly by way of all-electric vehicles) arguably has not been a successful strategy.
Management working more closely with R&D at the new site could help to alleviate some of that. However, a shiny new residence cannot solve anything by itself and some will argue that the software-focused approach to engineering is a major contributor to consumer gripes about modern automobiles (e.g. bloated/invasive tech and poor value for money). Ford needs to use the new building to take a sober look at its lineup and consider what drivers actually want from their vehicles.
Employees are scheduled to move out by the end of the second quarter in 2026, with demolition expected to finish between the end of 2027 and mid-2028. That means the new complex won’t be totally finished with construction as staff begins their migration.
[Images: Ford Motor Co.]
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