Ford Motor Company: Understanding the history and legacy of automakers
From groundbreaking assembly line innovations to iconic cars like the Model T, Mustang and F-150, we explore the rich history of the Ford Motor Company.
- Ford Motor will be moving from its iconic glass home to its headquarters in New World for the next two years.
- Ford employees and industry experts say the move will help Ford enter a new era of technological advancement.
- Ford employees have designed a clay replica of the already large New World Headquarters building.
Jeff Royer, a lead clay sculptor at Ford Motor Co., can see Ford’s past and future every day.
After working at Ford for 15 years, Royer spends part of his day modeling the clay sculptures of a car at the rest of Ford’s old product development center in Dearborn, Michigan, across from the Henry Ford Museum. He then goes to a new studio nearby and soon becomes Ford’s new world headquarters building, where he does the rest of his work.
“I have legs in the old building and feet in the new building,” Royer told Detroit Free Press, part of the USA Today network, on September 15, when the car manufacturer announced it was in operation. “So every day, it reminds us where we went and where we were going.”
Ford’s product development centre was, at one point, at one point, Royer said. Now, “It was decades ago. The new design studios are very human-centric. They focus on users from a natural light perspective.”
A flood of natural light floods when Royer is at work not only “buoys” his spirit, but also promotes creativity. He believes that if the automaker fills the building with around 4,000 engineers, designers and executives over the next two years, the environment will improve the quality of the work that comes out of Ford employees.
After all, the new building is a step into the next century of advances in the technology and design of automobile manufacturers, many experts said.
“This is all part of Ford building its future brand and strategy,” said Dan Ives, managing director of Wedbush Securities. “HQ is important and shows that Ford is leaping towards the innovation path while maintaining its 313 roots.”
Shifting the center of gravity
On the morning of September 15th, Ford brought news to employees and the world about shaking Metro Detroit. The automaker retains the iconic World HQ building on Michigan Avenue, known as Glass House.
Dearborn’s center of gravity has shifted to news, but the move is that many industry observers need to do for Ford to deliver the best future technology and attract and retain talent.
“We’ve heard that the World HQ buildings are 70 years old and are corrupted from within, but we need one big root canal,” said Jim Seabitt, owner of Village Ford car dealerships on Michigan Avenue. “So making this move means everything in the world to me.”
Ford will dedicate the new buildings to Oakwood Boulevard and Village Road as the new Ford World Headquarters in November. It is four stories compared to a 12-storey glass house. However, the new space can accommodate 4,000 people compared to the 2,000 people in the glass house.
“It’s a big, big building,” Seabitt said. “It looks like the Pentagon.”
In addition to being twice the size of a glass house, the new building is much better. Mark DePaori, newly elected director of UAW Region 1A and former vice president of UAW Local 600 at Ford’s Rouge Complex, said he hopes Ford will move its global headquarters after seeing what Ford is building.
“If you look at the state-of-the-art facility they set up, and if you compare it to the current World HQ, it becomes a huge building. “I think they’ve given it this long because of the historic presence of the (glass house), but this is a much better facility.”
Depaoli said that having engineering, design and executives housed in one location will help us deliver the best products. But he also has a bittersweet feeling.
“Henry Ford II has set the world headquarters so he can see Rouge from his office, and obviously I’m biased towards Rouge,” DePaori said. “That’s why I hate seeing it go.”
Destroy the old one and take it down with the new one
Ford plans to vacate the glass house by the second quarter of 2026 and demolish it by the end of 2027 or mid-2028 to make way for the area’s green space.
Approximately 500 employees are already working in the new building, and an additional 1,500 employees will begin moving to the New World Headquarters in October and November. Afterwards, Ford will do some demolition and construction to complete more demolition and construction before the remaining 2,000 employees move by 2027.
Seabit said the new location would be closer to his dealership and could boost his business. But he hates seeing the glass house drop.
“Important to my building,” Seabitt said of his dealership with the famous round showroom, a nod to Ford’s famous Rotunda Center. “I like iconic things so I hate seeing (glass house) go down, but this is a torch passing, and that’s right. They’d spent a lot of money rehabilitating that building.”
Morningstar auto analyst David Wyston said Ford isn’t doing all this just to get a new office. We want to be further integrated between all our teams and the new facility. The new facility is better suited than a glass home. Built in the 1950s, the glass house was designed with an office with doors rather than an open meeting space designed to promote collaboration. Additionally, the new facility may help recruit “people who think glass homes are outdated today,” he said.
Mike Ramsey, vice president team manager for Automotive, Transport and Crossmakers at Gartner Inc., said the move is a key moment for Ford and Metro Detroit. Glass Houses are “memorable and interesting architecture” that is far from the “center of the company.”
“Main Campus Ford, right next to Henry Ford and its test track, is a more logical place to put executives,” Ramsey said. “The (glass house) was never far, but we continued to create a separation from the executives and the company’s centre.”
Glasshouse was one of Ford’s six world headquarters in its 122-year history. Ford has been using Glass House as its World HQ since 1956. Automakers have made many historic decisions that shape the company, including the creation of the Mustang in the 1960s and former CEO Alan Mullary saving the company from bankruptcy in the Great Recession of 2008, but industry observers say it’s time to move on.
In fact, Eric Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, says the move “can be the most iconic change other than Ford replacing the company’s blue oval logo. Ford says he leaves a part of that legacy behind.”
What GM and Ford hope for their new headquarters
The Detroit automaker is not the only Detroit automaker to recently decide to move around the world headquarters.
In April 2024, General Motors said it would move from the Detroit waterfront Renaissance Center on Woodward Avenue in 2025 to the billionaire Detroit building.
Malick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University, told Ford and GM that opening a new global headquarters represents more than a geographical relocation.
“It makes a statement about the importance of opening a new chapter in the history of an organization,” Masters said in an email to the Detroit Free Press. “In this respect, the architecture of the new facility offers an opportunity to explore new approaches to the sociotechnical aspects of work design and related human interaction.”
In other words, businesses want to not only work cleaner places, but also want to improve their business by attracting the best talent and providing employees with new facilities and latest technology.
“If this move can bring in more communication between product development and other companies, it’s probably a good move in the long run,” said Wyston of Morningstar. “Having an on-site studio or garage means executives can visit these areas quickly and perhaps more frequently. Real-time feedback will ultimately allow them to travel through the vehicle market faster.”
Art Wheaton, director of Labor Studies at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, said the relocation of the world headquarters was also important. Ford refused to say how much he was spending on the New World Headquarters Complex, but the 2016 project cost estimate was $1.2 billion.
Wheaton said he also emphasized the desire to be integrated through the design and engineering process and the less “glass house” filled with executives alone.
“Third, it highlights the changing needs of architectural design,” Wheaton said in an email. “Having more facilities in the workplace (such as restaurants) indicates that the company values its employees and makes the workplace more kind. Staying in Dearborn indicates that it’s not a cost-cutting mission to encourage employees to leave like an out-of-state move in search of low taxes.”
Automotive technology meets architecture
Ford has already shown what new facilities can do by combining the automotive industry with the world of architecture. Royer and 35 other employees created the first such reenactment in Ford history, the New World Headquarters clay sculpture.
Royer has been working with both the old PDC and the new hub since late May, and the team has spent about five weeks creating a clay architectural model for the new World HQ building, even if the actual building continues.
The new 2.1 million square foot headquarters building will feature six studios and a first-floor manufacturing department for painting and rapid prototyping, as well as the creation of wood, metal and trim.
Royer, who worked as an architect before joining Ford 15 years ago, said that the headquarters of Miniature Clay World would be something people can use to navigate the huge spaces in real life.
“In fact, it was an idea from another group who helped put together a story about the new building,” Royer said of the clay model. “It was their brainchild that they’ve always been using clay models for cars. What if they did a clay model for buildings? It’s a very unique way to represent the traditional means of doing architectural projects and architectural models for paper and wood.”
Ford said the team will produce a detailed centre courtyard of clay models using large-scale 3D printing available at its headquarters in the New World. Additionally, custom wood tables have been built to support the model. The model will be on display at the headquarters of the New World, beyond the grand opening on September 15th.
Jamie L. Larrow is a senior Autos writer covering Ford Motor Company for the Detroit Free Press. Please contact Jamie at jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jarouan. Sign up for our car newsletter. Become a subscriber.
