PHOTOS: How Ford’s New World Headquarters Redefines Work and Our Employees’ Experience

The grand opening of our new World Headquarters is the culmination of more than a decade of work to redefine Ford’s workspaces, as well as the employee experience.

We spent several years working with Ford teams to understand and improve the way we design, develop, test, and prototype new products and experiences for our customers. Our new 2.1 million square-foot office home will allow us to meet those evolving expectations and anticipated demands of the future. 

It starts when you come in the door. We want our employees to feel Ford when they walk in. In partnership with our design architect Snøhetta, we’ve designed the space, including our use of color, materials, and artwork, to bring our brand to life. We’ve also rethought how we address employees’ needs, weaving a layer of hospitality into the building’s layout. 

Like Ford Motor Company, this building is meant to last. We’ve used durable, timeless, and consistent materials in a layout that can be adapted to accommodate future changes in décor and technology. When the final phase of construction is completed in 2027, it will accommodate 4,000 employees, twice as many as our former World Headquarters, the Glass House. It is also more centrally located, within a 15-minute walk of other Ford buildings – across the buildings, we’ll house 14,000 Ford employees.

For the first time, we’re offering a look inside Ford’s new headquarters, including some of what employees are going to see, and how they’re going to work and collaborate in this world-class workspace.

Lobbies Immerse Visitors in Ford Brand and Design

Distinct public and employee lobbies are front doors to the brand for those visiting and those coming to work each day. The public entrance along Oakwood Blvd., a main thoroughfare, features color swatches of Ford models, from the iconic Model T to the Mustang Mach-E, adorning the main wall. The ceiling incorporates red cedar soffits, which can also be seen on the building’s exterior, perforated with white metal paneling that can also be found in the railings. Micro-LED screens stream curated programming, while durable terrazzo flooring — just one of the many sturdy materials selected for their longevity throughout the building — helps retain an aesthetic continuity.

Both lobbies also feature large multifunction spaces; the employee lobby can act as an event space in its own right, capable of accommodating as many as 700 people. 

Parts and pieces of a Bronco Raptor, sourced from a disassembled vehicle fresh off the line at Michigan Assembly Plant, adorn the wall in the American Road lobby, greeting employees as they enter. The specially designed brick is consistent with the brick on the building’s exterior. 

Showrooms Designed to Enable Superior Display and Comprehensive Product Reviews

The main showroom, part of a comprehensive trio of review spaces, features 10 floor turntables and “hidden” side walls that open to reveal the Colors and Materials Showroom as well as the Digital Showroom, which includes another rotating platform and a 64-foot, micro-LED wall.

These three adjoining spaces allow Ford Leaders to conduct comprehensive product reviews. The showroom has custom indoor lighting and is filled with natural light year-round from the wall of floor to ceiling windows in front of a large courtyard. A center oculus light fixture is designed to mimic any kind of natural light, during any time of day anywhere in the world.

The showroom connects to the Savannah Courtyard, which has another three turntables for outdoor product reviews. The Courtyard features a mezzanine above, shared by designers in Studios 1 and 2, and is wrapped in a neutral glazed terra-cotta rain screen, which look great in product photos. 

Flexible Studios Drive Collaborative Design, Speed Movement of Properties  

Each of the six new design studios, split between the second and fourth floors, has an identical layout, size, and new technology and equipment for functions such as clay modeling and milling, while flexible workstations allow for collaborative work.

Each room aligns with the customer profiles — Build, Thrill and Adventure — announced with the company’s new global brand strategy. The fabrication milling shop on the building’s first floor, known as Design Prototyping, is complete with metal, wood, trim, and paint shops. This is where models are constructed and undergo rough milling, a design process used to shape models, before reaching the final clay modeling phase. Special freight elevators are available so employees can easily move models between design studios. 

Dining Areas Provide Fuel for Collaboration 

Gallery Hall, on the building’s second floor, is the main employee dining area, featuring seven stand-up restaurants ranging from Asian and Mediterranean cuisine to pizza. Following Sunday’s grand opening, this part of the building will be open to all Ford employees for lunch and collaborative meetings.

A Hive-branded dining area offering craft coffee and pastries is located on the mezzanine between the first and second floors. It offers booth seating for groups, while other spaces offer blue metal mesh curtains for privacy. 

New Collaboration Zones Allow Employees to Take Teamwork Anywhere

On the second floor, building residents, outside employees, and vendors can gather in special collaboration zones and arrival spaces near Gallery Hall. A learning stair offers available seating, ideal for small and large gatherings, between the mezzanine and the second floor. There’s also seating with metal mesh curtains for visual separation directly off Gallery Hall. A library area near Gallery Hall allows for open collaboration for informal work and meetings. A Tech Lounge is also in the open collaboration area.

Flexible Energy Rooms Bring Our Ideas to Life for Full-Size Reviews

These program-specific, extra-large meeting rooms include flexible furniture for teams’ needs, large enough to accommodate a full-size vehicle for various reviews. The walls are wrapped in corkboard for pinning mock-ups. 

Windows Reflect Our Past, Inspire the Future

The unique glass banding on our exterior windows includes the patent numbers of historic innovations throughout Ford Motor Company history. The bands appear in a swoop pattern comprised of tiny ovals, which includes the embedded patent numbers. This nod to company history also serves a functional purpose in helping obscure sensitive products and information, as well as helping to regulate heating and cooling.

Vertical Building Design Enables Faster Vehicle Transport, Speeds Product Development 

Our new World Headquarters was designed with 22-inch-thick concrete floors to support the movement of vehicles throughout the facility. This allows us to transport vehicles via freight elevators and place them virtually anywhere, including energy rooms. Thanks to the building’s vertical orientation, moving properties and people throughout the space is 80% more efficient when compared to the previous Product Development Center.