After 70 Years, Ford Will Demolish Its Iconic Glass House Global HQ
It’s said one should never throw stones at a glass house, but this one is firmly in the crosshairs.
For nearly 70 years, Ford Motor Company's global headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, occupied a building dubbed the “Glass House.” Now, that facility is set to be demolished as a new campus called the Henry Ford II World Center comes online, also in Dearborn. This new campus will not only hold double the people but was designed with a modern footprint to ease the development of Fords of the future.
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Built in 1956, the Glass House rang in at 950,000 square feet (70,000 feet of which was lobby) over 12 floors and the facility could accommodate 2,000 employees in its individual workstations and multiple conference rooms. While it housed an arboretum and utilized solar panels as a nod toward eco-friendliness, much has changed since it was first constructed and the only way to achieve the modernization Ford sought was to start from scratch. While it is an iconic building, the Glass House will come down in 18 months after the last of Ford's teams vacate. Ford will work with the city of Dearborn on plans for the site, with open spaces and parks among the possibilities.
The new Ford World Headquarters building (above) has only four floors, but its floor plan measures a massive 2.1 million square feet. This will fit up to 4,000 people in new studios, garages, and fabrication shops within a building designed to be a net-zero energy usage facility. New water-saving and waste reduction strategies include a new central energy plant that supplies hot water and steam, and it is also located within walking distance of the 14,000 employees at Ford's Research and Engineering and Trackside testing operations facilities. The new campus is nearly complete with overall construction to be finished by 2027, while the new World Headquarters will open in November.
Aesthetically speaking, the modern facility is just as much of a Glass House as the old one, its modern design said to tie into the Ford Plus strategy. If all goes to plan, it will be where the next generation of Ford vehicles will be planned, designed, and executed for the next 70 years—and perhaps beyond.
Having experience in many forms of the automotive industry, Justin Banner has done more than just write about cars. For more than 15 years, he's had experience working as an automotive service technician—including a stint as a Virginia State Inspector—service advisor, parts sales, and aftermarket parts technical advisor (a fancy way of saying he helped you on the phone when you had trouble fitting your brakes over your aftermarket wheels and the like). Prior to his tenure as a full-time editor, Justin worked as a freelance writer and photographer for various publications and as an automotive content creator on YouTube. He’s also covered multiple forms of motorsports ranging from Formula Drift, drag racing, and time attack, to NASCAR, short course off-roading, and open desert racing. He's best known for breaking down complex technical concepts so a layperson can more easily understand why technologies, repairs, and parts should matter to them. At MotorTrend, Justin is part of the news team covering breaking news and topics while also working as a judge for MotorTrend Of the Year events and other major comparison tests.
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