Transforming Our Campus to Transform the Future
See how we’re overhauling our headquarters to help us push the limits of innovation and create a great place to work.
See how we’re overhauling our headquarters to help us push the limits of innovation and create a great place to work.
At Ford, we pride ourselves on designing, manufacturing, marketing, financing and servicing the world’s best cars, SUVs, trucks and electrified vehicles. But we’re not a company that likes to stay still. We like to evolve.
We believe in continuous innovation. By pursuing the emerging opportunities of Ford Smart Mobility, we’ve set our sights on being leaders in connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, customer experience and data analytics. To reach these lofty goals we’re taking on a lofty transformation and radically overhauling our more than 60-year-old Dearborn facilities and transforming them into a modern, green and high-tech campus.
Providing work places that foster employee collaboration and drive innovation has been the life blood of Ford Motor Company throughout our history. When it was built in the 1950s, the Ford Research and Engineering Center was a cutting edge hub for vehicle development. This tradition will live on in a revolutionary new Research and Engineering campus that will drive us into the future.
Our master plan is to collocate 30,000 employees from 70 buildings into two primary locations: The first, the Product Campus, will feature an eye-catching, 700,000-square-foot design center that will house state-of-the-art studios and have a complementary outdoor courtyard for working and socializing.
The Product Campus will be the hub of our Smart Mobility solutions and help accelerate the innovative work we’re already doing. This includes our focus on technology integration to seamlessly connect the digital lives of vehicle owners with their vehicles, and testing with the world’s largest fleet of autonomous vehicles. It will also serve as the pilot site for a variety of mobility solutions such as on-demand shuttles and eBikes that employees can use for getting around campus.
Vast green areas will be added that provide employees walking trails, bike paths and covered walkways. But the campus will not only feature an abundance of green space, it will run on an abundance of green energy and exemplify sustainability. Geothermal heating and cooling will be incorporated, that along with other energy saving materials and technologies, will reduce our annual energy use by up to 50%. We also plan to reduce our water usage by up to 50% by using high-efficiency plumbing fixtures, rainwater capture and an automated metering system that monitors the entire system for efficiency and quality.
A special attraction of the campus will be the Living Building Challenge Center — a zero energy, zero waste sustainability showcase that uses advanced technologies to produce more energy than it consumes. This architectural and technological centerpiece actually has a negative carbon footprint.
The second phase of our transformation centers on our iconic Ford World Headquarters complex and includes Ford Credit facilities. The complex will be home to our senior executives and feature technologically advanced facilities, including a modern café, and updated, open work spaces that promote collaboration.
Our new Dearborn facilities embody our commitment to shaping the future by improving peoples lives through innovation and are paramount to our evolution as an auto and a mobility company. Construction of the new product campus begins this month at the Ford Research and Engineering Center. The majority of work is expected to be complete by 2023. Major work on the second campus around Ford World Headquarters begins in 2021 and is expected to be complete in 2026.