This week, the Ford Motor Company announced that it has teamed up with SmithGroupJJR to centralize its 60-year-old Dearborn, Mich., plant. The company said that it will rebuild 7.5 million sf of work space over a 10-year period, which will shift 30,000 employees from 70 buildings now into two primary locations.
The company will integrate green features and technology into the design. The layout will be walkable, with paths, trails, and covered walkways. Meanwhile, the campus will be able to handle autonomous vehicles, on-demand shuttles, and eBikes. The wireless speeds will be up to 10 times faster than they are now. A new 700,000-sf Design Center will be the highlight of the campus.
Ford said the renovated plant will better serve it during its transition into becoming both an auto and a mobility company. While designing, producing, and marketing automobiles like cars, trucks, and SUVs will be the primary business driver, Ford will also push Ford Smart Mobility, which will focus on connectivity, mobility, and autonomous vehicles.
“As we transition to an auto and a mobility company, we’re investing in our people and the tools they use to deliver our vision,” Ford President and CEO Mark Fields said in a statement. “Bringing our teams together in an open, collaborative environment will make our employees’ lives better, speed decision-making and deliver results for both our core and emerging businesses.”
Related Stories
| Aug 6, 2014
25 projects win awards for design-build excellence
The 2014 Design-Build Project/Team Awards showcase design-build best practices and celebrate the achievements of owners and design-build teams in nine categories across the spectrum of horizontal and vertical construction.
| Aug 4, 2014
Facebook’s prefab data center concept aims to slash construction time in half
Less than a year after opening its ultra-green, hydropowered data center facility in Luleå, Sweden, Facebook is back at it in Mother Svea with yet another novel approach to data center design.
| Jul 28, 2014
Reconstruction market benefits from improving economy, new technology [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Following years of fairly lackluster demand for commercial property remodeling, reconstruction revenue is improving, according to the 2014 Giants 300 report.
| Jul 28, 2014
Reconstruction Sector Construction Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Structure Tone, Turner, and Gilbane top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest reconstruction contractor and construction management firms in the U.S.
| Jul 28, 2014
Reconstruction Sector Engineering Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Jacobs, URS, and Wiss, Janney, Elstner top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest reconstruction engineering and engineering/architecture firms in the U.S.
| Jul 28, 2014
Reconstruction Sector Architecture Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Stantec, HDR, and HOK top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest reconstruction architecture and architecture/engineering firms in the U.S.
| Jul 27, 2014
Maturing ‘plug and play’ sector could take market share from AEC Giants [2014 Giants 300 Report]
The growth of modular and containerized data center solutions may eventually hinder the growth of traditional data center construction services.
| Jul 27, 2014
Top Data Center Construction Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Holder, Turner, and DPR head Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest data center contractors and construction management firms in the U.S.
| Jul 27, 2014
Top Data Center Engineering Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Fluor, Jacobs, and Syska Hennessy top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest data center engineering and engineering/architecture firms in the U.S.
| Jul 27, 2014
Top Data Center Architecture Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Gensler, Corgan, and HDR head Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest data center architecture and architecture/engineering firms in the U.S.