The ‘Glass House’ has been Ford’s world headquarters since 1956, but that will soon change.
Big changes are afoot for the Big Three, with both General Motors and now Ford Motor Company moving their iconic world headquarters buildings after decades as icons of Detroit and Dearborn, respectively. Ford formally introduced its new global HQ this week, leaving behind its 70,000-square-foot, 12-story ‘Glass House’ for a significantly larger space about three miles away.
This new world HQ building will accommodate twice as many employees as the Glass House (which currently holds about 2,000). On top of that, it will also house six design studios, a unified design showroom, several event spaces, 303 “tech-enabled” meeting rooms, a 160-square-foot food hall and more than 100,000 square feet of courtyard space.
Ford’s new world headquarters is part of the existing Dearborn campus, which further places 14,000 employees within a 15-minute walk of the new site, relative to the current HQ’s location. However, one iconic piece of the Glass House, the “American Road” address it sits on, will move over to the new headquarters as Ted Ryan, Ford’s heritage and brand manager, notes “we’re going to continue to develop products for the next century.”
The old Glass House will eventually be demolished
As the company starts to move all corporate employees from the Glass House to its new HQ in November, the old building will eventually be demolished. That process will take place over the next 18 months, with the move complete by the first half of 2026. After that, exterior demolition will begin in 2027 — so the building will technically make its 70th birthday just before meeting its demise.
After the Glass House site is clear, Ford says it plans to work with the city of Dearborn to decide what to do with the old site.
Ford’s cross-town rivals, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (under Stellantis), also either moved its global headquarters location or is at least considering its options. Last April, GM announced it would move from its iconic Renaissance Center (RenCen) on the Detroit River to the Hudson’s Detroit building a few blocks away. A couple years ago, reports emerged that FCA was possibly looking to sell its Auburn Hills headquarters building, though the automaker said in October 2023 it would not make this move, and it still occupies the Chrysler World Headquarters and Technology Center — now Stellantis’ North American headquarters — as it has since the 1990s.
