Rotisserie chickens and design secrets

Some of this cooperation is expected to take place over food.

The new center features a 160,000-square-foot food court with eight “culinary concepts” that will feature rotating menus and take-out options like pizza and $6 whole rotisserie chickens, decadent desserts and a juice bar complete with an herb garden.

“Our guests come from all over the world, so we wanted to make sure we designed our menus to respect that diversity,” said Grant Vella, executive chef of the new headquarters. “We wanted to do something different, push the boundaries of business lunches.”

Outside of kitchens and dining areas, vegetation and outdoor spaces are intended to create a more walkable campus compared to the automaker’s previous, largely street- and parking-locked facility.

“This headquarters is the cornerstone of the redevelopment of our campus, but there’s a tremendous amount of work we’re doing across campus to really tie it together and make it much more walkable for our employees,” Dobleske said, pointing to several facilities and areas, including a test track and the 18-acre “Horsepower Park” surrounding the building.

Inside the building, there are six atriums, including a dual-level atrium that is the centerpiece of the company’s new design studios, allowing designers to take products outside and view them outdoors in natural light. These design courtyards are private spaces that can only be viewed by surrounding private studios.

Much of the four-story building takes advantage of natural light from exterior glass walls as well as skylights and other windowed areas.

In addition to creating a more walkable outdoor campus, Ford wants employees to use specially designed staircases instead of elevators and escalators, the main means of transportation at its latest 12-story headquarters.

Craig Dykers, co-founder of Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta, which worked on the building, said every staircase in the building is eye-catching and inviting to use, especially those in the 14 different arrival areas.

“Obviously people don’t naturally want to climb a ladder, so you have to design the ladder very carefully so that people feel good about using it,” he said. “The trick is that when you go up a floor you can’t necessarily see the next flight, so it’s a kind of journey.”

The stairs in the building’s main lobby are extremely wide and include seating areas next to the lower staircases. There is also a coffee bar on the large landing above the main lobby.

The coffee bar overlooks a white artwork featuring vehicle parts, one of many significant works of art that Ford purchased or curated for the new facility. Some are photographs or drawings of vehicles, while others are simply non-automotive artistic pieces.

The company’s design operations include large studios with advanced clay milling machines, a large exhibition hall that will act as a modern design dome, and a 64-foot screen showing virtual inspections and tests.

What employees won’t see much of is the company’s logo, the famous blue oval surrounding the name “Ford.” There will be a giant blue oval Ford logo on the outside of the building, but not on the inside. Unless you look closely.

Some exterior glass walls, such as the company’s design operations, feature a glass pattern of ovals accompanied by hidden numbers representing Ford patents.

Ford declined to discuss the capital spent building its new headquarters and design center, which is part of a previously announced $1 billion campus transformation launched under former CEO Jim Hackett, who previously led furniture company Steelcase.

Here’s a look inside the new world headquarters: