Highland Park Ford Plant: Documentation and Redevelopment

Highland Park Ilene R. Tyler Ford Plant: Documentation and Redevelopment Historic documentation is guiding strategies to preserve an important automotive site. Fig. 1. Highland Park Ford Plant, The Highland Park Ford Plant is located along Woodward Highland Park, Michigan, aerial view, April 25, 1927, illustrating Avenue in the Michigan community of Highland Park, the plant during its period of significance, 1910-1927, with its northwest of Detroit. Designed by noted industrial architect Albert Kahn, full build-out along Woodward the Highland Park Ford Plant, birthplace of the moving assembly line, was the Avenue. From the collections of scene of numerous inno vations in automotive mass production between 1910 The Henry Ford, Accession 1660, and 1926. The buildings are notable for their use of reinforced concrete and Box 130, image ID P-833-48953. brick, roofs that are either flat with monitors or saw-tooth, and other distinctive architectural features that are characteristic of Kahn’s industrial work. The Woodward Avenue Action Association (WA3) is an umbrella organization encompassing 11 local governments along the Woodward Avenue corridor from Detroit to Pontiac, Michigan. Formed in 1995 as a nonprofit corporation, the mission of WA3 is “to enhance and improve the visual, economic, functional and historic significance of the 27-mile Woodward Avenue Corridor through public, private, local and regional partnerships.”1 Documenting the vast, 100- acre urban landscape of the historic Highland Park Ford Plant was funded by the State Historic Preservation Office and the Michigan State Housing Development Authority. Quinn Evans Architects was hired in 2012 as consultants to lead the research, assessment, and documentation process.2 36 HIGHLAND PARK FORD PLANT The scope of the project included pro- Fig. 2. Panoramic view, c. ducing three guiding documents: a 1920s. In the 1920s Building cultural resource management plan OO (foreground) housed Ford’s offices and salesrooms, (CRMP) for the entire site, a historic a showpiece fronting on structures report (HSR) for three struc- Woodward Avenue. From the tures, and documents for a new local collections of The Henry Ford, historic district. Boundaries would in- Accession 833, Box 24, image corporate the previously designated Na- ID P.833.47603. tional Historic Landmark district. Each document had a defined purpose, but Fig. 3. Building AA, fourth the comprehensive study allowed for floor, Henry Ford Trade School overlapping efforts and shared research. students, 1922. This is the This paper describes how these docu- only photograph found of the ments were conceived and how they are interior of Building AA, fourth being used to guide redevelopment that floor. Machine shops and the three-story craneway were will protect the historic automotive site on the lower floors. From the and at the same time encourage compat- collections of The Henry Ford, ible new uses that will contribute to the Accession 1660, Box 167, local economy. image ID P.833.32685. Developmental History Fig. 4. West elevations of Buildings OO and AA, Dec. A well-researched history of the High- 10, 2014, viewed from across land Park site, the Ford Motor Com- Woodward Avenue. Boarded- pany, and Henry Ford himself was up windows indicate where essential for all of the documents but original windows were especially for the cultural resource man- removed. Both buildings are agement plan and historic structures vacant. Photograph by the author. report. The most complete primary sources were found in collections at the Bentley Historical Library at the Univer- sity of Michigan and at the Benson Ford Research Center in Dearborn, Michi- gan. Drawings and photographs in The story of the Highland Park Ford Highland Park offered a larger land area those collections confirmed how the site Plant actually begins elsewhere, first for development, proximity to railroad developed over time and when buildings near Dearborn, where Henry Ford was lines, and lower taxes than Detroit. In were added, thus documenting the pe- born in 1863, then later in downtown 1907 Ford purchased 60 acres there, riods of change. From this information, Detroit, where the Ford Motor Com- including a racetrack at the southwest the team compiled a history that ex- pany was founded in 1903. From the corner, which he intended to use as a plained both the evolution of the plant beginning Ford saw that his company’s test track for new cars. In 1918 Ford site and its importance to the history of future lay in producing inexpensive, purchased an additional 40 acres to the Highland Park. Much has been written durable vehicles that would appeal to north, along the railroad right-of-way. about Henry Ford and his Motor Com- a wide range of customers. He quickly This combined property provided room pany, enabling the team to recreate the outgrew his rented quarters on Mack for growth and was near major road- timeline of events and the sequence of Avenue in Detroit and in 1905 moved ways (Fig. 1). However, the one missing building construction. This information operations into his first purpose-built component of the transportation infra- was also summarized in the 1977 Na- factory, a plant at the corner of Piquette structure —access to water for shipping tional Historic Landmark nomination.3 and Beaubien streets. This second loca- finished vehicles and receiving raw ma- Well after the primary research was tion is where, in 1908, Ford and his en- terials — eventually caused the undoing completed, the original construction gineers designed and began assembling of the Highland Park site. Even while drawings for Buildings OO, NN, and the Model T. Within a year Ford was construction of Highland Park was un- AA were found in the archives at Albert again looking for more space. He found derway and production of the Model T Kahn Associates.4 it in Highland Park. was expanding every year, Ford had his eye on a site on the River Rouge near 37 APT BULLETIN JOURNAL OF PRESERVATION TECHNOLOGY / 46:2-3 2015 Dearborn. Construction of the Rouge the site and the interiors of the buildings on paper and using iPad applications), Plant buildings began as early as 1917, require prearranged entrance through notations on reference floor plans but production did not begin there for secured checkpoints during specific and (copies of 1940s tenant plans, not the another ten years. A new vehicle, the limited hours. The plant is still a manu- original construction drawings), and Model A, was introduced in 1927 at the facturing site, and its owners have very a laser scan of the exterior envelope new plant; at the same time, production real concerns about security and safety. of the three buildings, plus an interior of the Model T was terminated, and the Most workers and all visitors, includ- scan of the three-story craneway in prominence of the Highland Park plant ing our team members, are logged in Building AA. Midwestern Consulting, ended. at the historic Manchester Street gate Inc., an engineering firm, captured the before being allowed to proceed into the laser-scan data using a Leica HDS 6000 Although Highland Park never pro- site. Fieldwork was scheduled during a with a high resolution of approximately duced another automobile after 1927, three-day period in October 2012, dur- 20 to 40 million data points per setup. the Ford Motor Company did not ing which time no inclement weather The initial plan was to perform scans abandon the site. The enormous facili- was anticipated. every 60 feet along the perimeter and ties were utilized to manufacture Ford approximately 40 feet away from the trucks and tractors, as well as Ford The former plant site is still used for in- building. A few additional scan setups automotive trim. Buildings constructed dustrial purposes, although with a low were added to acquire information that from 1919 to 1926 were used for the level of active use. It was important that was partially or fully obstructed by the company’s administrative offices and the team’s presence not impede ongoing scanner’s line of sight. The fieldwork automobile sales, machine shops, and work activities or movement of materi- included more than 50 scans taken in education (Figs. 2 and 3). These build- als. Some buildings did not require or one full day. Back in their office, Mid- ings remain today in the northwest merit inspection for documentation; western Consulting registered the scan corner of the site, abandoned and van- other buildings still owned by Ford setups, processing them to tie individual dalized but retaining their character- were opened only for a visual observa- scan worlds together into one compre- defining features (Fig. 4). They are re- tion, and the team was escorted quickly hensive point cloud. The engineers then ferred to as Buildings OO, NN, and AA, through them without being allowed to removed unnecessary scan data, such as all of which complemented the original collect any building data. Ownership neighboring street traffic, trees obstruct- Administrative Building O, Executive of two buildings included in the HSR ing the building, and pedestrians, and Garage N, and Assembly Plant A, which has been transferred to WA3; the rest unified the project point cloud, which were demolished in 1960. of the site remains in a complicated mix was then delivered to Quinn Evans of ownership and use and as a result Since the 1960s the Highland Park fa- Architects for use with Leica Cyclone received only a cursory overview inspec- cilities have been on the decline, and Cloudworx software. tion adequate for producing the cultural several of the remaining historic build- resource management plan. After the Interior spaces, like the suites of offices ings were demolished. At the same time study was completed, National Equity in Building OO, are impossible to scan recognition of the site’s historic signifi- Corporation, which had owned Build- with any efficiency, but the large open cance was growing.

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