Ford Assembly Building

Marcy Wong Donn Logan Architects as Architects

This 525,000 s.f. multi-million waterfront project rejuvenated the formerly abandoned and dilapidated Ford Assembly Building originally designed by Albert Kahn for Henry Ford. The historical factory was transformed into a vibrant center of 21st Century building uses, including entertainment, dining, office, and a visitor center. Today is has a lively mix of public / private uses and accommodates a range of commercial tenants with offices, Research & Development facilities, light industrial, retail functions, and the NPS Visitor Center celebrating WWII’s “Rosie the Riveter”. The project also incorporates significant sustainability features.


The designers’ vision for the rebirth of this magnificent edifice was to retain yet enhance the architectural aspects of the original building’s awe-inspiring shell, continuous bands of steel sash windows and floods of daylight, while maintaining its original waterfront relationship. This goal to renew the building was driven by an impetus to salvage and restore features inherent to the building’s architectural spirit, plus to visually reinforce the building’s highly repetitive structural, fenestration, and skylight modules where intervention elements were necessary for the current tenants and uses. “Intervention elements” of our century: lighting, furnishings, free standing buildings within the building, rooms, stairs, ramps, platforms, walls, etc, placed and designed to work with existing 1930's industrial architectural features are most apparent in the results for the Boilerhouse Restaurant / Cafe, SunPower Corporation and Mountain Hardwear projects. Low-water usage landscaping was designed on the building’s west side to reflect the more public and formal façade. Lighting internally and externally was a way to highlight the building, particularly at night. The red-lit stack of the Boilerhouse, itself an icon of the project, is especially arresting at night.


Public venues: Craneway Pavilion, Boilerhouse Restaurant/Cafe, wharf with ferry access, and the Bay Trail (a bicycle / pedestrian path encircling the entire San Francisco Bay) have immediate waterfront access. The acre-sized Craneway is built over the water on piers and surrounded on three sides by a wharf and water. Restored historical 35’ high windows, running the full perimeter of the Craneway connect users with unobstructed views of the Bay making the waterfront’s beauty a public treasure. As a current day cultural and community asset, the transformation of the acre-wide Craneway from a WWII tank factory to the site of performances is phenomenal: since the project completion, the venue has seen dance (Merce Cunningham), music (numerous professional orchestras), circus (Cirque du Soleil), and countless other types of private and public functions. Rollup glass doors along the south facade further blur the line between inside/outside drawing even stronger connection with the waterfront for both building and user.

Products Behind Projects
Product Spotlight
News
Nokha Village Community Centre by Sanjay Puri Architects is an architectural oasis in the desert
18 Mar 2024 News
Nokha Village Community Centre by Sanjay Puri Architects is an architectural oasis in the desert

Mumbai-based Sanjay Puri Architects has completed the Nokha Village Community Centre, an architectur... More

Square and Tourist Office: Emerging finalist in Mies van der Rohe Awards 2024
15 Mar 2024 News
Square and Tourist Office: Emerging finalist in Mies van der Rohe Awards 2024

In this Archello series, we look at each of the seven nominated projects (five architecture finalist... More

25 best mosaic wall tile manufacturers
15 Mar 2024 Specification
25 best mosaic wall tile manufacturers

Mosaic wall tiles are produced in an enormous range of colors, shapes and finishes, and from a varie... More

Introducing Partner Motion Facades
15 Mar 2024 Partner News
Introducing Partner Motion Facades

Motion Facades specializes in supplying advanced facade systems for luxury real estate projects. Its... More

Bergendy Cooke, Grégoire Du Pasquier, Ruth Baleiko and Mathew Albores join Archello Awards 2024 jury panel
15 Mar 2024 Archello Awards
Bergendy Cooke, Grégoire Du Pasquier, Ruth Baleiko and Mathew Albores join Archello Awards 2024 jury panel

Architects Bergendy Cooke, Grégoire Du Pasquier, Ruth Baleiko and Mathew Albores have been an... More

JSWD completes new office complex in Bonn unified by triangular facade elements
14 Mar 2024 News
JSWD completes new office complex in Bonn unified by triangular facade elements

International architectural firm JSWD has completed the Neuer Kanzlerplatz office complex in the cit... More

Archello Awards 2024 expands with 'Firm Awards'
14 Mar 2024 Archello Awards
Archello Awards 2024 expands with 'Firm Awards'

Today Archello introduces a new set of Firm Awards categories to widen the scope of the Archello Awa... More

Studio Egret West develops plans for new Passivhaus homes
13 Mar 2024 News
Studio Egret West develops plans for new Passivhaus homes

London-based multidisciplinary architecture and design practice Studio Egret West has developed plan... More