News

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Ford and Newlab Announce Startups to Pilot New Electric Vehicle Tech in Mobility Innovation Program

In September we hosted our Fall Show & Tell meetup, where new mobility technologies that are being piloted and tested around the world were showcased.

Ford Land, Vokal Ventures LLC and Detroit Opportunity Fund II, an entity controlled by the Rakolta family, have announced plans to form a joint venture to construct, operate and maintain the Bagley Mobility Hub, the first new build within Michigan Central, Ford Motor Company’s new mobility innovation district in Corktown.

Newlab has its sights set on another major city with extraordinary potential to serve as a hub for transformative innovation: Detroit, where Newlab is currently working with Ford to help create an ambitious mobility innovation district anchored by Detroit’s iconic Michigan Central Station.

New solutions to mobility are launching in neighborhoods and communities across the world.

Despite a global pandemic, vision for that innovation district has only sharpened and grown, with new plans to welcome innovators from around the globe to design and prototype in one of the nation’s most important historical restoration projects, with deep roots in, and deep commitment to, the Detroit community.

The Summer Show & Tell meetup is an event showcasing mobility technologies around the world piloting.

Construction won’t be completed on Michigan Central Station until 2022, but the mobility innovation district around the iconic landmark is already coming to life with transportation pilots designed to serve the community.

Michigan Central is a new mobility innovation district located in Corktown, Detroit’s oldest neighborhood. Ford Motor Company is restoring the city’s iconic train station to be the centerpiece of this district, where mobility innovators and disruptors from around the world will develop, test, and launch new urban transportation solutions. Michigan Central will become part of the fabric of the neighborhood, with new and revitalized buildings, public spaces, a mobility testing platform and locally inspired retail, restaurants, hospitality and community amenities. This video was created by Detroit filmmaker Stephen McGee and poet Jessica Care Moore.

The Book Depository will be the first major renovation at Michigan Central to open its doors, as one of several anchor buildings that will welcome entrepreneurs and startups as well as members of Ford’s mobility team from Detroit and around the world to develop, test and launch solutions to urban transportation challenges.

Days after unveiling the all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning, the next big reveal for Ford Motor Company is not a vehicle at all. Crews working at Michigan Central Station recently stumbled upon a pre-Prohibition-era Stroh’s beer bottle with a mysterious message neatly rolled and stuffed inside. Ford archivists removed the paper Thursday to reveal a message that is believed to have been written by two men who worked on the station’s original construction in 1913, though the entirety of the message is unclear.

Michigan Central, Ford Motor Company’s new mobility innovation district in Corktown, and Newlab, a community of experts and innovators applying transformative technology to solve the world’s biggest challenges, today announced that seven companies from a competitive pool of global applicants have been selected as members of the inaugural cohort of the Accessible Streets Studio.

In May Bamboo hosted a panel discussion focused on opportunities in venture capital for mobility startups. During this event we heard from founders who’ve recently closed rounds and investors who’ve supported their journey, discussed when to take on investment, different strategies for fundraising, and how to find the right partners and capital type to grow.

The Spring Show & Tell meetup is an event showcasing mobility technologies around the world piloting.

Next door to Michigan Central Station, sits the Albert Kahn-designed former Detroit Public School Book Depository. Global architect firm Gensler is reimaging this long-vacant building into the industrial center of Ford’s Michigan Central innovation district, with maker spaces, co-working areas, labs and mobility studios. Lily Diego, design director at Gensler’s Detroit office, chats with Amanda Lewan, co-founder and CEO of local co-working space Bamboo, about how her team will transform this art deco structure into a modern work environment that will foster innovation, connection and community.

The 30-acre site plan for the Michigan Central mobility innovation district was developed by lead architect and strategic planner Practice for Architecture and Urbanism. Founder and creative director Vishaan Chakrabarti envisions an inclusive, vibrant and walkable community anchored by Detroit’s iconic train station. Hear his conversation with Corktown resident and community organizer Debra Walker about how the plan will improve connections to the neighborhood, preserve the history of the area with a mix of old and new and drive innovation.

In order to know the bones of city, you have to know every brick of it’s story.

Award-winning Boston landscape architect Mikyoung Kim Design, working with Detroit-based livingLAB, has been tapped to design the mobility platform and other open spaces around Michigan Central into innovative civic centers that welcome the community in. Founder Mikyoung has a zoom conversation with Southwest Detroit resident and Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation Programs and Development director Alexis Zavala about how her team will approach this landmark project.

A new 11,500-pound replica of an original capital stone has been created and installed in the Waiting Room façade of Detroit’s historic Michigan Central Station after more than 400 hours of work by a mid-Michigan stoneworker. Ford Motor Company is restoring the building to its original grandeur as the centerpiece of a new mobility innovation district in Corktown.

Two years ago, when Ford announced its intention to create the Michigan Central mobility innovation district, it created waves because the site included some of Detroit’s most iconic buildings—landmarks that had languished for decades.

Ford Motor Co. on Tuesday unveiled its site plan for Michigan Central, the project to transform the area around the historic former train depot in the city’s Corktown neighborhood into a campus focused on the mobility and transportation methods that will define the future of the automotive industry.

Ford Motor Co. revealed plans Tuesday to transform a long-vacant book warehouse into a hub for automobile innovation in Detroit’s oldest neighborhood.

Recording of community presentation revealing Michigan Central Site Plan.

Ford’s vision for a 30-acre walkable community anchored by iconic Michigan Central Station is part of its plan to reshape the future of global mobility, working with other partners and connecting to a broader network of city and regional assets and innovation.

November 9th Zoom Recording of the Michigan Central Listen and Learn Session

Ford Motor Company is using innovative 3D scanning technology to re-create some of the most precious pieces of 106-year-old Michigan Central Station, as transformation of the iconic building enters a phase of heavy masonry and interior restoration work.

October 27th Zoom Recording of the Michigan Central Listen and Learn Session

Ford Motor Company, Christman|Brinker, Detroit at Work, Workforce Development Institute, Barton Malow, SkillSmart and Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council yesterday launched the Fast Track Job Program at Michigan Central Station.

Government officials and Ford Motor Company announced plans for a major transportation initiative in southeast Michigan – a first-of-its-kind autonomous vehicle corridor that would stretch from downtown Detroit to Ann Arbor.

Ford Motor Company, Bedrock and Bosch are launching a demonstration project with connected Ford Escape test vehicles that can drive and park themselves inside Bedrock’s Assembly Garage in Detroit using Bosch smart infrastructure. This is the first U.S. infrastructure-based solution for automated valet parking where the vehicle will park itself inside a parking garage.

Rick Novasky has never forgotten the day back in the 1980s when he was working a shift in the ticket office at Detroit’s Michigan Central Station.

Recording of meeting between Michigan Central and the Detroit Community regarding the Michigan Central Mobility Innovation District

Michigan Central, Ford Motor Company’s development in Corktown, ​and Newlab​, home to over 800 engineers, entrepreneurs, and inventors applying transformative technologies to things that matter, today announced a collaboration to foster an innovation ecosystem committed to helping shape the future of mobility in a way that benefits everyone. Pairing Ford’s automotive industry leadership with Newlab’s successful studio model, the alliance aims to tackle complex transportation problems related to connectivity, autonomy and electrification.

After working collaboratively with residents in Detroit to identify transportation challenges and propose new ways to improve mobility in their communities, the city of Detroit announces the winning pilot proposals for the City:One Michigan Central Station Challenge.

To retain the historical integrity of the station, which first opened in 1913, the limestone blocks being used to replace the deteriorating stone on the façade will be sourced from the same Indiana quarry that provided the limestone during the original construction. Some of those early blocks of limestone still lie in a field a few feet from where they were first mined more than 100 years ago.

In 2017, Wesley Burkman’s life took an unexpected – and tragic – turn. His wife, Aleea, passed away at age 29, within a few weeks of being diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer. In the time that followed, Burkman’s Ford colleagues gave him an outpouring of support to help him cope. People often asked him if his work was being flexible.

When Ford Motor Company purchased Michigan Central Station in 2018 in Corktown, Detroit, the landmark had been vacant for years. Billionaire Matty Moroun’s company Controlled Terminals Inc. owned the station since 1992, promising restoration plans that never transpired. The station decayed over time from years of neglect and turned into a symbol of the blight representative of Detroit’s now-infamous past.

Ford Motor Company Fund is investing in the future with scholarships for each member of the Detroit Youth Choir who participated in their inspiring run on America’s Got Talent. Ford Fund, the philanthropic arm of Ford Motor Company, is also helping to address the choir’s mobility needs by providing the group with a 15-passenger Transit van. Ford Fund is a longtime investor in the culture, arts and youth that help strengthen our communities, enrich the quality of life and bring people together

Seven young men from Detroit’s Randolph Technical School are among the team of workers helping RAM Construction Services with masonry and brick repairs at Michigan Central Station, which Ford Motor Company purchased last summer.

The City of Detroit and PlanetM today are launching the City:One Michigan Central Station Challenge , a co-creation and crowdsourcing program for residents, businesses and community groups to propose and pilot solutions that improve mobility in the neighborhoods surrounding the historic train station.

Ford is opening an information center at The Factory at Corktown. Located at 1907 Michigan Avenue, the space will provide the public with access to project information, construction updates, mobility pilot programs and technologies, as well as community initiatives.

As part of its Celebrating Culture and Community Grants Program, Ford Motor Company is awarding $250,000 this year to support nonprofit projects that reflect the unique culture and history of the neighborhoods surrounding Michigan Central Station.

Ford announced today that the second phase of construction at Michigan Central Station is underway, including restoring eight acres of masonry and repairing the steel structure of the historic Beaux-Arts building. The masonry repairs are the most labor and time intensive part of the restoration project and will continue into 2021.

As Ford works to rebuild the historic Michigan Central Station, it is only fitting that one of its contractors has herself made history.

Four decades ago, when Adrienne Bennett earned her plumber’s license, she became the first woman in Michigan to successfully complete a plumbing apprenticeship program in the state. A few years later, when she became a licensed master plumber and plumbing contractor, she was the first female in North America to do so.

Ford Motor Company’s Dearborn Truck Plant, home of the Ford F-150 and Ford Raptor, Michigan Assembly Plant, home of the new 2019 Ford Ranger, and several new buildings on the Ford Research and Engineering Campus and Corktown campus, including Michigan Central Station, will soon be powered by 100 percent locally sourced renewable energy. This is in addition to the 500-kilowatt solar photovoltaic panel system already in place at Michigan Assembly.

Ford’s Michigan Central Station Winter Festival opened today to a large crowd that braved the weather to enjoy a 3D light show on the iconic building, a night market and a first-of-its-kind exhibition of train station artifacts curated by the Detroit Historical Society. Other family-friendly activities include live graffiti painting, face painting, fire pits with s’mores, artist demonstrations, live performances, vendor shops, community booths and an ice sculpture of the train station.

Since Ford announced plans to purchase the iconic train station last June as the centerpiece of its new mobility campus, residents from Metro Detroit and beyond have brought back a variety of artifacts and decorative parts taken from the historic building during the three decades it stood abandoned. From old mail chutes to fountains to light fixtures, these salvaged objects are not only helping Ford in its preservation efforts but play an important role in linking the station’s past to its future.

This week, Ford begins its renovation of 105-year-old Michigan Central Station in the historic Corktown neighborhood. In revitalizing this Detroit landmark into the centerpiece of a new campus, Ford seeks to shape the future of transportation.

Ford Motor Company is advancing its Corktown campus plans with the selection of its first architectural and construction partners that will work on restoring Michigan Central Station to its original grandeur. Quinn Evans Architects will lead the design work, while Christman and Brinker are teamed up in a joint venture to serve as construction manager for the Corktown transformation project.

Ford and its community partners today hosted a family friendly Halloween event at Michigan Central Station, Detroit’s most iconic landmark, for 800 neighborhood residents and Ford employees.

Welcome to the Season Finale of Season 2 of “A Drink With – Detroit!” This week we are pleased to be sharing a drink with someone we’ve been wanting to have on the show since the beginning, William Clay Ford Jr. Ford is the great grandson to the founder of Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford, and is the company’s current executive chairman.

Ford Motor Company sharpened its vision for Detroit’s Corktown community by inviting nearly 200 millennial leaders from across the region to participate in Reimagined Detroit Tech, a day of design challenges, workshops and community building ideas focused on shaping the future of Detroit’s oldest neighborhood.

On Saturday, Ford Motor Company delivered a 12-passenger Transit van to The Ark Association. Every Saturday for the past 17 years they have set up shop at Detroit’s Roosevelt Park in front of Michigan Central Station to provide food, clothing and hope to the hungry and homeless.

In a week in which the company celebrated its 115th anniversary, Ford today formally announced the acquisition of Michigan Central Station. Ford employees, city and state officials, Corktown residents and Detroit civic leaders attended the ceremony at the iconic former train station.

Day after day, Bill Ford drove his Mustang GT along Michigan Avenue between Dearborn and Detroit, past the graffiti-covered train station. And he started to wonder about his legacy, his family’s legacy and the future of Ford Motor Co.

Ford Motor Company is stepping up its efforts to help Detroit compete with Silicon Valley. The automaker will reveal plans Tuesday morning to transform a 105-year-old train station into its high-tech base for the future of automotive mobility. Ford executive chairman Bill Ford Jr. recently gave “CBS This Morning” co-host Gayle King an exclusive tour of the historic space.