When I go to work each morning at the construction site at Ford's new World Headquarters, I'm continuing a family tradition that spans nearly a century.

My family tree, if such a thing could sprout from steel and assembly lines, should honestly be sponsored by Ford. Both of my great-grandfathers were machinists at the Rouge Plant, laying the foundation for what would become four generations of Ford loyalty. My grandparents met at Michigan Assembly Plant in the most Ford way possible: My grandmother was a secretary who first spotted my grandfather, an electrician, on the floor. Their love story began with the Blue Oval, and frankly, so did our family's.

So, when I started on this project in May 2020 as project executive for Barton Malow, it was more than a job. It felt like destiny. It was a chance to lay bricks for the future while honoring the hands that built my past.

My maternal grandfather, who is 97, spent 35 years with the company across various Ford facilities. When I show him drone footage or project renderings, his eyes light up with the same passion. At his birthday party last month, 40 family members gathered, but it was just him, my dad, and me talking about the project. I can tell he's incredibly proud.

My dad spent 15 years in Product Development at PDC before finishing his career at the Allen Park test lab. Growing up, if anyone showed up to family gatherings driving anything but a Ford vehicle — like my sister's boyfriend did — they got looks that could melt steel. That's just who we are: a Ford family through and through.

Since November 2020, I've been on-site with a massive team watching this incredible vision come to life. The scale alone is mind-boggling. Lay all our underground piles end to end, and they'd stretch from Ann Arbor to East Lansing. We're building a four-story structure with foundations designed for eight stories, built to accommodate heavy equipment or future equipment needs, using 22-inch-thick slabs and materials sourced from around the world: glass from Germany, terra-cotta from Europe, custom bricks from Utah — a global tapestry for a global company.

But the thing that excites me most is the Ford patent numbers subtly embedded in the glass, like hidden Easter eggs for those who truly understand. This building will be unmistakably Ford in a way that speaks to our innovation and heritage simultaneously. You could drop most office buildings anywhere, and no one would know what they were designed for. But this building? Everyone will always know this was built for Ford.

My dad, who retired about 10 years ago, gets excited talking about how different it is from his old workspace at the PDC. When I describe the natural light, the courtyards, the collaborative spaces, he says he'd come back to work if my mom would let him. That's the power of what we're creating here — a space so inspiring that it makes retired engineers want to return.

What moves me most is knowing future generations of Ford employees will walk into a building that prioritizes their experience. We're creating an environment where the next generation can choose Dearborn over Silicon Valley, where designers and engineers work side by side, where the clay shop sits right below the executive offices, creating a harmony between vision and execution that never existed before.

When CEO Jim Farley and Bill Ford announced that executives would be moving to the new campus, I felt an incredible sense of validation. Everything we've been working toward — every 16-hour day, every problem-solving session, every custom detail — was building toward this moment.

This isn't just Ford's new World Headquarters; it's a bridge between our storied past and our bright future. Four generations of my family have poured their lives into Ford's success, and now I'm helping build the space where the next generation will design the vehicles that will carry Ford forward for the next 100 years.

In decades to come, every time Ford reaches new heights, they'll show our building. And I'll get to tell my kids: We built that.

The Grand Opening of Ford’s New World Headquarters is scheduled to take place on Sunday, Nov. 16.

Michael Bonner is project executive, Barton Malow.