Ford Motor Co. unveiled plans Tuesday for the most sweeping redesign of its Dearborn corporate campus in at least half a century, changes that will one day create new work environments for some 20,000 of its workers and open the campus to the public.

At the heart of the plan is the creation of three large interconnected buildings with enough square footage to fill three Renaissance Centers, located on a more than 300- acre campus thick with trees and natural features and open to the public at large.

Ford's Glass House world headquarters will remain in use along with a few other stand-alone operations in existing buildings but otherwise almost all of Ford's Dearborn workers will move from about 70 existing structures to the new buildings over time.

And the new office space they find there will be built with maximum flexibility in mind, with easily movable desks and other mix-and-match office decor to allow for teams of various sizes to collaborate across departmental lines.

The goal is not just to update a corporate campus, much of which dates to the mid-20th century, but to achieve an environment that encourages collaboration across many fields, said David Dubensky, chairman and CEO of Ford Land, the automaker's real estate arm.

"This is reimagining how we work and driving culture change within the company," Dubensky said of the new campus. "If you think about the workplace today, it's largely focused around functions. You have finance in a certain area and body engineering in another area, marketing in another area. This brings people together around the product, around the final product."

Among the details:

Stunning modernist architecture that promotes natural light and views of nature.

A shared transportation loop featuring electrified bicycles, scooters, and shuttles.

Personal vehicle use limited to the perimeter of the site where some parking garages will be located.

More open spaces meant to offer a connection to nature to encourage health and well-being — Ford refers to the open space as "The Retreat." The change allows for increasing the density of trees and restoring wetlands and other features of the natural environment.

Paved areas using porous materials that limit runoff of rainwater and snowmelt.

A dramatically changed look for Village Road, which runs in front of The Henry Ford museum and Greenfield Village. Changes include the elimination of the two prominent gates at either end of the road. Also being taken down: a barrier wall now defining the edge of Ford land, opening the grounds to the public. "If you're walking around Henry Ford or Greenfield Village you can just sort of walk across the street and wander throughout the entire campus," Dubensky said.

Security moved from streetside and the perimeter of the campus to the lobbies of buildings themselves, to permit visitors to stroll the entire campus on their way to restaurants and shops or simply to enjoy the setting.

Cafes and restaurants open to the public and employees that will feature sustainable, local products and farm-to-table food sourcing.

Outdoor environments such as pavilions, courtyards and covered walkways scattered across the campus.

As Craig Dykers, cofounder of Snohetta, put it, the campus will enable “natural and built environments, employees and communities, moving in one Ford ecosystem, and connected with the world around it."

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The first phase involves a building that ultimately will include 2.2 million square feet of space — roughly the amount of office space in the Renaissance Center — to house 6,000 employees. Portions of that should be ready to open about 2022 and the rest by 2025, with the rest of the campus being built out after that.

Ford released a master plan in 2016 but this week's unveiling gave the first look at the dramatic changes in architecture and landscape design planned for the campus.

The first new building will feature a figure-eight configuration that allows for maximum natural light.

Ultimately, when all the phases are built out over several years, roughly 20,000 Ford employees will be brought together in a few large interconnected buildings, consolidated from roughly 70 buildings on the campus today. The entire campus will cover more than 300 acres.

President and CEO Jim Hackett said the vision for the campus plan, linked with Ford's plans for the Michigan Central Station in Detroit and a robotics lab in Ann Arbor, "will enable Ford to lead the next era of transportation and personal mobility, and help us continue our founding mission of driving human progress through the freedom of movement.”

Contact John Gallagher:313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com.Follow him on Twitter@jgallagherfreep. Read more on business and sign up for our business newsletter.