Excitement was growing in Dearborn Michigan this past Thursday when Ford opened its new Lincoln dedicated design center for the public’s first peak into the 40,000 square foot space. This space is to give Lincoln a separate area in order to separate itself further from the Ford models. This is the first time since the 1970s that Lincoln will have its own space for research, development and design. This space will comfortably house about 150 designers, sculptors and math sculptors to push the Lincoln designs into the next level of luxury and class.
“Our ambition is not to be No. 1,” said Jim Farley, head of global sales and marketing. “We’d rather have a few people love us than everybody like us. Lincoln’s renaissance is built on our new product lineup and is a personalized experience with designs that deliver on our promise of a personalized motor car: beautiful, elegant, and most of all, surprising.”
While Ford is congenial about showing off this new space for Lincoln, they aren’t so friendly when it comes to discussing how much it cost, but we have to imagine it was a significant investment. The design studio looks similar to that of a huge loft apartment. It has plenty of open spaces for artists and engineers to work closely together. The company that designed this space is called “Imagination”. They collaborated with Lincoln’s head designer Max Wolff to make sure that the space was not only innovative, but made the most sense for Lincoln’s objectives.
“Often they are two separate work streams and therefore, two different sensibilities. Now everyone collaborates on one harmonious vehicle,” Wolff said.
The 2013 Lincoln MKZ is the first vehicle that will come through this new studio and we are sure all eyes will be on how the dedicated space was able to help build the best new Lincoln possible. There are a total of four new Lincoln models expected out by 2015 including the MKZ, MKT Crossover, a full sized MKS sedan and a full size Navigator SUV.
Source Motor Trend