DETROIT, MI — The steel structure for Henry Ford Hospital’s new patient tower now soars 20 stories above West Grand Boulevard in Detroit, Michigan’s New Center neighborhood. Hundreds of team members, partners, and supporters gathered for the topping out celebration and watched as construction workers placed the 32-foot, 1,400-pound steel beam at the highest point of the building, where patients will one day receive care.
The tower is the most visible component of the $2.2 billion Destination: Grand project, which is transforming the 111-year-old hospital campus.
Since breaking ground in September 2024, the Barton Malow-Turner-Dixon tri-venture has installed more than 10,000 tons of steel and logged more than 600,000 work hours. Eventually, the team will cover the building’s façade with more than three football fields’ worth of glass. The project is on track for completion in 2029.
“This steel beam symbolizes the strength of our commitment to the city we’ve called home for more than a century,” Henry Ford Health President and CEO Bob Riney said. “This milestone moment brings us one step closer to opening the hospital of the future, where people from Detroit and around the world will have access to the very best in medical breakthroughs, technology, treatment, and healing environments, regardless of where they live or their socio-economic status.”
Once complete, the hospital will have 432 private patient rooms, each with the highest levels of interactive smart technology. Five floors of the new patient tower will be dedicated to specialized intensive care units. Twenty-eight new operating suites capable of handling complex surgical cases — from transplants to brain surgery — will be housed in the building’s low-rise section. From robots delivering medical supplies to AI integration to support the most innovative care, every detail of the new hospital is being selected with a medical focus in mind.
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“Reaching this milestone is a testament to the collaboration and commitment this team brings to work every day,” Barton Malow Vice President Steve Lorenzo said. “The safe progress we’ve made alongside our partners reflects the trust we’ve built with Henry Ford Health and the standard we hold ourselves to on every project. We’re proud to be part of something that will serve Detroit and its communities for generations to come.”
At 75,000 square feet, the hospital’s new emergency department will be twice the size of the existing one, with 100 private treatment spaces, fast-track care for lower-acuity patients, and a dedicated area for patients experiencing behavioral health emergencies. Nearly every floor of the 1.2-million-square-foot hospital will include staff support areas such as lounges and wellness and meditative spaces.
Destination: Grand also includes a new 1,500-space parking garage; a Shared Services Building, which will house the hospital’s kitchen, pharmacy, laboratory, and more; and the Central Energy Hub, which will provide renewable energy for the hospital, making it one of the largest all-electrical hospitals in the country.
The hospital campus is the largest component of The Future of Health: Detroit, a community-driven partnership between Henry Ford Health, Tom Gores, the Detroit Pistons, and Michigan State University, that is transforming the New Center neighborhood into a walkable community on both sides of the Lodge Freeway. The partnership also includes the creation of a medical research center for the Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences. On track to open in 2027, the building is under construction across the Lodge from the new hospital.
