Ford BlueOval City Wins ENR Southeast Best Manufacturing Project, Named “Project of the Year” Finalist

BlueOval City – a massive production complex in Stanton, Tennessee that is integral to Ford Motor Company’s electric vehicle manufacturing strategy – was recently named 2025’s “Best Project” in the manufacturing category by ENR Southeast. The magazine also announced that BlueOval City is one of three projects nominated to vie for ENR Southeast’s “Project of the Year” honors. The winner will be announced at a ceremony on October 23.

Working in partnership with general contractor Walbridge, Ghafari provided full architecture and engineering design services for the site’s mega battery plant – a joint venture between Ford and SK Innovation – which encompasses six square miles and is roughly the size of 60 football fields.

As one of the largest battery assembly plants in our growing portfolio, this fast-track program challenged the Ghafari project team in numerous ways – requiring immense coordination, unique workflows, and the highest level of trust. Our longstanding relationships with both Ford and Walbridge ensured the effective application of Ford’s standards and pre-existing roles and responsibilities to help the team move through design quickly. Our design of the Tennessee battery plant was simultaneously replicated on a site in Kentucky (another Ghafari-designed campus).

Equally important to the schedule was the work of our Operations and Systems Engineering team, who coordinated the process systems integration and interfaced with the equipment designers while the building designers worked in a parallel effort. Throughout the project, technology changed quickly with process layout revisions that affected the design, engineering, construction, and installation.

Learn more about this massive project here.