Albert Kahn Associates mines original drawings for the restoration of the historic Ford House.

The restoration of the 87-acre grounds of the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House in Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan, may be among the most historically faithful re-creations of the work of Jens Jensen and Albert Kahn to date. Pieced together from Jensen’s original drawings, detailed construction logs, archival photographs, and digitized film reels, the restored landscape just outside Detroit features a 185,000-gallon clamshell-shaped pool, a lagoon, a meadow, and a wagon-wheel-shaped rose garden.

“The original idea was to be reminiscent of an ‘up north’ swimming hole in the middle of the woods,” explains Karl Koto, the director of landscapes and project manager at Ford House, the nonprofit that owns and maintains the property. In 2018, faced with increasing visitation and a deteriorating pool, the board of Ford House commissioned Albert Kahn Associates to lead a full restoration. The restored grounds opened to the public in August 2022.

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