Auto plant remodeled into a retail mecca.(Ford Motor Co.'s plant in Milpitas, California becomes the Great Mall of the Bay Area)

Proving that adaptive reuse can produce an exceptional change in a building's function, a former Ford Motor Co. assembly plant in a San Francisco suburb has been turned into the largest retail outlet mall west of the Mississippi River.

The Albert Kahn Associates-designed structure in Milpitas, Calif., which manufactured cars and trucks from its opening in 1955 until assembly operations ceased in 1983, now houses the Great Mall of the Bay Area.

Ford had sold the 150-acre property to an area developer, but reacquired it because the sale was contingent on the buyer's ability to develop it. This reacquisition, however, proved to be a corporate image builder for Ford because it enabled the company to turn one of its abandoned facilities into a productive asset, said Ronald Gagnon, vice president of commercial construction and develop-ment for Ford Motor Land Services Corp.

Ford's initial task was to perform environmental remediation. It spent about $12 million to correct problems related to PCBs, asbestos and soil and water contamination.

Ford then began investigating options for the property, including possible residential development. Retail developer Petrie Dierman Kughn (PDK) of McLean, Va., was concurrently developing outlet malls. PDK learned about the …