Located at 1015 South Callaham Road in Wentzville, MO, the new 71,000 sq ft Clement Ford officially opened in November 2025. As one of the first dealerships in the country to implement Ford’s new Signature Design standards, the $45 million facility delivers a modern, customer-focused environment featuring a dedicated Bronco showroom, expansive service department with 38 lifts, and upgraded amenities that align with Ford’s evolving retail vision.

Midway through construction, the facility was redesigned to incorporate the updated brand criteria, which required significant coordination across the design and construction teams. With limited documentation available at the time, much of the new design was interpreted from Ford’s published renderings and translated into full constructible drawing sets.

Case’s structural team worked closely with the owner, Clement Auto Group, general contractor Musick Construction, and the architect to design the support necessary to accommodate the updated design.

V Three Studios

“Because the architectural design intent changed multiple times throughout the project’s timeline, with several design changes occurring during the construction phase, our team was challenged to turnaround structural solutions quickly to keep the construction moving forward with minimal delays,” said Case Structural Department Manager Dino Chirco, PE.

The building’s main support is comprised of load bearing, 12-inch-wide CMU blocks and structural steel frames with CMU shear wall and steel moment frames for its lateral design components. One of the more complex early design elements included a 300-foot-high architectural archway/brand wall that extended along both sides of the building. While the feature was fully detailed and coordinated, it was ultimately removed as part of Ford’s evolving design. The process required flexibility and strong collaboration between the architect, structural engineer and general contractor to maintain the schedule and budget while adapting to the new standards.

“Due to the curtain wall’s height, we had to design a steel girt near its mid-point to break up the span of the curtain wall and reduce out-of-plane deflections,” said Chirco. “The original design also included a 32-foot-tall by 230-foot-long curved sign wall comprised of trussed tube steel members spanning over the top of the structure from one end of the front elevation to the other. This design was very challenging to complete and required multiple weeks of meetings and design iterations using finite element analysis software to complete. It was ultimately removed from the design intent when the owner decided to update the building design to the newest Ford prototype mid-construction.”

The design of the dealership’s large, open shop area also required an equally unique structural solution.

“The roof joists in the shop area needed to clear-span the 132-foot-wide shop area due to the owner and Ford Corporate not wanting interior column lines to interfere with the car driving lanes or positions of the car lifts,” said Chirco. “To accommodate this challenge, we designed DLH-series joists that were 5’-6” deep that were bolted together from two segments in the field.”

The dealership design also included a large mezzanine roughly the same area as half of the sales floor with an elevator for access. To accommodate this design feature, Case’s engineers specified concrete over metal deck on the bar joists spaced at two feet off center for its construction.

“The elevator shaft foundation design was very difficult due to several footing steps and its location next to the mezzanine which required additional coordination to ensure that there were no interferences,” he said.

For more information about Case Engineering’s structural services, visit www.caseengineeringinc.com/services/.