The Ford Rotunda was a tourist attraction that was originally located on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, and later was relocated to Dearborn, Michigan. It was among the most popular tourist destinations in the United States, receiving more visits in the 1950s than the Statue of Liberty. It was destroyed by a fire on November 9, 1962.

Albert Kahn was an American industrial architect who designed industrial plant complexes such as the Ford River Rouge automobile complex. He designed the construction of Detroit skyscrapers and office buildings as well as mansions in the city suburbs. He led an organization of hundreds of architect associates and in 1937, designed 19% of all architect-designed industrial factories in the United States. Under a unique contract in 1929, Kahn established a design and training office in Moscow, sending twenty-five staff there to train Soviet architects and engineers, and to design hundreds of industrial buildings under their first five-year plan. They trained more than 4,000 architects and engineers using Kahn's concepts. In 1943, the Franklin Institute posthumously awarded Kahn the Frank P. Brown Medal.