Ford Foundation Building
Encyclopedia
The Ford Foundation Building is an office building in Midtown Manhattan designed by architect Kevin Roche
and his engineering partner, John Dinkeloo. Designed in 1963 and completed in 1968 on the former site of the Hospital for Special Surgery
, its large tree-filled atrium was the first of its kind in Manhattan, and it is widely credited as setting the precedent for indoor public space
s in Manhattan office buildings.
The building was one of the first that Roche-Dinkeloo
produced after they became heads of Eero Saarinen's
firm, following his death in 1961. It won the AIA Twenty-five Year Award
in 1995.
modern architecture
by exploring new architectural vocabulary, new materials, and new environmental controls. The architects aimed to restore the social function of modernism, furthering the goal of human community through facilitation of effective charity by the Ford Foundation
. Not abandoning the modernist principles they learned at IIT
, they added new ideas to the stagnating concept of the modern office building, which had been unchanged from the completion of the Seagram Building
and Lever House
.
The mass of the building is a large L-shaped office block wrapped around a spacious winter garden, forming a near-perfect square, but its design reveals considerable complexity. The architects integrated it into the landscape and the neighborhood. The actual envelope of the building is composed of weathering steel facing the structural frame, and pink granite wrapping vertical concrete elements, with large glass panes filling in the voids. This glass is a crucial element, as it reflects both modernist transparency and the specific visual experiences that Roche intended to create a moral structure to the building. In spite of the innovation, the beginnings of postmodernism
and the ultra-formalist New York Five shifted critical attention away from the conventional but idiosyncratic practice of Roche.
, which slopes down through the envelope of the building, rolling down into a fountain at the center of the space.
The sort of dissolution of boundaries is nothing novel, but Roche furthers the dissolution by stepping back the massing of the interior façade over steel terraces that lead up to and above the main entrance. The hill continues, transformed, into a sloping cliff of steel and glass. Here again also stands a tower at the eastern end of this hill, abutting a granite wall. On the 43rd street side of the building, the retraction of the lower floors towards the atrium mimic the curve of the interior hillside, allowing for a covered driveway and making the public lobby
open and free. The general volume of the structure, continued by large granite-faced columns, meets up with the massing of the building to the east of it on 43rd street, just as the hill from the park on 42nd street connects to the winter garden. The last two volumes of the building are the north-south wing of the building and the parallel service entrance. The service entrance forms an alley, but the wing of the building mirrors the density of the two office buildings between it and Second Avenue. It cuts through the hill flatly, terminating in a monumental granite wall. Playing off the openness of the atrium, the wall is unfriendly, powerful, and indomitable, perfectly flat except for a single cut about midway along its length. The cut reveals windows at an angle that repeats the motif of windows looking into one another that is central to the atrium, and to the concept of the building as a whole.
The wall cuts back into the building at the volume of the atrium where the path between the two streets passes through the curtainwall. At the southwestern corner of the atrium, a large diagonal wall supports a two-storey extension of the office block that completes the square plot of land. The atrium continues through the hole made by these two stories, reaching a roof of three sections of smaller pitched structures, creating an expansive skylight.
. Secondly, he used brown-pink granite
to wrap vertical, massy walls. He employed these materials in a handful of projects during the 1960s, especially perfecting the use of weathering steel. Roche and Dinkeloo added additional significance to their choice of materials by differentiating between spanning and supporting materials. Generally, he employed reinforced concrete
for supporting structures or simple mass, while exploiting the tensile properties of steel to bridge space.
The Ford Foundation was the first project for which they employed materials in this way, although the technique ended up being inefficient and costly because of intricacies of construction. The architecture was simply unready for the new building system, as steel and concrete crews had to alternate, since the concrete piers required the steel for stabilization, while the steel needed the concrete to stand up in the first place. When they attempted the method again, at the Knights of Columbus Building, they executed a design that arose from the technique, where four corner towers and a core were poured in concrete very quickly, while large steel pieces could be placed modularly into the structure, expediting construction and producing a unique style.
and at a few office parks, he played with the topology of landscape interior and exterior space, but he has explained that, unlike the Oakland Museum, the project contains a very complicated social diagram, meant to cause occasional interactions between employee and employee, visitor and employee, and visitor and foundation. The first experience occurs when office workers look out the window to see the lush and perfectly maintained atruim, their own private garden in the density of the city. Consequent to this experience, a worker might notice that he can see into another person’s office – and that another person can see into hers.
More significantly, the workers and administrators in the conference rooms, planning meetings and courting donors, are able to survey almost half of the employees simply by looking out of the window. Ada Louise Huxtable
quotes Roche explaining, “It will be possible in this building to look across the court and see your fellow man or sit on a bench and discuss the problems of Southeast Asia. There will be a total awareness of the foundation’s activities.” Not only did he feel that the role of the building is to subtly encourage people conscious of their surroundings, he believed that he could strengthen the moral mission of the foundation, allowing the administration a panoptical perspective of the staff, while subverting that effect by keeping the administration, donor, and conference rooms the most transparent and visible of all. Sight
can act as a form of control, and this building successfully allows different elements of the power dynamic to hold each other in check, just a little bit more, by internalizing that one is constantly under gentle scrutiny by the sheer fact of the building.
Kevin Roche
Kevin Roche is an Irish-American architect known for his creative work with glass.Born in Dublin, Roche spent his formative years in Mitchelstown, Co. Cork before he graduated from University College Dublin in 1945. He then worked with Michael Scott from 1945-1946...
and his engineering partner, John Dinkeloo. Designed in 1963 and completed in 1968 on the former site of the Hospital for Special Surgery
Hospital for Special Surgery
Hospital for Special Surgery is a hospital in New York City that specializes in orthopedic surgery and the treatment of rheumatologic conditions....
, its large tree-filled atrium was the first of its kind in Manhattan, and it is widely credited as setting the precedent for indoor public space
Public space
A public space is a social space such as a town square that is open and accessible to all, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, age or socio-economic level. One of the earliest examples of public spaces are commons. For example, no fees or paid tickets are required for entry, nor are the entrants...
s in Manhattan office buildings.
The building was one of the first that Roche-Dinkeloo
Roche-Dinkeloo
Roche-Dinkeloo, otherwise known as Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates LLC , is an architectural firm based in Hamden, Connecticut founded in 1966....
produced after they became heads of Eero Saarinen's
Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen was a Finnish American architect and industrial designer of the 20th century famous for varying his style according to the demands of the project: simple, sweeping, arching structural curves or machine-like rationalism.-Biography:Eero Saarinen shared the same birthday as his father,...
firm, following his death in 1961. It won the AIA Twenty-five Year Award
Twenty-five Year Award
The Twenty-five Year Award is an architecture prize awarded by the American Institute of Architects to buildings and structures that have "stood the test of time for 25 to 35 years", and that "[exemplify] design of enduring significance." The project receiving the award can be located anywhere in...
in 1995.
Design
The twelve-story box represents an evolutionary approach to expanding the limits of International StyleInternational style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
modern architecture
Modern architecture
Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...
by exploring new architectural vocabulary, new materials, and new environmental controls. The architects aimed to restore the social function of modernism, furthering the goal of human community through facilitation of effective charity by the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
. Not abandoning the modernist principles they learned at IIT
Illinois Institute of Technology
Illinois Institute of Technology, commonly called Illinois Tech or IIT, is a private Ph.D.-granting university located in Chicago, Illinois, with programs in engineering, science, psychology, architecture, business, communications, industrial technology, information technology, design, and law...
, they added new ideas to the stagnating concept of the modern office building, which had been unchanged from the completion of the Seagram Building
Seagram Building
The Seagram Building is a skyscraper, located at 375 Park Avenue, between 52nd Street and 53rd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, in collaboration with Philip Johnson. Severud Associates were the structural engineering consultants. The building...
and Lever House
Lever House
Lever House, designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and located at 390 Park Avenue in New York City, is the quintessential and seminal glass-box skyscraper built in the International style according to the design principles of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Completed in 1952, it was...
.
The mass of the building is a large L-shaped office block wrapped around a spacious winter garden, forming a near-perfect square, but its design reveals considerable complexity. The architects integrated it into the landscape and the neighborhood. The actual envelope of the building is composed of weathering steel facing the structural frame, and pink granite wrapping vertical concrete elements, with large glass panes filling in the voids. This glass is a crucial element, as it reflects both modernist transparency and the specific visual experiences that Roche intended to create a moral structure to the building. In spite of the innovation, the beginnings of postmodernism
Postmodern architecture
Postmodern architecture began as an international style the first examples of which are generally cited as being from the 1950s, but did not become a movement until the late 1970s and continues to influence present-day architecture...
and the ultra-formalist New York Five shifted critical attention away from the conventional but idiosyncratic practice of Roche.
General plan
The building occupies the width of a block, and has facades of about 200 feet on either side, creating a near-perfect square, out of which a large volume has been removed to create a garden courtyard. The resulting L-shaped block of office space opens onto either the atrium or the street, depriving only a small number of workers of exterior views. The placement of the atrium in that location is surprisingly clever. In addition to maximizing sunlight for the plants, the cut reflects the location of the adjacent park in Tudor CityTudor City
Tudor City is an apartment complex located on the East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the first residential skyscraper complex in the world. It is bordered by East 40th Street to the south, First Avenue to the east, Second Avenue to the west, and East 43rd Street to the north...
, which slopes down through the envelope of the building, rolling down into a fountain at the center of the space.
The sort of dissolution of boundaries is nothing novel, but Roche furthers the dissolution by stepping back the massing of the interior façade over steel terraces that lead up to and above the main entrance. The hill continues, transformed, into a sloping cliff of steel and glass. Here again also stands a tower at the eastern end of this hill, abutting a granite wall. On the 43rd street side of the building, the retraction of the lower floors towards the atrium mimic the curve of the interior hillside, allowing for a covered driveway and making the public lobby
Lobby (room)
A lobby is a room in a building which is used for entry from the outside. Sometimes referred to as a foyer or an entrance hall.Many office buildings, hotels and skyscrapers go to great lengths to decorate their lobbies to create the right impression....
open and free. The general volume of the structure, continued by large granite-faced columns, meets up with the massing of the building to the east of it on 43rd street, just as the hill from the park on 42nd street connects to the winter garden. The last two volumes of the building are the north-south wing of the building and the parallel service entrance. The service entrance forms an alley, but the wing of the building mirrors the density of the two office buildings between it and Second Avenue. It cuts through the hill flatly, terminating in a monumental granite wall. Playing off the openness of the atrium, the wall is unfriendly, powerful, and indomitable, perfectly flat except for a single cut about midway along its length. The cut reveals windows at an angle that repeats the motif of windows looking into one another that is central to the atrium, and to the concept of the building as a whole.
The wall cuts back into the building at the volume of the atrium where the path between the two streets passes through the curtainwall. At the southwestern corner of the atrium, a large diagonal wall supports a two-storey extension of the office block that completes the square plot of land. The atrium continues through the hole made by these two stories, reaching a roof of three sections of smaller pitched structures, creating an expansive skylight.
Materials
Two material details reveal the Ford Foundation as a Roche building. Firstly, it has a careful use of warm materials such as weathering steel, which produces a self-sealing rust patinaPatina
Patina is a tarnish that forms on the surface of bronze and similar metals ; a sheen on wooden furniture produced by age, wear, and polishing; or any such acquired change of a surface through age and exposure...
. Secondly, he used brown-pink granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
to wrap vertical, massy walls. He employed these materials in a handful of projects during the 1960s, especially perfecting the use of weathering steel. Roche and Dinkeloo added additional significance to their choice of materials by differentiating between spanning and supporting materials. Generally, he employed reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...
for supporting structures or simple mass, while exploiting the tensile properties of steel to bridge space.
The Ford Foundation was the first project for which they employed materials in this way, although the technique ended up being inefficient and costly because of intricacies of construction. The architecture was simply unready for the new building system, as steel and concrete crews had to alternate, since the concrete piers required the steel for stabilization, while the steel needed the concrete to stand up in the first place. When they attempted the method again, at the Knights of Columbus Building, they executed a design that arose from the technique, where four corner towers and a core were poured in concrete very quickly, while large steel pieces could be placed modularly into the structure, expediting construction and producing a unique style.
Human experience
Roche himself only produced a few other buildings that share a language and a concept similar to the Ford Foundation building. In the Oakland Museum of CaliforniaOakland Museum of California
Oakland Museum of California or Oakland Museum is a museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California located in Oakland, California....
and at a few office parks, he played with the topology of landscape interior and exterior space, but he has explained that, unlike the Oakland Museum, the project contains a very complicated social diagram, meant to cause occasional interactions between employee and employee, visitor and employee, and visitor and foundation. The first experience occurs when office workers look out the window to see the lush and perfectly maintained atruim, their own private garden in the density of the city. Consequent to this experience, a worker might notice that he can see into another person’s office – and that another person can see into hers.
More significantly, the workers and administrators in the conference rooms, planning meetings and courting donors, are able to survey almost half of the employees simply by looking out of the window. Ada Louise Huxtable
Ada Louise Huxtable
Ada Louise Huxtable is an architecture critic and writer on architecture. In 1970 she was awarded the first ever Pulitzer Prize for Criticism for "distinguished criticism during 1969."...
quotes Roche explaining, “It will be possible in this building to look across the court and see your fellow man or sit on a bench and discuss the problems of Southeast Asia. There will be a total awareness of the foundation’s activities.” Not only did he feel that the role of the building is to subtly encourage people conscious of their surroundings, he believed that he could strengthen the moral mission of the foundation, allowing the administration a panoptical perspective of the staff, while subverting that effect by keeping the administration, donor, and conference rooms the most transparent and visible of all. Sight
Visual perception
Visual perception is the ability to interpret information and surroundings from the effects of visible light reaching the eye. The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight, or vision...
can act as a form of control, and this building successfully allows different elements of the power dynamic to hold each other in check, just a little bit more, by internalizing that one is constantly under gentle scrutiny by the sheer fact of the building.