They’re dense and lovely, especially in the winter, but lacking in structure and difficult to peer through. Few realized the current trees, shrubs and ground cover aren’t Kiley’s original design, but make-dos when his original choices failed to thrive. The asbestos abatement requires the removal of all living things. This is necessary because, in order to install the building’s first sprinkler system, all of the hung ceilings need to be opened up-and there is asbestos insulation inside, sprayed on the steel structure. Many were dismayed, in December, to read that Dan Kiley’s plantings would be removed from the garden. Photo by John Duprey/NY Daily News via Getty Images The Ford Foundation in 1968, a year before its interiors were landmarked. The changing definition of public service, for architecture as well as a social justice foundation, will be reflected in physical changes to the structure. It is no longer enough that it be of quality, now the building must also move toward environmental responsibility and inclusion, while becoming literally more transparent. As Ada Louise Huxtable wrote in her 1967 New York Times review, "Ford Flies High," "Ford will never give most New Yorkers anything except this civic gesture of beauty and excellence, and that is a grant of some importance in a world where spirit and soul are deadened by the speculative cheapness of the environment." She dismissed as "ridiculous" the argument that "the money might not be better spent on the problems of the world." The foundation isn’t moving from its "12 stories of subtle splendor"-though that was a consideration-but the renovations planned by Gensler reflect the changing project of doing good from one of Manhattan’s best buildings. Once upon a time, a building with a green, public heart seemed (for most) like enough of a gift to the city for a rich philanthropic organization. The new offices will be open-plan, with private rooms pulled to the corners of the building and away from the window-wall overlooking the atrium. "A building designed in 1962 is not a building that is energy efficient or in any way considers environmental consequences." It is not just Walker who is downsizing-the whole foundation will reduce its footprint within the building, freeing up the space on top for meetings and conferences from grantees and the lower floors for a visitor center, a gallery, and office space for other organizations. When I work on the weekends often in order to turn the lights on in my office I have to turn the lights on on half the floor," he says. "I don’t need a conference room that seats 40 people just for me. We will have very few offices and much greater transparency and openness." Walker will cut his personal square footage in half, moving to a lower floor and leaving an office which hangs like a levitating glass house above the garden on the building’s 42nd Street side, reached by a ficus-lined balcony that bears some resemblance to a medieval rampart. "The best offices are distributed to the most senior executives and that is no longer appropriate for a social justice foundation. "The building is very hierarchical, very 1960s," says Walker. But since they had to scratch the building’s surfaces, Ford Foundation president Darren Walker and his staff decided to go further, upgrading not just by adding sprinklers to the ceilings and greater access to the atrium, but new security, new lighting and mechanicals, and a new spatial organization. The city has given Ford until 2019 to bring the building up to code for fire safety and handicapped accessibility. Although many aspects of the building have long been outdated-interior designer Warren Platner thought telephones would forever fit his brass-stemmed walnut tables-it is health and safety, not aesthetics or technology, that initially drove the foundation’s plans. On Tuesday, April 19 the Landmarks Preservation Commission is set to consider a proposed $190 million renovation to the Ford Foundation, the 1967 building by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates, with a landscaped atrium designed by Dan Kiley, that is New York’s youngest interior landmark.
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