Ford Foundation Building

Building Enclosure Rehabilitation

Designed by architect Kevin Roche with engineer John Dinkeloo, the Ford Foundation Building in midtown Manhattan is distinguished by its spacious, verdant atrium, which influenced later urban buildings in the incorporation of indoor public space. Completed in 1968, the headquarters of the philanthropic Ford Foundation was awarded the American Institute of Architects Twenty-five Year Award, and it has been designated a city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.

The twelve-story building is composed of an L-shaped office block wrapped around a garden atrium, forming a square plan. Clad in rose granite panels, concrete pillars are interspersed with glass curtain walls with weathering steel supports. The building design was intended to facilitate the social justice mission of the Foundation in its open plan, which encourages visual interaction among staff, administration, donors, and the general public.

Since 1981, Hoffmann Architects + Engineers has provided building enclosure consultation, investigation, design, and construction administration services for a number of projects at the architecturally significant building. Our architects and engineers have conducted facade investigations pursuant to New York City Local Law 10 of 1980 and Local Law 11 of 1998, for which we prepared and filed the relevant documentation with the Department of Buildings. We have conducted surveys of roofs, walls, plazas, interior stone cladding, and Cor-Ten (weathering) structural steel, and we provided investigation through design services for water infiltration remediation, plaza waterproofing and rehabilitation, gate pier recladding, and roof replacements.

In over a dozen projects, the Ford Foundation has retained Hoffmann Architects + Engineers as building enclosure and waterproofing experts to address persistent and complex problems at the aging Modernist landmark.