RESTORATION PROCESS

The Ford Foundation Centre for Social Justice is a landmark building in New York City with a 12-storey glass-walled atrium that broke new ground when it opened in 1967. Designed by the office of Dan Kiley, the third-of-an-acre atrium garden was the first of its kind in the US, incorporating a dramatic 13-foot change in level and a large pond.

The usually Modernist Kiley conceived of the garden as a temperate New England forest and realised his vision with a naturalistic plant selection that included more than 40 trees, 1,000 shrubs and 22,000 vines. However, by 2015, the original scheme had sadly declined and Raymond Jungles, Inc (RJI) was engaged to restore the garden to its former glory.

RJI Senior Associate Guy Champin led the project team. ‘Understanding and honouring Dan Kiley’s design intent was most important, and we were determined to follow his lead and plant directly into the soil,’ says Guy. ‘But the preservation of existing structures and finishes was also a priority that represented challenges in terms of construction, logistics and schedule.’

Lines Of Sight And Light

A combination of low-growing plants and high canopies ensured transparent sightlines and visual connections across the garden. Begonias, jasmine and ferns highlight the main staircase, where light levels are lower, and on the brighter eastern side, there is a sensory garden of fragrant flowering plants. Planting around the pond, where light conditions are also good, focuses on flowering plants and interesting foliage, with medinilla and ferns forming the majority of these.

Existing Features

Working with the fabric of a building of historic importance also presented various challenges, not least the need to protect paving, mullions, railings and other features. ‘We strived to keep Dan Kiley’s intent and not add any foreign elements to the design,’ says Guy. ‘Drainage and slopes as great as one-to-one were a challenge but were mitigated by using a geofibre soil mix.

‘Early in the project,’ he adds, ‘it was determined that the best approach to avoid overwatering and flooding was to hand water, which would also ensure close monitoring of the garden, but we did install grow lights to improve conditions in specific areas.’ This was a significant challenge because the only appropriate niches were limited in size and located on the existing ceiling, ten storeys above the trees.

Working with architectural lighting design firm Fisher Marantz Stone, the team selected optimal directional fixtures which could be carefully directed towards specific areas of the garden, to supplement the amount of light that reaches certain plants.

Soil Matters

‘Overgrown plants, monocultures of traditional interior plants, and the introduction of foreign design elements were all issues,’ says Guy. ‘Access to the atrium was also limited, meaning the larger trees (measuring some 18-19 feet in height) had to come in when windows were being replaced.’

The team followed the original tree layout and planted the same number of different species, but with a carefully researched new selection chosen for improved resilience and survival rates. ‘It was interesting to see that the original root aeration/irrigation system was very similar to what you can now find on the market [and] testing [the] existing soil in the atrium proved it to be of excellent quality,’ says Guy.

However, erosion was considered to be an issue, so a mixture that included geofibres was developed to mitigate this problem. Biochar was used as a soil enhancer and upper-level planters on the sloping site were filled with lightweight aggregate to avoid the need to employ expensive structural reinforcements.

Tree Preparation

The Missouri Gravel Bed method was used for the larger trees – which included Calliandra haematocephala, Podocarpus gracilior and Gustavia augusta – being brought into the atrium. ‘This involved purchasing the trees ahead of time, washing all soil from their root balls, then replanting them in custom-made boxes filled with gravel,’ explains Guy.

‘For this project, the gravel was graded with the same slope that the trees would eventually find in the Ford Foundation atrium, which gave their root systems time to shape according to the conditions of their final location. The trees were acclimated in a shade house in Florida for more than a year, before being removed from their boxes and transported in bare-root form back to New York City.’ Not only did this significantly reduce the weight of the trees, and therefore freight costs, the interim process also gave them time to develop more fibrous root growth, which meant the shock to their root systems as they settled into their final positions was significantly reduced and they were able to establish themselves more quickly.

Raymond Jungles, Inc, raymondjungles. com; Fisher Marantz Stone, fmsp. com; James Urban, jamesurban.net; SiteWorks, siteworkscm.com; Gensler, gensler.com