Ford Foundation
New York City - March 2010
I took pictures of a real, live, botanical garden inside a NYC building last week. It's the lobby of the Ford Foundation on East 42nd Street. If you walk towards the UN Building by way of 42nd Street, you'd pass it. But chances are you might miss it. I've been in the area often but I didn't know there was a garden in there until I saw some tourists peering inside through the building’s glass wall. The garden inside is not obvious from the street because of all the reflections. A sign by the door saying the garden is open from 8am to 4pm served as invitation so I walked in.

The garden is not very big but immediately it made an impact on me. It was very serene. The noise outside -- the honking, the traffic, and the sirens of fire trucks, ambulances, or police -- were shielded away. Stepping inside was like walking into a library or church where one instinctively silences one’s own footsteps. But instead of books or candles, one is surrounded by lush greenery instead. The place seemed out of place and designed for meditating in the middle of the hustle and bustle of New York City.

The garden is open to the public for free. At the very least, the tourist may think he or she is getting a bargain paying no admission for a greenhouse not found in tourist brochures. Or a worker may simply sit inside at lunch hour and be lost in the dense jungle while reading a book, listening to the sound of trickling water that keeps the pool water circulating and fresh, and perhaps enjoy an effective way of rejuvenating for the second half of the day. There were gardeners inside it when I came which gave me the impression that the garden was lovingly cared for. Every leaf was fresh, shiny, and green. Maintaining such a place must be costly and so the word “philanthropist” naturally came to my mind.

Reading about it later on the Internet, I learned that the Ford Foundation is indeed a philanthropist organization and was chartered in 1936 by Edsel (son) and Henry (dad) Ford to "promote peace, freedom, and education throughout the world." It was and continues to be involved in just about every modern-day major global upheaval including education, art, museums, the Green Revolution, discrimination, energy, workplace equality, and others throughout the decades.

Any philanthropist organization may request for grants from Ford Foundation. Prominent among its many accomplishments are the funding of PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) and helping the launch of "Sesame Street". Recently it committed $250,000 for the earthquake victims in Haiti. Although it is founded by the same Henry Ford who created Ford Motor Company, Ford Foundation has had no connection with the auto-making company. (sources: wikipedia.org and www.fordfound.org)

The Ford Foundation is just one of many organizations operating in New York City where philanthropists pour some of their wealth into. The New York Public Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the American Museum of Natural History come to mind. The respite one gets walking in from the blustery winter cold outside to be instantly transported into the warm, tropical confines of the Ford Foundation’s garden was one thing. Yet another might be the reassuring feeling knowing that within what many sometimes call is a highly materialistic world, oases of sorts still thrive and prosper well deep in the heart of New York City.

 Click on a picture to enlarge.
The Ford Foundation building is on East 42nd Street in the neighborhood of Manhattan called
Building facade. The garden is probably one of those unadvertised attractions in New York City. And so every tourist that passes by and notices the garden inside goes through a similar pattern: peer through the glass, stand back to let it all sink in, then step in.
The visitor's eyes are immediately attracted by the pool at the garden's center.
Yet visitors often don't instinctively walk towards the pool. Instead, they follow a roundabout path until they spiral into it. I think that when presented with gracious hospitality, the visitor instantly reacts with reverence.
View of 42nd Street buildings outside the glass walls.
Ford Foundation offices above the garden.
Stairs lead up to where one can sit in silence and maybe read a book, as one man was doing at the time when I came.
I'm not familiar with plant species so I'm not sure what these crawling vines are called.
The high glass roof lets the sunshine in. I can just imagine that for the high prices real estates command in New York City, all that space could have been used for offices. But there are other buildings like that offering part of their real estate for the public to enjoy and relax in for free in New York City.
The building houses only one organizaion: the Ford Foundation.
This woman said, “Excuse me,” as she walked in front of my camera toward the pool. In her haste to reach it she probably didn't realize that my camera was already trained at where she was headed. Upon reaching the pool she stood a few moments fixated at it and seemingly trying to decide what to do. It was as if she felt compelled to interact with it somehow as if it were a living thing. Finally she gently sat down and reached for the pool's surface. She probably wasn't thinking that touching the water's surface would ease all her worries away but that's just what I see on her face looking at her photograph. Her thoughts and expression may well be what others go through when visiting the garden.
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