The habits of corporate man, a creature most acutely aware of comfort in the present tense, determined the fluctuations of the Ford Foundation’s interior climate. During the workweek, the office atmosphere regulated the garden’s atmosphere—both spaces would be stable, mild, and dry—while on weekends and holidays, the interior climate was subject to significant, yet still largely unknown, variation. 

Modernist landscape architect Dan Ki­ley, renowned for designs of exacting geometry and attention to plant form, stated that the project “embodied both risk and fun. . . . Although it may not have been what the clients expected to hear, I told them frankly that the project was an experiment.”