Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice
office building in Manhattan, New York
The Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice (also known as 320 East 43rd Street, 321 East 42nd Street, or the Ford Foundation Building) is a 12-story office building in East Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. Completed in 1967, it was designed in the late modernist style by architect Kevin Roche and engineering partner John Dinkeloo of Roche-Dinkeloo. The building was commissioned as the headquarters of the Ford Foundation, the largest private foundation in the United States when the edifice was constructed.
The building is a glass-and-steel cube held up by piers made of concrete, clad with Dakota granite. The main entrance is along 43rd Street, and there is a secondary entrance on 42nd Street. Dan Kiley was the landscape architect for the large public atrium inside, the first such space in an office building in Manhattan; it includes trees, shrubs, vines, and other plants. Most of the building's offices are north and west of the atrium and are visible from other offices.
Commissioned after Henry Heald became the Ford Foundation's president, the structure was developed on the former site of the Hospital for the Ruptured and Crippled. Final plans for the Ford Foundation Building were announced in September 1964, and the building was formally dedicated on December 8, 1967. The building underwent a major renovation and restoration between 2015 and 2018, and it was renamed the "Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice".
“Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice” enters the record as office building in Manhattan, New York. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Ford, Foundation and Center can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Ford, Foundation and Center provides the most credible route into that argument.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5467785. VIAF identifies the subject as 316746774. Authority coordinates are 40.750, -73.971. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1967, 1964, 2015 and 2018.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice primary sources, Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice archive and Ford research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.