Kaiser Roof Garden
history continued

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because the garden project threatened to exceed its budget by several hundred thousand dollars, some of the originally planned features were never completed.

The industrious plan to landscape every roof surface had to be abandoned. Features such as the bridge over the pool (finally added some years later), a garden shelter, and two decorative windscreens were also omitted. The garden was completed by the fall of 1960 and was officially opened to the public on October 3, 1960. It has remained largely unchanged to the present day.    

As a significant feature of the Kaiser Center, the garden along with the building remains a visible symbol of the importance that Henry J. Kaiser and Kaiser Industries held in the San Francisco Bay Area and throughout California from the 1920s through the 1970s. His Kaiser Aluminum and Kaiser Cement plants employed thousands of workers while Kaiser Engineers completed large-scale projects all over the world. Moreover, the company led the way in providing resources for working mothers and Kaiser Permanente hospitals established one of the first pre-paid healthcare plans.  

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