The Green Roof

Garden Rooftops

In simple terms, a green roof is a roof planted with vegetation. Throughout the World from North America, to Scandinavia, to the Siberian North, vegetative roofs have provided durable, efficient shelter for thousands of years.

Through the 20th and 21st century “Garden” Rooftops gained an ”elitist” reputation with the rise of the skyscraper , high-rise developments and underground parking structures.. The “Garden” provided welcome respite for social events during summer months, and they appeared on such buildings as New York City’s Waldorf-Astoria hotel. In the 1940s, Union Square in San Francisco became the first of many roof gardens to be created above underground parking garages. In this application, the roof of a parking garage is turned into a public plaza—pedestrian users are often unaware that the public space is actually a roof.

Click here to find out more about the Village by the Arboretum's Green Roof.