Massive condo building One Irving Place recently completed a total makeover of its roof into something a little more unusual. The 14,000 square feet of outdoor space on the building's seventh floor, formerly an undistinguished rooftop filled with potted plants, now make up the city's largest green roof. Sounds exciting?for somebody. Unfortunately, not for any of the people who live there, because safety and insurance rules mean building residents can't use the roof.
The roof's $330,000 transformation is part of Mayor Bloomberg's NYC Green Infrastructure campaign, and making it all happen required some heavy soil lifting. The soil on the roof is now two feet thick in some places, thanks to 4,500 bags of soil. The soil's covered in moss, but it won't turn green until next spring. Some of the rooftop's seasonal plants will show up then, too. Maybe the residents will be okay with appreciating it out the windows by then.
The roof's landscaping also provides one important benefit to those normal commoners living outside the building. The planted roof serves to capture all of the rain that falls on it rather than letting it run off and contribute to flooding in the Union Square subway station.
?Reporting and photos by Blake Peterson
· Zeckendorf Towers coverage [Curbed]
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