Our Favorite Roof Gardens

This May, we’ve been looking to take a slightly alternative perspective on gardening at Postconsumers. After all, the largest percentage of the American population lives in cities or urban centers. That means no yards and no room for what we often think of as traditional gardens. It can also mean an overall lack of green space. While cities and their inhabitants are finding all kinds of ways to overcome this issue, one of our favorites is the corporate rooftop garden. Rooftop gardens create green spaces in what would be, in many cases, wasted spaces. And for anybody who’s ever lived in a high rise apartment building, you know how much nicer it is to look out of your window at a green rooftop instead of a cement roof. We’ve rounded up our favorites for you to take a look at!

The Vancouver Convention Center

Vancouver is one of the greenest, most eco-friendly cities in the world, so it’s no surprise that they also have the single largest rooftop garden in the world on their convention center. The Vancouver Convention Center roof is six acres (yes, six!) of pure green space on top of pure concrete and steel. We love it. Things like this are part of what makes Vancouver amazing.

Photo via RooftopGardens.com

These Tiny Roof Gardens at an Alaska Rest Stop

We love these because they truly show that you can make any space better by adding a rooftop garden, even a public restroom! We found this photo in a database of rooftop gardens and completely fell in love with it. Imagine how much plant life we could add to the world if every U.S. rest stop off the (highly polluting) freeway had a green roof? And we could do it without taxes having to pay for it. Local communities could own the management much like they own those sections of highway cleanup. Let’s make it happen people!

The Bill Clinton Presidential Library

There’s a tiny part of us wondering if this was Al Gore’s idea! The rooftop garden at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library is vegetable based. We’re not going to pretend as though it’s the most amazing implementation of a rooftop garden that we’ve ever seen, but we are going to put it in our top five list because, really, shouldn’t all presidential libraries not only have rooftop gardens but also be using sustainable energy? Shout out to Bill Clinton for keeping it green! Also, side note, presidential libraries are great vacation destinations.

Photo via BuildingsMedia.com

Bell, Book and Candle in NYC

New York City, and particularly Brooklyn, restaurants are becoming known for having rooftop garden space. We felt like we needed to have one on the list or we’d be remiss! We’re partial to the Bell, Book and Candle rooftop garden not only because it’s so very visually appealing but also because they actually use it to grow food that they serve. Many restaurant rooftop gardens (but not all) are about creating a fresh space for customers to enjoy, but this one is actually about finding innovative and healthy routes to fresh food. You have to love that!

Photo via Inhabitat.com

The World Wildlife Fund Corporate Rooftop

We’re not surprised that the WWF created this large-scale, ultra green rooftop garden. After all, we’re not sure that there’s an organization out there fighting for sustainability more effectively than they do. And if there’s one thing we can tell you that the DC area needs more of, it’s rooftop green space.