Roof Explorer’s Guide:101 New York City Rooftops by Leslie Adatto and Heather Shimmin, Contributing Photographer Shortly after I moved to New York, I met Leslie Adatto at a rooftop garden party. I had just moved here from London and was finishing up my Master’s thesis on London green roofs. We bonded over our love of rooftops and living in the cities we love (New York and London). She told me about
Gardeners instinctively know that flowers and plants are a continuum and that the wheel of garden history will always be coming full circle. – Francis Cabot Lowell There is something magical about a roof garden. Parks and backyard gardens are wondrous places, but when they are placed high above the earth on a rooftop, where they are not supposed to be, the experience becomes invigorating and unforgettable. In a
Green roofs are catching on in New York. It is no surprise that is the people who are leading the movement. In the words of Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Friday, I had the unique opportunity to visit the extensive green roof atop the Linda Tool and Die Corporation in Brooklyn.
I’ve just finished my MA program at New York University in Historical and Sustainable Architecture. The focus of the program is Adaptive Reuse, urban regeneration, and sustainability. I was fortunate enough to be able to study in London. My time there was all too brief but it has opened my eyes to the possibilities of adaptive reuse and just how far behind America is in such matters (among others, but
Hampton Court History in Brief Hampton Court Palace sits on the banks of the Thames in Surrey. Cardinal Woolsey transformed Hampton Court, a grand house when he acquired it, into a sprawling palace in the mid- 16th century. So impressed was Henry VIII with the Cardinal’s palace that Woolsey “gifted” it to the King (he really did not have a choice in the matter). Of all of his palaces, Hampton