Gratz Green Roof
Long Island City, Queens
In the spring of 2007, workers from Greener By Design were atop the Gratz Industries building in Long Island City, replanting one New York City's most ambitious industrial green roof.
At 11,000 square feet, the roof, three-quarters of which will be covered with varieties of hardy sedum plants, provides an important opportunity to study the effects of rooftop planting on mitigating climate change. Situated within view of the Queensboro Bridge and tens of thousands of road and rail commuters, the roof is also a highly visible billboard for the possibilities of greening the city.
Researchers from Earth Pledge
are monitoring the plantings' oxygen emissions, and thus the roof's capacity for countering global warming. The monitoring will also track the plants' capacity to absorb rainwater, which would otherwise deluge the city's strained sewage facilities. Increasingly, architectural guidelines under city government-sponsored programs are requiring builders to take measures to slow and reduce drainage from rooftops, and the city Department of Environmental Protection, which operates the sewer system, has expressed interest in the project's findings.
The Gratz Industries Green Roof, designed by Balmori Associates, is funded by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and property owner and urbanist Roberta Brandes Gratz, whose family business, a metal shop, occupies the interior of the one-story structure.
site by Dtek Digital Media