[Image: Green Roof Demo Project, Chicago Center for Green Technology, Andrew Ciscel, via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]

I was reading the Scientific American website Friday about a new study that claims that the student
female and male brain may not be as different as previously thought, when it comes to calculating mathematical problems. A photograph in the sidebar caught my eye because the building in the picture looked so familiar to me. I realized that the Moderne tower in the picture (above) was part of an industrial building that was near the Chicago neighborhood I grew up in.

I clicked on the article, "Urban Roofscapes: Using 'Wasted' Rooftop Real Estate to an Ecological Advantage," and sure enough, the photo caption placed the garden at the Chicago Center for Green Technology, on Sacramento Boulevard. That tower was the exactly where I thought it might be!

[Image: Chicago City Hall Roof Garden Plan, asla.org /Artwork: designslinger]

I'm not sure that the Technology Center is actually located in that old industrial building, but it got
me thinking about adaptive reuse, and how much the old neighborhood, along with the rest of the city of Chicago, has changed. I live in L.A. now, but on every return visit to my old stomping grounds, I'm stunned by the transformation of a place I called home for decades. It got me thinking about the greening of the entire city in the past two decades, and I recalled reading a few years ago about Mayor Richard Daley's, big public experiment with roof landscapes, and converting the top of City Hall into a green oasis. It looks like the city has moved beyond the experimental stage and into a long term commitment. Good for Chicago.

[Images: Chicago City Hall Roof Garden, asla.org /Artwork: designslinger]

There is an organization in Toronto called, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, whose goal is to "inform, 
promote and inspire the earth friendly technology of organic greenroof architecture." I was very happy to find an extensive resource for anyone who has an interest; from the individual homeowner, to large scale developers, to government institutions. It is an urban planning concept that should be embraced by cities around the globe, and there are attempts being made even here in Los Angeles as well as in New York:

                                   "Building owners in New York City who install green rooftops will now
                                   receive a significant tax credit under a bill that passed the state
                                   legislature on June 25, 2008.

                                   Owners who install green rooftops on at least 50 percent of available
                                   rooftop space can apply for a one-year property tax credit of up to
                                   $100,000. The credit would be equal to $4.50 per square-foot of roof
                                   area that is planted with vegetation, or approximately 25 percent of
                                   the typical costs associated with the materials, labor, installation, 
                                   and design of the green roof."

[Image: maps.live.com /Artwork: designslinger]

It can be as simple as putting a few pots and plants are your roof, or balcony, but we're talking large
scale roof coverage here. Just look at this image of our Hollywood neighborhood and all those gray rooftops. Think about the transformation that would occur if they were planted the same way Chicago's City Hall has been greened.