Raising the green roof

There are exciting green roof projects emerging all over New York City these days: the experimental setups at the Parks Five Borough facility that we visited last month; The US Postal Service’s brand new 2.4-acre installation of native, drought-resistant plants–reportedly the largest green roof in the country–atop their Manhattan mail processing facility; the green roof farm in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, which has been hosting volunteers and giving lectures since opening this spring.  As green roof installation becomes more and more integrated with mainstream building design and operation, Treehugger takes a look at how green roofs are being used (and misused) in shaping the built environment.