The upstairs neighbors in my second Brooklyn apartment were a nightmare: Up at all hours, liked to wear heavy shoes, and owned a dog that dragged his chain back and forth across the wooden plank floor. After finally moving out I resolved to only rent apartments that were on the top floor of whatever building I lived in. I succeeded–and soon found the problem with top-floor living: Anytime the building rooftop springs a leak (apparently a very common occurrence in New York’s older buildings), those leaks are directly experienced by us top-dwellers.

In doing research to correct the problem, I found lots of websites on green roofs, which apparently do an excellent job of absorbing rainwater. My landlord will never put one in, of course, but it’s nice to look and dream!

First off, what is a green roof? Also called eco-roofs, living roofs and vegetated roofs, at their simplest they are a layer cake of grass, soil, and underneath, a waterproof membrane. More complicated versions can contain vegetation beyond just grass, and an attendant “root barrier” to prevent roots from busting through your stamped-tin ceiling in five years.

The benefits of green roofs, beyond the obvious–i.e. you’re not using tons of shingles and tar that came out of some factory–are manifold: They make great insulation, they reduce stormwater run-off, they freshen the air, and they’re a heck of a lot prettier than your average roof; take a look at Manhattan on Google Maps in Satellite view to see for yourself. (It kind of looks like the Death Star.)

To learn more about green roofs in general, check out the following links:

The Greenroof Industry Resource Portal

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities

Tons of photos on The Conservation Report’s GREEN CONSTRUCTION: Increasing green spaces with living roofs.