Ahead of Her Time- Meet One of NYC’s Commercial Roof Farm Pioneers

I first met Anne Apparu on Friday, November 16, 2012, when I volunteered at Shore Soup, a makeshift soup kitchen at 92^nd Beach Street in the Rockaways.  She was cooking soup for people who had suffered huge losses at the hands of Super Storm Sandy and I was delivering it.

Across the street from where Shore Soup was happening

A cook and an artist, Anne is the child of two chefs.  She must cook.  If she doesn’t cook for three consecutive days, she tells me, she begins to get depressed. Food is her art form, her expression and, after tasting what she makes, I know it is her gift to the world.

Born in Corsica of Tunisian parents, Anne is a Sephardic Jew who kisses the Mezzuzah on her doorpost when she enters her apartment.  She has been in New York City since 1987, and, although she travels a lot, she most definitely considers New York City her home.  She says she has tried living other places but it “didn’t work out.”  After listening to her stories, I think I can understand why.  Read on and you’ll see why too.

Anne Apparu on her rooftop farm

After a day of volunteering at Shore Soup, Anne and I took the ferry back from the Rockaways to Wall Street Pier in Manhattan, together.  As we gazed out the boat’s windows at the Cross Bay Bridge and then the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, I casually commented about seeing Robert Moses’ work up-close after having just spent nearly six months plodding through The Powerbroker, the 1975 Pulitzer Prize winning book by Robert Caro about Robert Moses, the “Master Builder.”  Anne’s copy of the book, it turns out, had been in her storage unit in the Rockaways when Sandy hit.  Along with her catering equipment and other personal items, she lost the book that, before her move to Chinatown, had been her bedside reading stalwart.  She was less than halfway through it.

The early days of commercial rooftop farming in NYC

I promised to bring her my copy and that’s how I happened upon the marrow soup and the magical food tales that follow.

I went to see Anne again at her Chinatown apartment to learn more about her connection with food in New York City.  She was making a delicious, rich marrow soup, full of herbs and noodles – heavenly!  We spoke while she packed up the soup, transporting a homemade gourmet lunch to her fashion photographer friends.

Rooftop tomatoes

Cooking has always been Anne’s passion, and from that, she may have invented  what we now know as the “pop-up restaurant.”

In 2007, her friends encouraged Anne to open a restaurant of her own, but she didn’t have the means to devote herself to a full-time restaurant.  As a compromise, she began the “18^th Restaurant.” On the 18^th of each month, she served full meals at her “pop-up” restaurant.  It began with invited friends, but as word got out, 18^th Restaurant’s reputation grew and it became a monthly underground food happening.

Soon after the success of 18th Restaurant, she opened a café called “Homegrown” in an artists’ collective at 169 Bowery just below Delancey,   This was on the second floor in the “Collective Hardware” art space that was closed down in 2010.

At Homegrown, once again, Anne was a NYC food pioneer.  In 2008, she began collecting abandoned scraps of wood on the street and when she had enough, in 2009, she built shallow raised beds on Collective Hardware’s third-floor rooftop.  She got compost from Union Square and made more compost from kitchen scraps in her 2nd floor café .   She set up buckets and barrels to collect rainwater for irrigation.  She grew natives and curative plants from which she made infusions.  In just four inches of rich soil, she grew raspberries, vegetables and even tobacco.  Then she cooked her roof grown bounty downstairs in the café, making her one of the first commercial roof farmers in the United States.  While commercial roof farming was unheard of in 2008, just a few years later, roof farms are on hotels, grocery stores and abandoned factories all over New York City and across the United States.

Around the same time that Anne was closing up Homegrown, Rockaway Taco made this beach a hipster summer destination.  Yet, she noted there was no where else to get healthy, homestyle, affordable food for the summer residents and  for the thousands of full-time Rockaway residents, many of whom live in New York Housing Authority projects.  During the 2011 beach season, in an attempt to combat the “food desert” in the Rockaways, Anne cooked couscous dishes full of fresh and natural ingredients at Malou’s, a restaurant she opened on the boardwalk in the Rockaways and named after her grandmother.

Currently, when not feeding hungry fashion photographers (I’m sure the rail thin models don’t go anywhere near her mouthwatering lunches), Anne cooks at Growing Heart Farm‘s, 75 miles north of New York City in the Harlem River Valley.  She creates farm-to-table yoga dinners for day-retreaters.

When I asked about her describing herself as an artist, she told me about two of her projects, one in the past and one in the future.

In May 2011, the New Museum, located on the rapidly gentrifying Bowery, in fact on the exact spot where the punk rock-star incubator CBGB club once was, contacted Anne to participate in their annual Festival of Ideas, held each May.  Anne had a great, food-related (of course) idea called There are no Recipes, which culminated in a series of wonderful short videos that you can still see on Youtube.

Watch and you will see children teaching viewers cooking techniques – a salad, a quiche, a stew, a soup, a cake, or a cookie.  No recipes, just the basic guidelines and proportions.  Plus the kids always instruct you to choose your ingredients carefully, taste them to make sure you like them, clean up your kitchen and compost your scraps.  This is great stuff, and it was a big hit with children and adults at the 2011 Festival.

Looking to the future, Anne has been contacted by the New Museum again, asking for her repeat participation.  A wealth of creativity, she has another idea, this time involving growing food.  At the New Museum’s May 2013 Festival, Anne is organizing people to assemble “seed bombs,” soil infused with seeds of edible plants and mushroom “tea,” which is known for filtering out pollutants.  After the seed bombs are assembled, they will be distributed to pedestrians and cyclists who will be assigned different sections of New York City’s vast 530 miles of coastline.  The “bombs” will be launched in public places, and after that, it’s up to nature to do the work.  Healthy food will grow randomly along the waterways of New York City for the public to pick, cook and enjoy.

I may not be able to forgive Robert Moses for destroying New York City’s neighborhoods or starving the MTA of funds for decades as he built his mighty bridges and tunnels, but I am grateful to him for revealing to me the ever evolving food-centric world of Anne Apparu, roof farming pioneer.  Bon appétit!

Javitz Rolls Out the Green Carpet (34th – 40th Streets between 11th and 12th Avenues in Manhattan)

Javitz Center is installing the mother of all green roofs!

Looking east from the green roof of the Javitz Center

When complete (probably next year in 2013), it’s going to be 8 glorious acres, the second largest green roof in the entire country and, for sure, the largest green roof in Manhattan.  Sorry US Postal Service Morgan Mail Processing Center, the former green roof Mama Bear – at 2.5 acres, you are now the Baby Bear; and the Ford Motor Factory green roof in Deerborn, Michigan holds fast as the Papa Bear of USA green roofs coming in at 10.4 awesome acres.

A roll of “living carpet” of pre-grown sedum plants, commonly used for greening rooftops

Xero Flor, the same green roof installer at the Ford plant, assigned Kat Harrold, a trained landscape architect and GRP (Green Roof Professional) to manage this complex project, a key part of the greening up renovation of Javitz Center.  It is clear that Kat, a petite woman with long brown hair who carries her own construction hard hat in her backpack, is passionate about green roofs.  When still in university, she decided to devote her career to the environmentally urgent goal of greening of our cities’ rooftops.

Mechanicals on the 13-acre Javitz rooftop leave roof for 8 acres of green roof

You might be wondering, how do Kat and her crew go about greening 8 acres of rooftop in midtown Manhattan?  In its simplest form, it’s kind of like installing wall-to-wall carpeting on the roof but with small living plants rather than man-made woven carpet fibers.

She explained that after carefully waterproofing the roof membrane and putting in paving stone walkways so there is access to the HVAC and other mechanical stuff that is kept on rooftops, they put down irrigation, some lightweight soil, and a layer or two of materials to maximize drainage and rainwater retention.  Then the fun begins:  Just like carpeting the living room of your suburban tract house, they roll out the pre-grown plants.

Irrigation lines are installed below the sedum carpet

Voila! Instant green roof with all of its fabulous environmental and economic benefits:

• Instant rain water runoff reduction

• Instant improved roof insulation for lower air conditioning and heating bills

• Instant longer lasting roofs

• Instant reduced heat island effect

• Instant increased biodiversity

Lightweight, specially manufactured soil keeps the weight of the green roof down

As an advocate of public access green roofs, it’s frustrating that this expansive green roof with breathtaking views will only be accessible by Javitz maintenance folks – and the occasional determined rooftop blog writer.  I’ll search for public access viewing spots from which you can see the roof – dragon’s blood red in winter, blossoming pink, white and yellow in spring, and green in summer and fall - and report back to you.  Meanwhile, as you environmentally progressive baby caniforms enjoy your morning porridge, with a generous dollop of locally harvested rooftop honey of course, you can check out the progress of this Mama Bear of green roofs on Google Earth.

Looking north from the Javitz rooftop

From Brownfield to Green Roofs (Via Verde, Melrose neighborhood, The Bronx)

Question: What do you get when you combine $800 million, a Brownfield Site in the South Bronx and four of the top architecture firms in New York City?

Answer:Lots of green roofs!

some of Via Verde’s many roof gardens

Eight green roofs, to be exact.  Via Verde is a 222-unit affordable, and quite luxurious I might add, public housing development designed with state-of-the-art sustainability built into just about every detail.

Rooftop fruit orchard at Via Verde

A fruit tree orchard and an urban rooftop farm provide the most local, fresh food possible grown by and for Via Verde’s residents.  In the center of the complex, on a low rooftop that all can see and easily access, is a grove of living Christmas trees.  Via Verde residents can enjoy the tree decorating tradition each Christmas without having to cut down 222 trees.

Three rooftops, two of which are accessible by residents, are planted with sedum, those tough little succulents that survive NYC’s hottest summer days and coldest winter nights, even though they are planted in just four inches of lightweight manufactured soil.  Sedum function like big, green sponges on rooftops, absorbing rainwater and minimizing the pesky urban problem of polluted storm water runoff flowing right into our rivers.  Furthermore, the rooftop drainage system is carefully designed to collect rainwater into barrels – also minimizing the runoff.  Later, this stored water is used to irrigate the orchard, the farm and the rest of the complex’s lush landscaping.

Rainwater absorbing sedum roof next to a solar panel shaded walkway

South-facing rooftops get lots of sunlight, so the clever (and well-funded) Via Verde designers took advantage and installed a covered walkway made of photovoltaic – also known as solar – panels.  The collected energy from these panels, plus more panels integrated into the buildings’ design, provides enough electricity to power all the common areas and exterior lighting.

After residents have grown their food, decorated their living Christmas trees, collected electricity to light their way at night and water to irrigate their trees and shrubs, they can relax on the 20^th floor “party roof.”  This luxurious amenity is an easy to get to, smartly furnished rooftop with sweeping, 360-degree views over the Bronx and Manhattan.

A “model for affordable housing,” Via Verde, as its name implies, is indeed showing us the Green Way.

 

Kites Soar on a Manhattan Rooftop (Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan)

Think “Kite flying”: Carefree children running through open spaces with a colorful kite flying high above.

Now think “Hell’s Kitchen”:  Densely populated, urban, gritty New York City.

A child’s kite flying high in Hell’s Kitchen

But on Sunday, September 23, 2012, from 1 to 4 p.m., for the eighth time in eight years, there were, in fact, carefree children (and adults) flying kites in – or more accurately, above – Hell’s Kitchen.

This delightfully surprising, free event takes place each September and is sponsored by the Fashion Center Business Improvement District.  Hundreds of happy kids built, decorated and flew colorful nylon kites from the open air seventh floor rooftop of the Port Authority Bus Terminal.  This year’s event fell on the perfect breezy, blue-sky day, which could not have been more ideal for letting kites soar high above the streets of New York City, although, even let out as far as their string would allow, they were still dwarfed by the surrounding midtown glass-covered Manhattan high rises.

Getting ready to soar!

A family-friendly rooftop adventure, the afternoon included a flying yoga demonstration, face painting, jugglers and unicyclists, and a concert by Louie & Su Banda.  With so much entertainment available, the real joy was still on the faces of the kids running across the rooftop parking lot as they watched their creations go aloft and become one more dot in the skyscape filled with so many colorful dots.

I’ll most assuredly be looking out and LOOKING UP for the 9^thAnnual Kite Flight next September.  Perhaps I can borrow someone’s school-aged child so I can fly a kite too?

Daniella shows off the kite she just made

Thursday’s Rooftop Destination: The “Rooftop Crop Shop” at the Brooklyn Navy Yard (63 Flushing Avenue, Building 3, Brooklyn)

Having created the single largest commercial rooftop farm in the United States in the Borough of Queens on Northern Boulevard apparently wasn’t enough.  Ben Flanner, head farmer of Brooklyn Grange, the young man with the irresistible twinkle in his eyes, boundless energy and chronically mismatched socks, now runs the TWO largest commercial rooftop farms in the United States, the newest one on the massive roof of Building 3 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.  Brooklyn Grange has finally come to Brooklyn!

growing tomatoes eleven stories up at the Brooklyn Grange rooftop farm at the Brooklyn Navy Yard

Eleven floors above ground level, is the magnificent 45,000 square foot rooftop farm where organic salad greens, tomatoes, kale, chard, eggplants, basil, flowers, okra, ground cherries and more grow.  Stop by on Thursdays from noon to 5 p.m. when the farm and its weekly farmers market, “The Rooftop Crop Shop,” are open to the public.

This roof farm has other benefits that are not immediately apparent.  It is insulating the building below, keeping it cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.  It creates a bio-diverse environment where bees and Monarch butterflies thrive.  And it will absorb one million gallons of storm water runoff that will not end up in the already overtaxed and aging New York City sewage system.

roof-farmed flowers at the Grange

Standing by the doorway that leads from the 11^th floor of Building 3 to the outdoor rooftop farm, it is such fun to watch people as they exit the drab, industrial building and enter the colorful rooftop farm.  There is the initial reaction:  The wide-eyed first view of four to five foot tall, lush tomato plants where everyone seems to stop momentarily in his tracks to take in such a unique view.  Then a second or so later, as the visitor breathes out, you hear the collective gasp of “Wow!” or similar exclamations.  Only then do visitors begin to notice the fantastic water, city and historical dry dock views from this 11^thfloor vegetarian’s dreamscape.

some of what’s for sale at the “Rooftop Crop Shop” on Thursdays from 12-5

How does Farmer Ben do it?  With incredibly careful planning, fantastic partners and lots of hard working volunteers, plus Ben has several income streams to keep this farm commercially viable.  Other than a well-subscribed CSA (community supported agriculture) membership and stalls at several Brooklyn farmers markets, Brooklyn Grange has contracts with several local restaurants that pre-order specific roof crops to suit the chef’s menu.  This creates a third and very important stream of revenue to keep the Grange viable.  In fact, if you visit Building 92 in the Navy Yard, you can enjoy some Grange veggies at Ted and Honey, the café on the third floor that boasts – gotta love this – an outdoor dining roof terrace.  By the way, for good measure, Building 92, also has a sixth floor green roof which is clearly visible from the 11^thfloor Grange.

3 of the 8 rooftop bee hives next to the Brooklyn Grange farm. There are 30 bee hives in total at the Navy Yard, expected to produce 1,500 pounds of local honey.

Did I mention the eight rooftop bee hives on the building next door?  The rooster and chickens in the rooftop coop?  So much to see – please visit the Brooklyn Grange at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on Thursdays from noon to 5 during the growing season.  And leave some time to wander through the enormous historical Navy Yard which is transforming into a sustainable industrial park like no other, with a museum, a movie studio, artists and furniture makers, and so much more.  They have several tours available if you are so inclined.  Or you can wander around with a map on your own.  Just wear comfy shoes – this place is huge!

One of the views of Manhattan from the Brooklyn Grange in the Brooklyn Navy Yard

NYC’s Summer Rooftop Culture Explosion

In the last few days, I’ve been to a “Rooftop Reading Series,” “Poetry from the Rooftops” and a full-production play, “Slowgirl,” at the fabulous new LCT3 Claire Tow Theater, which was built on the roof of the Beaumont Theater.

View from the green roof of the Claire Tow Theater overlooking Lincoln Center

The Rooftop Reading Series was above the 5^th floor of a building near the corner of 23^rdStreet and Fifth Avenue.  During the five short play readings, which happened to be excellent, a hundred or so spectators had close-up views of splendid architectural detail from the beloved Flatiron building, plus a bonus of terrific views of the Met Life buildings in Madison Square Park.

First Annual Rooftop Reading Series on 23rd Street near 5th Avenue

Poetry from the Rooftops 2012, an annual series, is taking place in one of the gorgeous roof gardens atop the Arsenal at E. 64^thStreet and Fifth Avenue.  There is one more reading scheduled for this year so put it on your calendar:  September 13 at 6:30 p.m.  I’d suggest you get there early as the rooftop capacity is only 115 souls.  Three poets selected by the Academy of American Poets read their works while the audience sips complementary wine from plastic cups.  When I attended in July, the poetry was graphic and overtly sexual; last night it was political and sentimental.  Who knows what the September reading will bring.  Come with an open mind and enjoy the views over Central Park and Fifth Avenue.

Ariana Reines at Poetry from the Rooftops 2012

Finally, I’m thrilled to tell you about the brand-new Claire Tow Theater in Lincoln Center.  This 112-seat rooftop venue, where every ticket is $20, is state-of-the-art, plus it has a gorgeous outdoor deck and sedum green roof where you can enjoy drinks and snacks (that are less expensive than at other Lincoln Center venues) before and after the play.  I strongly recommend going early and staying late, especially if you have perfect weather as I did the night I went.  At the moment, the only way to get to this amazing roof deck that overlooks the Henry Moore sculpture and the green roof atop the Lincoln Restaurant as well as Avery Fisher Hall and the rest of Lincoln Center, is with a ticket in hand for that evening’s performance.  Lincoln Center is reportedly working with the Fire Marshall to figure out a way to make this beautiful roof space open to the public so it can be enjoyed for more than just a few hours a week by such a small number of people.

View from the green roof of the Claire Tow Theater overlooking Lincoln Center

Locavores’ Delight Coming to Gowanus in Summer 2013

Trading carbon monoxide fumes for oxygen-producing, edible plants, Whole Foods Corporation, the world’s largest retailer of natural and organic foods, is building its first greenhouse-topped grocery store in Gowanus, Brooklyn.  Scheduled to open during Summer 2013, what was originally planned in 2006 to be a rooftop parking lot on top of a grocery store has morphed into a 20,000 square foot rooftop greenhouse that will supply the Whole Foods Market below with the absolute freshest food possible.

Architectural rendering for Whole Foods in Gowanus, Brooklyn at 3rd Avenue and 3rd Street

According to a Whole Foods Market spokesperson, “Much of the controlled environment hydroponic growing system will concentrate on a variety of lettuces and basil with a smaller section dedicated to vine crops – a variety of tomatoes and perhaps cucumbers.”

Whole Foods is the second New York City retail grocery store to have a rooftop greenhouse.  Eli Zabar, New York City’s original commercial rooftop farmer began this in the 1990s above his Manhattan store, The Vinegar Factory.  Across the East River, nearly 20 years later, micro greens, lettuces, tomatoes and basil that have never been transported in an exhaust-spewing truck or rail car, will be available for sale, year-round, grown above land that was once so polluted that the EPA designated it a Superfund site.  Whole Foods Market in Gowanus will emulate Mr. Zabar’s innovative rooftop greenhouse idea, giving eco-conscious Brooklyn’s rapidly growing locavore community something delicious to celebrate.

Although Whole Foods broke ground in formerly industrial Gowanus, Brooklyn on this “Brownfield Cleanup Program” site six years ago, preparation to lay the concrete foundation has just begun this week, after a multi-year struggle for the company to be awarded a zoning variance.  Whole Foods agreed to many tweaks in the original design, including reducing the square footage of the grocery store and parking lot by 25% and modifying the original design from including a rooftop parking lot to sporting an attractive, environmentally-sound greenhouse that will grow produce to be sold in the store below.