Bringing the Community Garden to the Roof… of a Parking Garage
Its been said that if you can’t build out, then build up. This has recently been applied to the UpGarden - the country’s first large scale rooftop community garden. Sitting atop the Mercer Street Parking Garage in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle, the garden is located in one the city’s densest neighborhoods. When completed, the UpGarden will have converted 30,000 square feet of parking structure into approximately 120 plots for the community.
At the center of the design effort is Kistler Higbee Cahoot, a local firm “scheming to build community through art and design.” Their work here will certainly inspire an influx of urban rooftop community gardens in other densely populated areas.
With a rooftop project of this size, weight is always an issue. A way of combatting this problem, a light-weight soil mix was used as well as terraced planters with varying depths. First harvest is expected sometime later this summer.
Home may be where the heart is, but in this case, its where the garden is! For more information about the project and related stories, please follow the links below.