What if Gateway apartments had rooftop gardens?
What would Gateway density be like if every building had a flat roof with outside patio space — and an outdoor garden?
What would that feel like for the tenants?
What message would Arcata be sending to the world — about who we are and what’s important to us?
Top Leaf Farms is an Oakland, California, based group that includes expertise in farming, landscape design, city planning, and architecture. From their website:
“We work on rooftop projects between 500 and 50,000 square feet, and with Agrihoods ranging from a few acres and high density urban, to projects that are thousands of acres and look at broad acre land management practices.”
“We have designed and developed over 70,000 square feet of urban rooftop farming and modular operations as well as working on rural projects that range from 5 to 22,000 acres. We have public partnerships with local non-profits and medical institutions looking at the impacts of our work in changing our relationship to land, food and each other. Our innovative farmer training programs offer 2-4-6 month internships and training in Urban Agriculture Production as well as broad acre land stewardship. We help place people with urban agriculture jobs on the farms that we design.”
Among their taglines are: “We must grow the food we wish to eat in the world” and “It’s only a success if it continues to grow.”
Top Leaf Farms did the design, installation, and first few years of roof garden management for the Garden Village apartments in Berkeley — see Garden Village in Berkeley: Pre-Fab modular housing that could be used for Arcata here on Arcata1.com.
The Garden Village apartments basement includes a farm-related room designed to house a walk-in cooler, washing station, salad greens spinner, and areas for sorting, drying, and processing produce.
Total cost for the onsite farm infrastructure and equipment was $318,000. If that cost is split among 77 units, that is $4,100 per unit, or about $35/month on a ten-year basis. That cost does not account for structural and roof costs required for the building itself, and does not take into the consideration the value of the produce.
If needed, hedgerows can be planted on the perimeter as windbreaks and to attract beneficial insects. The design for the Garden Village included fast-growing, light-weight crops, such as leafy greens and herbs, with an estimated production of 10 tons of food per year.
The Garden Village rooftop garden is now operated by Bluma Flower Farm as a flower garden.
Below are photos from the portfolio of Top Leaf Farms and other sources, put here for our inspiration.
Garden Village
A 77-unit student-orientated apartment building in Berkeley, California.
12,000 sq.ft. rooftop garden — over 1/4 acre of garden. Full parcel size is 0.69 acres.
Project lead architect: RAD Urban Rooftop design: Top Leaf Farms Built: August 2016
Also on Arcata1.com: Garden Village in Berkeley: Pre-Fab modular housing that could be used for Arcata
The Logan Apartments
5110 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, California. 204-unit, mixed-use development of 170,000 square feet built in 2020. Includes a Whole Food store.
Project lead architect: RAD Urban Rooftop design: Top Leaf Farms
25,000 sq.ft rooftop garden — 0.57 acres of garden. Full parcel size is 1.67 acres.
Other rooftop gardens
Videos
NBC Bay Area 2 minutes 28 seconds
Bluma Farms, Top Leaf Farms, Berkeley Food Institute
See also: