Modern Farmer: Brooklyn’s Newest Condo Amenity: Rooftop Agricultural Plots

Dan Nosowitz – Modern Farmer

But here’s one we haven’t seen much of: Rooftop gardens. That’s right: one gigantic new-construction condominium building in the heart of Brooklyn is making urban agriculture a fundamental part of its pitch. 550 Vanderbilt is a huge 278-unit building in what was formerly called, and probably still best known as, the Atlantic Yards, a massive public works project to transform a defunct train terminal into a commercial and residential zone anchored by the Barclays Center, home of the NBA-worst Brooklyn Nets.

“Since day one there was always the idea that we’d be instituting some form of agriculture into the design of the building,” says Brandon Specketer, a senior associate at COOKFOX, the architecture firm that designed the building. “The question was more about how it’d work into the design in a meaningful way.” Because the building is so big, there are plenty of nooks and crannies to tuck fun stuff throughout its 17 stories, and what the designers came up with is a whopping 520 square-foot gardening space on a huge eighth floor terrace.

Read more in the full article, Brooklyn’s Newest Condo Amenity: Rooftop Agricultural Plots, here.