Understanding Future Uses of Roofspace and Defining An Early Path to Profitable Roof Estate Investing
May 24th, 2011
Via Inhabitat, an interesting look at rooftop housing:
From solar arrays and green roofs to exquisite gardens and massive farms, rooftops in New York City boast a lot more than just air conditioners and water towers. Covering our buildings’ roofs is a hallmark of sustainable building, and in a dense urban landscape like the Big Apple, it also makes total sense for maximizing our space. While green gardens and relaxing sundecks are no-brainers, what about entire houses? More than a few New Yorkers have turned building rooftops into their own private plots. Not only are these abodes a unique twist on green roofs, but they add some unexpected variety to our concrete jungle.
We have long been fans of green prefab houses, and what better place to plop one down than on a rooftop? The sleek LoftCube is a chic and cheerful prefab designed specifically for rooftops. Designed by Werner Aisslinger, the square structure can be transported by helicopter and costs around $60,000 — a total steal for a rooftop apartment in New York City. For something even cheaper, the $2000 prefab Icosa Village Pod has been spotted on a Williamsburg rooftop. The geodesic dome folds into itself and can be easily assembled just about anywhere.
If rooftop prefabs can’t get you excited, what about an A-frame cottage or Cape Cod bungalow? Nick Carr, a film location scout, has documented a handful of fully-built rooftop homes that look like they were picked up in a tornado and accidentally dropped in NYC. On top of an East Village apartment building, there’s an ocean front beach house, complete with a horse weather vane, and between West 77th and West 78th Streets, there is a cute A-frame hidden on top of a building.
Of course, not all rooftop homes are cute and compact. This is New York City, after all, home of the extravagant lifestyle. Carr spotted a full-fledged suburban home — with a chimney! — on top of a 4 story building at 13th Street and 3rd Avenue. The wooden structure spans the entire building and even has a patio. There’s also a gorgeous, glass-walled 3-story house atop an unidentified building that has a deck on its own rooftop. Others have turned building rooftops into whole suburban landscapes, with a house, a yard, and a shed. Hey, why sacrifice city living for suburbia when you can create a better version in the middle of Manhattan?
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Educated at Yale University (Bachelor of Arts - History) and Harvard (Master in Public Policy - International Development), Monty Simus has held a lifelong interest in environmental and conservation issues, primarily as they relate to freshwater scarcity, renewable energy, and national park policy. Working from a water-scarce base in Las Vegas with his wife and son, he is the founder of Water Politics, an organization dedicated to the identification and analysis of geopolitical water issues arising from the world’s growing and vast water deficits, and is also a co-founder of SmartMarkets, an eco-preneurial venture that applies web 2.0 technology and online social networking innovations to motivate energy & water conservation. He previously worked for an independent power producer in Central Asia; co-authored an article appearing in the Summer 2010 issue of the Tulane Environmental Law Journal, titled: “The Water Ethic: The Inexorable Birth Of A Certain Alienable Right”; and authored an article appearing in the inaugural issue of Johns Hopkins University's Global Water Magazine in July 2010 titled: “H2Own: The Water Ethic and an Equitable Market for the Exchange of Individual Water Efficiency Credits.”