By Christina Jelski
Photograph by Roy Gumpel
Atop 250 Hudson Street, tenants of the newly-renovated office building have discovered a new haven from hectic schedules and cluttered desks. High above the noisy city streets, an ecofriendly rooftop garden provides a space for employees to escape, relax, or socialize, and a chance to enjoy stunning views of the Hudson River and the New Jersey skyline.
Completed in May, 250 Hudson Street’s garden is both subtle and sophisticated, with dark gray pavement and low, flowering greenery punctuated by tall bushes and a few freshly-planted trees. A wooden, Zen-inspired pergola provides dappled shade, and matching wooden tables and chairs create areas to lounge or have lunch. The rooftop garden also includes a separate, partitioned area for the public relations agency Daniel J. Edelman, Inc., the building’s top floor tenants.
“We wanted to find a balance between creating an accessible area for repose, but also create a space large enough for gatherings and events,” says Bruce Fowle, senior partner at architectural firm FXFowle, designers of 250 Hudson Street. “At the same time we wanted to create a sense of natural environment, bringing urban life back to nature.”
Owned and developed by Jack Resnick & Sons, 250 Hudson Street’s rooftop space was designed by FXFowle in coordination with A-Squared Architects and Plant Fantasies, Inc., a Manhattan-based landscaping and gardening service. Originally a printing facility built in the 1930s, the $30 million redevelopment has transformed the building into modern, Class A office space.
“The building hadn’t been touched in decades,” says Jonathan D. Resnick, president of Jack Resnick & Sons. “Before the renovation, it still had features such as freight cars and loading berths, and it was mainly built to house equipment, not people.” Along with the rooftop garden, the building now boasts state-of-the-art heating and electrical systems, updated bathrooms and elevators, and new retail spaces.
More than just an enjoyable amenity for the building, however, 250 Hudson Street’s rooftop garden also provides several ecological benefits, including storm water retention. Storm water surges are an important issue in urban areas like New York City, where a heavy downpour can cause sanitary water and storm water runoff to combine.
“Normally, the sanitary water goes through a filter, which is deposited back into the river. But when there is a storm surge, it will overflow, so it pushes the water back into the river without being treated,” explains Fowle. “If every roof in the city was green, we could reduce the surge by at least 40 percent. There’s a major push in New York City to encourage this, as well as cities around the country.”
The construction is also ecofriendly, says Scott Melching, FXFowle project architect, because it has been built with black locust wood forested sustainably “within an hour commute of the city.”
Another environmental issue that the garden addresses is heat island effect, which is created by concrete roofs radiating throughout the night all the heat that has been absorbed during the day. As a result, the city’s ambient temperature is affected, creating an increased need for air conditioning. A rooftop garden, however, controls building temperature and functions as an insulator.
“A while ago, there was a big push to paint roofs white in New York City,” says Resnick. “But a white roof is not nearly as effective against heat island effect as a roof garden, and it certainly can’t help absorb storm water.”
And as with any garden, 250 Hudson Street’s rooftop also provides a new, natural habitat for fauna. “Rooftop gardens do omit oxygen into the air, and they attract bees and birds, so they help those populations by offering berries and flowers,” says Teresa Carleo, president of Plant Fantasies, which specializes in both commercial and residential buildings. “They help balance out the ecosystem, and of course, they are beautiful.”
But while 250 Hudson Street’s rooftop garden already looks like an urban Eden, its creation wasn’t without challenges. Many rooftops lack access to stairways or elevators, or are unable to withstand additional weight, say Resnick and Fowle, and 250 Hudson Street was no exception.
“In some cases, as in the case of 250 Hudson, the structure was not adequate,” says Fowle. “But we were fortunate in that we could add a new a new structural slab, which is not always easy.”
Structure modifications were also necessary because Resnick wanted to create an intensive roof garden as an amenity, not just an extensive green roof. While both offer environmental benefits, an extensive roof requires only a thin layer of engineered soil and provides no tenant access. This type of roof only uses succulent plants, such as grasses, which hold their own water and once established, do not require maintenance. 250 Hudson Street, however, needed a rooftop open for tenant access and the garden aspect demanded eight to 24 inches of soil to allow for trees and deep-rooted plants.
FXFowle also had to address the issue of masking the three-story bulkhead, which was too “wide and tall” for the space, claims Fowle. “There were elements we certainly wanted to shield or keep the eye away from. It’s like creating a stage set, where you don’t see everything behind the curtain.” The pergola was utilized to create “vertical definition” and reinforce “the beautiful horizontal expanse of view,” says Fowle, while wire trellis allows climbing ivy to camouflage the bulkhead walls.
Like the architects, the design team at Plant Fantasies, which specializes in commercial and residential buildings, had to come up with unique solutions when designing the rooftop garden. “Our inspiration was to have a prairie-like aspect to it, and we wanted to use native species,” says Carleo, who began her 23-year career taking care of plants in office buildings. “We also needed to use plant material that is able to sustain the sun and the wind. The elements can be really heavy and intense on a rooftop, and it can also get very dry.”
An irrigation system keeps the garden moist and growing, but just like any garden, 250 Hudson Street’s rooftop requires weekly maintenance, such as weeding, pruning, and removing dead blossoms.
But Resnick believes that these construction and design challenges will pay off, and he knows that his tenants appreciate the space. “We signed some tenants prior to the garden’s finish and they were very excited to see it completed,” he says. “They love it, and it’s open all day for meetings and interviews, and can be rented out at night for parties and events.” At press time, the building was 75 percent occupied, with 80,000 square feet still available.
And the greening of Manhattan’s rooftops has only just begun. Resnick is also developing the nearby 315 Hudson Street, where he is exploring the possibility of building another green rooftop, while FXFowle is constructing a seven-acre, extensive green roof atop the Javits Center. Plant Fantasies, meanwhile, is working on another at 510 Madison, and it seems as though green roofs and roof gardens are quickly becoming the status quo in New York City.
“There have not been many commerical office buildings that have done this yet, because tall, skinny buildings are harder to find open spaces on and build upon. But in terms of the rehabbing of existing buildings, we get more and more calls every week because everyone is thinking about it, investigating what they can do,” says Fowle. “But it really enhances the quality of life in an urban environment when people can get out in a green space in their own building. From a marketing point of view, that is going to make rooftop gardens much more common and popular.”
