The second growing season is in full swing for the rooftop urban farmers at Brooklyn Grange. Located atop a six-story 1919 warehouse, the 40,000 square foot organic rooftop farm is believe to be the largest of its kind in the world!

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If you were thinking that the one thing missing from the High Line is a lot full of crazy giant bouncy castle-like creatures, today is your lucky day. To celebrate the opening of Section 2 of the High Line, the parking lot below the elevated park at 30th Street has been transformed into a weird and wacky wonderland full of giant colorful balloon creatures. Miami-based art collective FriendsWithYou, in partnership with AOL, opened "Rainbow City" last month in honor of the ever growing High Line. For the month of June, Rainbow City will transform the usually grim location into a 16,000 square foot playground. The best part? It's designed for interaction, so you can touch and move anything you like. But hurry -- today is the last day for the candy-colored world! Hit the jump to see the surreal playland for yourself!

 

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Urban agriculture has taken off in a big way over the last couple of years, and this year seems to be the best yet, with first harvests from newcomers at the Battery Conservancy’s turkey-shaped farm and Gotham Greens’ hydroponic greenhouse. With continued stellar production from Brooklyn Grange, Added Value, and Tenth Acre Farms, New Yorkers are definitely in for a treat this summer. Each of the five farms has something unique to offer but they are all committed to the same thing: making healthy, local food readily available for all New Yorkers.

 

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The Pratt Institute for Design is known for its phenomenal furniture design students as well as architects, artists, graphic designers, but for trash can designers? Yes, that’s right, recent graduate Nicole Howell turned her ‘Toss With Care’ trash can design thesis project into a full on mission to better understand homelessness in New York City, and along the way, she became fascinated with trash divers. Her project, Toss with Care, which developed out of her initial experiment the (trash)poline, was design to not only act as a traditional trash receptacle, but also a recycling can and a place for edible leftovers for street dwellers in search of food.

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The future of two of the world’s greatest cities is on display at Center for Architecture in New York, in collaboration with Amsterdam Center for Architecture (ARCAM). Amsterdam and New York City have a long history (after all NYC once donned the name New Amsterdam), and while each city is distinctly unique, both face the question of what their urban landscapes will look like come 2040. “Glimpses of New York and Amsterdam in 2040” is an exhibition of ten ‘glimpses’ of the urban future addressing issues of a changing environment, recycling and sustainability, waterfront development, and a variety of social concerns with a focus on the five necessities for living: breathing, eating, making, moving and dwelling.

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It’s no secret that we love urban farming and green roofs, and while there are plenty of well-known benefits to greening up roof tops, there is still a lot that is misunderstood. Seeing Green: The Value of Urban Farms has set out on a research mission to better understand the stormwater management benefits of urban rooftop farms. Using two farms in New York City — Brooklyn Grange (a rooftop) and Added Value (raised beds) — Erik Facteau and Tyler Caruso of Seeing Green plan to study all aspects of the two different farms in order to provide the first ever scientific research that will support and validate urban agriculture. The year-long research project is about to get underway to prove that urban farms, particularly those on rooftops, have way more benefits than we think.

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Farmers’ markets are one of the best ways to get fresh and local produce while supporting the local economy, but they’re mostly on the weekends, in parks, and are rarely held during the cold winter months. But what if you could get that same fresh local produce but at your neighborhood grocery store year round? New York City based BrightFarms is about to make that possible using hydroponic technology to grow produce right on the top of grocery stores! The whole concept came about in response to the alarming fact that the percentage of each dollar we spend on food that actually goes towards our food production process has been steadily declining for decades. Instead, we’re spending our money on rising oil and transportation costs.

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Biking has steadily become an alternative mode of transportation in NYC, but it has been an uphill battle that takes one step forward followed by two steps back. There are plenty of reasons why opposition against bikes is so strong in the city, but overall the fight against sustainable transportation is unwarranted and backed mostly by opinion. This past weekend the New York Times jumped on the bandwagon and speculated that NYC’s proposed bike share program has no chance at succeeding – yet this came with no actual facts or research. The reporter quotes no transportation planners or experts, and instead relies on local residents’ apprehensive feelings.

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With spring in full swing, local fresh produce is available all over the city and Gotham Greens, a new comer to the urban agricultural movement, will have its first harvest this month which will help contribute to a healthier and more sustainable city. Founders Viraj Puri, formerly of environmental engineering firm NY Sun Works, and Eric Haley joined forces back in 2008 with a shared goal of providing local chefs and retailers with high quality, sustainable ingredients. Greenhouse expert Jenn Nelkin joined the team in 2009 to help make this goal a reality and would allow for the growing process to take place in the city, placing a strong an emphasis on local goods for local businesses.

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Businesses all over the place are jumping on the go-green-wagon and with Birdbath Neighborhood Green Bakery leading the pack, the little sister of City Bakery is helping to transform New York City’s foody culture one homemade cookie at a time. The yummy sweet treats are baked in Birdbath’s East Village location and delivered via bicycle-powered rickshaws to the three other locations in southern Manhattan. All the locations use renewable wind-energy to power up and make every effort to use recycled, vintage or original materials to create cozy spaces that offer organic and local goods in addition to their homemade soups, sandwiches and of course, baked goods.

 

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You know all that energy you use while dancing up a storm at a concert? What if you could take that energy and help power the show? Pedal Power NYC has decided that there’s no need to wonder what if any longer. Using stationary bicycles and volunteers looking to put their legs to some use, Pedal Power NYC is able to power up some awesome concerts that are completely off the grid with The Natural Ass Session, a fantastic idea that merges natural, renewable energy (just add some food and water) with awesome music. They are currently seeking volunteers to help power the city’s first bike-powered concert series happening on June 26.

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Austrian architect Chris Precht of Prechteck has proposed a radical revision of New York’s skyline that takes the form of a city in the sky above Manhattan’s southern skyscrapers. Dubbed NYBILLBOARD, the structure would add a new horizontal layer that links existing and proposed towers above the hustle and bustle of downtown. Precht’s design addresses the issue of the world’s growing population by offering a new way to provide vertical density without isolating city dwellers. The mixed use structure offers more than just offices and apartments – it is an elevated oasis filled with activity, including extensive pedestrian walkways, large elevated gardens and even bike lanes!

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New York Sun Works, a non-profit dedicated to bringing sustainability and environmental science to New York City schools, plans to develop 100 innovative science labs in NYC schools. This past fall, NY Sun Works teamed up with Manhattan School for Children (P.S. 333) on the Upper West Side to launch the pilot project The Sun Works Center for Environmental Studies, also known as The Greenhouse Project, an interactive greenhouse located atop the public school. Designed by Kiss + Cathcart, the greenhouse has been an unique experience for the students and has generated some serious buzz. NY Sun Works recently invited us to take a tour of the urban agricultural oasis, so hit the jump for an exclusive look inside!

 

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You’ve probably noticed that nearly every roof in New York City is flat, but do you know why? The roofs were designed this way to allow for additional floors to be added as the city expanded, and New Yorkers have taken advantage of the flat space in an endless amount of ways. We recently exposed some of NYC’s hidden rooftop homes, and students from the City College in NYC have taken a page from the same book with their design for this Solar Roof Pod. The structure, which they entered in this year’s U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon, turns underutilized roof tops into prime real estate for the self-sufficient solar home.

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Long Island City is about to step a bit more into the future. SuckerPUNCH, a site dedicated to bringing designs that are innovated, quirky, and pack a punch to the forefront of creative world, launched the Long Island Cinema Competition and recently awarded Iranian architecture firm Afsarmanesh Architects with the best in show for their unique design that puts the theater go-er at the center of the movie experience.

 

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Water is one of the most fantastic and essential resource this plant has to offer and New York City is beginning to better understand water’s urban benefits, especially in the fight to clean-up its waterways. Back in 2008, ConEdison, NYC’s electric company, teamed up with Columbia University’s Climate Center at the Earth Institute to construct a green roof atop ConEd’s Long Island City building in Queens in order to study the benefits that green roofs offer. In addition to reinforcing the well-known fact that green roofs help reduce the heat island effect, the research team discovered that the green roof retained 22 percent more water than originally suspected and cost very little to maintain.

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New York City has really been working hard to turn its infamous concrete jungle image into something greener and more sustainable. Last month, updates to PlaNYC 2030 were released with some pretty substantial goals set for 2013, including increased public transportation and more pedestrian and bike-friendly roads. Community Board 7, located in Manhattan’s Upper West Side, would like to take the city’s green efforts a step further by reclaiming park space in the name of, well, parks. Backed by City Councilwoman Gale Brewer, a new bill would keep cars out of Central Park, as well as Prospect Park in Brooklyn. The Community Board hopes to place a temporary test ban on cars this July through November.

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This year’s Festival of Ideas featured Audi’s Urban Future Initiative, which took on the heady task of discussing how to ‘green’ New York City through various architectural methods. The overall manifesto brought NYC to a more natural and self-aware state, including returning Manhattan to a feral landscape, allowing the inner wild diversity of its inhabitants and nature to come together and create spaces that are productive, delightful, and unpredictable. Five young New York-based architecture firms contributed to the Urban Future exhibit, curated by Architizer, with each firm focusing on a specific portion on Manhattan.

 

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As we move further and further from our traditional agricultural ways we find ourselves surrounded by underused farming materials, especially barns. After The Barn is taking the once beautiful pastoral structures that are on the verge of collapse and transforming them into brilliant pieces of furniture. The company,  a father-son duo and a young furniture builder from Campbell hall, a small town 70 miles north of New York City in Orange County, NY, travel around New York helping to properly, and painstakingly, dismantle historic barns and give a second life to the barn wood.  The end result is handcrafted one-of-a-kind solid furniture that founder Bob Staab views as the company’s way of recycling a part of American history.

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This year’s Designers and Agents Fall II/Holiday ’11 showroom is filled with stunning designs from some of the most eco-friendly artists and plenty of new and emerging talent to go around. The space, Hudson Studios in Manhattan along the Hudson River, is decorated beautifully with fresh bright flowers, and of course beautiful clothing and accessories, making it feel like spring was all around. The center piece of the designed space was Emily Remensperger’s repurposed art that added to the bright spring atmosphere with subtle pops of color. As a Masters of Art Education candidate approaching graduation at the Pratt Institute of Design in Brooklyn, Remensperger has worked with D&A since 2004 helping to bring life their showrooms in New York, Los Angeles and Paris.

 

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In New York City, we love architecture and we love the finest foods, but how to make them one? Enter Coolhaus. Starting out small in Los Angeles, Coolhaus has finally arrived to NYC and it’s just what we’ve has been waiting for – an ice cream truck that blends organic deliciousness with some of the greatest architects out there. Playing off of Rem Koolhaas’ name, Coolhaus co-founders Natasha and Freya have come a long way since their humble beginnings in Freya’s mom kitchen back in 2008. The team now has two trucks and a store in L.A., as well as a truck in Austin, so it seemed only natural for them to finally try their hand at NYC’s very competitive street food market.

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The weekend weather forecast for New York shows sunshine and high 60s, so what better way to spend it than outside enjoying nature? This Saturday and Sunday, April 30th and May 1st, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) is hosting one of the most popular and gorgeous events of the year: the 30th Annual Sakura Matsuri Festival! The festival is the culmination of the four weeks of Hanami, the Japanese cultural tradition of viewing and cherishing the beautiful cherry blossom season. The weekend will be dedicated to celebrating traditional and contemporary Japanese culture and there will be something for all ages. According to the cherry blossom map, most of the garden’s trees are in peak bloom, so this is definitely an event that you don’t want to miss!

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Ever imagine what New York City will look like 20 years from now? Well, as part of the upcoming Festival of Ideas for the New City, the Audi Urban Future Initiative will contribute an exhibition exploring just that. An interactive model of Manhattan will be the focus of the exhibition structured around helping us image what the greatest city in the world will look like in 2030.  Five up-and-coming architects and firms were chosen to contribute their award-winning ideas to the 50-foot long model of the city after their concepts were presented last year at the 2010 Audi Urban Future Award in Venice, Italy.

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Ecologically aware architecture is a wonderful feat in itself, but when teamed up with those looking to improve communities, it’s exactly the type of collaboration that we can’t get enough of. Last February Super-Interesting!, a sustainable New York architecture firm, paired up with the Red Hook Initiative (RHI) to retrofit a 3,000 square foot Brooklyn warehouse to be the new headquarters of RHI, a local community group that works with kids and young adults.

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Normal Projects create a spacious and efficient Upper West Side apartment out of just 450 square feet.

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