For many, traveling to a city park takes a 1/2 hour or longer to embrace nature; walking up a flight of stairs or out their side door to a shared or private roof garden designed and built by their landscape designer is but seconds away and “immediately gratifying.” A place to look at and admire the blue skies at day and heavens at night. It is a place to relax and re-energize, a place to reflect and even to pray. We enjoy company and serve them meals below the heavens; illuminate our garden space with lights and torches for ambiance at dusk.
As a NYC garden designer creating roof gardens I can attest that the value and benefits of a roofing akron design is much more than aesthetics and increased real estate value. Here are ten economic and technical benefits to a roof garden:
1. Enhanced value
The most obvious advantage of a roof garden is as a valuable amenity that enhances the worth of the structure it occupies for a relatively modest expenditure. A roof garden substantially enhances re-sale or rental values. It raises property values. It is additional or reclaimed usable space. A bonus is the ability to gain promotion and marketing benefits via a green roof.
2. Increased Life Expectancy of the Roof
One of the great benefits of roof gardens and green roofs is that, by protecting the underlying roof covering, they extend the life of the existing roof fabric by up to 200%. A green roof protects the roof membrane from climatic extremes and physical abuse, thereby greatly increasing the life expectancy of the roof.
3. Property Tax Credit Incentives
New York City recently passed a city bylaw that rewards building-owners who cover 50 per cent of available rooftop space with a green roof with a one-year property tax credit of up to $100,000. The credit would be equal to $4.50 per square-foot of roof area that is planted with vegetation, or approximately 25 per cent of the typical costs associated with the materials, labor, installation and design of the green roof. More and more municipalities and other government agencies are providing incentives that can help offset the cost of a green roof.
