Gardens Flourish on Top of City Busses
February 1, 2011
Bus Roots is a living garden planted on the roofs of city buses. It’s an effort that rose out of New York City designer Marco Antonio Castro Cosio’s graduate thesis at the NYU. The project aims to reclaim the forgotten space on the tops of city buses, while enhancing the quality of urban life by proliferating green spaces on these unused bus roofs. A prototype of the rolling gardens has been installed on the roof of the BioBus, a mobile science laboratory and the first bus with an extensive green roof system. It has been growing for five months while travelling around New York City and as far as Ohio.
Bus Roots joins the ranks of mobile gardens planted on trucks, trains, and other roving sites. Cosio explains his project as an exercise in “nomadic urban agriculture.”
Benefits
According to the bustop gardener, benefits include:
• Aesthetic Value
• Mitigation of Urban Heat Island Effect
• Acoustical and Thermal Insulation
• Storm Water Reduction and Management
• CO2 absorbtion
• Habitat Restoration
• Public Education and Recreation
• Reclaiming Forgotten Real Estate
Raising the Roots
Cosio estimates Bus Roots can add greatly to the city’s green space. Each public transit bus has a surface of 340 ft2., and The Metropolitan Transit Authority has a fleet of around 4,500 buses. Do the math.
“If a garden were planted on the roof of every one of the 4,500 buses in the city’s bus fleet,” calculates Cosio, his busses could add 35 acres of new rolling green space in the city.
For more info or to support the project, contact the designer.
Category: Green & Sustainable, Green Roofs, Greening
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Tweets that mention Gardens Flourish on Top of City Busses | Urban Gardens | Unlimited Thinking For Limited Spaces -- Topsy.com Pingback said:
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Urban Gardens, Urban Gardens and Lilian Voshaar, Ellen Sousa. Ellen Sousa said: Wow! Gardens flourish on top of NYC Busses: http://bit.ly/fpVkdz RT @urbangardens [...]
— February 1, 2011 @ 1:39 pm
habitat restoration! hahaha
any idea of the reduction in fuel efficiency due to the added weight?
— February 1, 2011 @ 1:59 pm
How about solar panels on the roof to power the bus? I wonder if the bus could digest the plants and fuel themselves that way…
— February 1, 2011 @ 10:18 pm
Everything thats green is not green. A pretty strange idea, there must be millions of places to make green that would have a grater benificiary effect than plants on a busroof. It feels like people make a knot on them self trying to find new ways of being sustainable instead of implementing the systems availiable. But I guess everything is about making debate, lifting issues. It made me laugh and then be bit angry, so I guess its a success. thanks for a great blog by the way. a lot of nice reading!
— February 2, 2011 @ 4:43 am
I love it! I especially love the succulents. My 10 year old son just said “that looks like a rock garden”! He goes with me to all kinds of gardens and nurseries, and last spring on a visit to the NYBG he especially loved the rock gardens there (amazing and if you ever get to visit, check them out). We came home and created four mini rock gardens in pots. He is a huge succulent fan now, as am I! thanks for so many engaging posts on your blog.
— February 2, 2011 @ 9:28 am
This is a great use of wasted space. I would love to peer down from my apartment window (if I lived in one) to see all the driving roof top gardens atop busses.
— February 2, 2011 @ 12:02 pm
I think it’s classic just shows how easy it is to grow : ) Great share Annie
— February 2, 2011 @ 12:46 pm
So many weighing in here with different opinions, that’s what I love about blogging! I see some of you feel the rooftop would be better used for solar panels and others feel that the added weight impacts the fuel use…it’s a great discussion, lets keep the dialog going.
— February 2, 2011 @ 1:43 pm
What do you think they did to protect the bus top gardens in the ice storm today?
— February 2, 2011 @ 3:56 pm
It’s an interesting idea and now I’m thinking about places I don’t expect to see plants and gardens. Thanks!
— February 3, 2011 @ 12:54 pm
Win a Lechuza Self-Watering Container:<br />Enter Our Think Outside the Planter Box Photo Contest! | Urban Gardens | Unlimited Thinking For Limited Spaces Pingback said:
[...] planted gardens that will transport you, literally and figuratively–cars, trucks, trains, and busses. Got an old claw-foot bathtub that has outlived its indoor life? Move it to the yard or patio and [...]
— March 18, 2011 @ 11:56 am
NY: City Bus Gardens « the urban field guide Pingback said:
[...] this living roof on city busses project by Marco Antonio Castro Cosio. For the full article, go here. But I have to point out his inspiring dream of turning all the city busses in NY into rolling green [...]
— March 28, 2011 @ 3:09 pm
Green Walls – Green Busses | Plantworks Inc Pingback said:
[...] Gardens Flourish on Top of City Busses [...]
— June 11, 2011 @ 1:41 pm
in my other life « the paris apartment Pingback said:
[...] urbangardensweb.com [...]
— June 30, 2011 @ 11:41 pm
>>>What do you think they did to protect the bus top gardens in the ice storm today?>>>
Parked it under a bridge, and went and got beer?
— August 25, 2011 @ 3:00 am
That’s a possibility!
— August 25, 2011 @ 6:23 pm
“Community gardens flourish in down economy
MAPLEWOOD, Minn. — More and more Minnesota families are turning to growing their own food in order to help offset an ever-tightening budget.
“”A packet of seeds can produce pounds of green beans, whereas in the grocery store it would be a lot more money than that. So I think saving money is a huge piece, especially for families that are having a little bit tougher times,”" said Amanda Loge with the Harvest Gardens in Maplewood.
First Evangelical Free Church of Maplewood started the Harvest Gardens back in 2009. Since that time, those choosing to garden on the 16 acre-section of land has grown — from 150 gardeners the first year to nearly 500 this year.
“”The idea of… growing local food, and just establishing your own garden space has really gotten more popular over the last few years,”" Loge said.
Of the gardeners at Harvest Gardens, nearly 50 are also refugees from Burma.
“”I can support my family,”" said Ti Moo, about his decision to come to Harvest Gardens, adding that it also gives him an opportunity to grow vegetables his family once enjoyed in their native country..”
— October 10, 2011 @ 3:53 am