The Fifth Street Farm is a 3,000 sq. ft. green roof project located atop the Robert Simon School Complex in the East Village of Manhattan. The design perches a green deck directly onto the columns below the roof - similar to the way most rooftop mechanical equipment is handled – in order to support the weight of the soil. This required ‘stubbing-up’ a select number of columns from below, as well as designing a pitch pocket waterproofing detail to wrap the base of these short columns, and building a steel framed deck to rest on the columns. The simple and standard deck construction that rests on these columns serves as a foundation for anything from planters to a greenhouse. The system is such that it can be easily replicated in other locations where the roof slabs are not necessarily designed to carry the weight of a farmable green roof.

In addition to providing the many benefits that green roofs offer - mitigating heat island effect, reducing storm water run-off and providing areas of refuge to increase natural bio-diversity - the new farm allows teachers at the school to weave growing and cultivating plants into the curricula of different classes and areas of inquiry, ranging from science to art.