Green Roofs

City Hall Rooftop Garden

In 2001, a 20,300 square-foot green roof was installed atop Chicago’s City Hall as part of Mayor Daley’s Urban Heat Island Initiative. The Urban Heat Island Effect describes the higher overall temperatures caused by heat trapped and given off by pavement and buildings in dense urban environments. When compared to an adjacent normal roof, City Hall’s green roof was nearly 100 degrees lower, and contributed to $5,000 in annual energy cost reduction, in addition to improving air quality and reducing stormwater runoff. As of Fall 2010, Chicago has 359 green roofs that are built, totaling 5.5 million square feet.

Millennium Park and Soldier Field

Some of Chicago’s largest green roofs are outdoor green spaces built over underground structures.  One example is Millennium Park, an award-winning outdoor center for art, music, architecture and landscape design located in the heart of downtown Chicago. This 24.5-acre public park features the work of world-renowned architects, planners, artists and designers, and is built entirely over two underground parking garages and active commuter rail lines, making it the one of the world’s largest parks built over a structure.  Similarly, the park atop the north underground parking garage at Soldier Field, and a small part of the stadium itself, are considered a green roof. Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears football team, was the recipient of a Green Roofs for Healthy Cities Award of Excellence in 2004.

Rooftop Beehives

The green roofs on Chicago’s municipal buildings, like the Chicago Cultural Center and City Hall, contribute more than just energy cost reduction and improved air quality – they are also home to Chicago’s very own beehives! These bees keep themselves busy throughout the spring, summer and fall pollinating flowers, fruit trees and vegetable gardens all over the city. The City’s “rooftop” honey is bottled and sold at Chicago’s Downtown Farmstand and the Shop at the Cultural Center.  A local restaurant, Uncommon Ground, also produces honey on their own rooftop farm that supplies the kitchen with organic produce.

Visiting Chicago's Green Roofs

The majority of Chicago’s green roofs are located atop private buildings, like the Apple Store on Michigan Avenue, or the Essex Inn hotel, and are therefore off limits to the general public, but visitors are encouraged to tour the green roof at the Chicago Center for Green Technology, the first rehabilitated municipal building in the nation to receive the LEED™ Platinum rating by the U.S. Green Building Council. Guided tours are available for groups of ten or more, and more information is available here. 

The green sidebar at the top right of this page lists the other Chicago green roofs that are publicly accessible.  Other green roofs may still be seen, even if visitors cannot walk on or through them.  For example, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum's rooftop garden is visible from several vantage points around the museum. 

Sharp-eyed riders of the southbound CTA Red and Purple Lines may also notice two colorful green roofs as the train pulls out of the Wilson station.  Look to the left to see the green roof installed on an the Aldi supermarket at 4450 N. Broadway Ave., and to the right for a view of the green roof atop a CTA maintenance building.

Visitor Tips

 
There are many ways visitors can help Chicago become even more of a Green city. We offer five simple tips that anyone can use to reduce their impact on the environment, and five Green things to do while having fun in Chicago.