The city’s largest green roof on a residential building, at 14,000 square feet, opens today at Zeckendorf Towers in Union Square.
Green roofs help absorb storm water so it doesn’t flood the sewers, and can also temper heat absorption from sunlight.
New York City has a huge problem with combined sewer overflows, when storm water during a rain or snowstorm floods the city’s old sewer system and combines with sewage. Every year, 20 billion gallons of rainwater mixed with sewage, plus trash from the streets, is dumped into the Hudson and East rivers, said Josh Verleun of clean-water advocate Riverkeeper.
The largest green roof in the city is the United States Postal Service’s Morgan mail processing center, a 2.5-acre roof in midtown.
