Multilevel roofs atop Broadway Stages at 520 Kingsland Avenue are now bedecked in indigenous wildflower splendor and paved pathways so visitors do not trod on the Tickseed, Beebalm, Hyssop-leaf Thoroughwort, wild strawberries, and October Skies asters (among others). Then there is the view – the New York cityscape, the silver digester eggs of the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, and the somewhat untouched industrial district along the Brooklyn/Queens border fill the 360˚ surroundings.
Many hands brought a green thumb to this series of green roofs named Kingsland Wildflowers. Marni Majorelle, for one, is a green roof specialist, gardener, biology conservationist, and founder of Alive Structures. She enacted the vision, which began as an idea in 2015, plant by plant to drainage infrastructure. Resulting in Phase 1: the present 10,000 sq. ft. portion of roof tops that are a growing wildflower meadow.
520 Kingsland Avenue is the home to Broadway Stages and another important player in this project. Tony Argento, founder of Broadway Stages, is an enthusiastic spokesperson for the project and in addition to offering his rooftops he has given significant monetary support. He was eager to welcome the community to come up and see the meadow on his roof.
Newtown Creek Alliance, New York City Audubon, and the Greenpoint Community Environmental Fund are also partners in the project. Phase 2 of the project will begin in the spring of 2017. It will expand rooftop flora another 10,000 sq. ft.
The Greenline 