Situated in the heart of Brooklyn's dynamic Williamsburg neighborhood, this factory retrofit features a roof garden and courtyard design for its young urbanite residences.

The 3,500 square foot green roof, with its native meadow and prairie plantings, functions as a wildlife habitat and urban way station for migratory birds. Found tree trunk stumps and slices make for an informal stepping path and casual sitting perches.

Spaces for socializing are provided by the other areas of the roof garden. The paved deck on the south side accommodates small gatherings of people who can enjoy the overlooking views, while the northern patio caters to quiet reading and relaxing.

On the ground plane, two courtyards form narrow intervening slices between Hope Street and the building lobby. Conceptual inverses of each other, one courtyard conveys a sense of the natural and found and the other of the alien and emergent. A stepping path of industrial steel grates interlaces plantings that feature prehistoric ferns and mahonia. An elaborate stainless steel cable system extending 80 feet into the air become green tendrils to fill the inner courtyard’s upper regions.