In the city it is hard to get food that is locally grown. Even with a city like Philadelphia with all of its green space, we are still looking for help from outside farms and co-ops to help us get semi-locally grown and organic food. Jay Last name is a West Philadelphia resident who realized the need to have locally grown food. Two years ago Jay started a personal rooftop garden on his roof deck in West Philadelphia. Having never been a gardener, Jay found that roof top gardening was possible to do without major time commitments and complications. With a great view looking out onto other West Philadelphia row houses he thought other people can do this too.
He recruited some of his friends who are interested in urban agriculture. While they were working on containers for Jay’s rooftop garden, they started talking about rooftop farming, gardening on a larger scale to produce more crops. From these discussions became the premise of PRooF, Philadelphia’s Rooftop Farming and his friends the core members. They imagined a farming initiative that the city could do and embrace. While sitting up on his roof top garden Jay and his friends saw the positive force to be surrounded by nature in an already existing city space. But as the discussions became more detailed, they realized to go from gardening to farming on a large scale every detail needed to be fully thought through.
While gaining momentum from additional PRooF members and holding meetings to discuss details, a member mentioned the CDC, Community Design Collaborative, to get some design assistance from certified landscape architects and engineers. After applying and being accepted by the CDC, the team of architects and engineers became involved in the process of designing planters that could be used on top of Philadelphia row houses.
Through the process of designing the rooftop planters, the CDC design team and PRooF realized that the rooftop farming initiative would have challenges. The row houses aren’t built to contain gardens on the roofs and the city zoning codes and permit laws were not made with the intention of having roof top gardens. But through the process of designing these planters and meeting with city officials, the city has decided to look over zoning and codes to include the idea of rooftop gardens and farms.

The Options: The bridge: series of planters in a row stretched across the roof. the box: singular planter most effective for twin roofs sitting against the party (parting?) wall. Hybrid: mix of bridges and boxes on one roof. Party wall is key for supporting both the boxes and bridges yet will depend on getting neighbor approval for use. The structures can not be permanently fixed to roofs since all the roofs are from volunteers.

The Problems: One main problem is roof access. In order to have the roof top farm, the owner must file for a deck permit. In order to comply with deck permit regulations, there must be a head house or permanent stairs from the lower floor to gain access to the roof. A hatch with a step-ladder or removable stairs will not comply with the code. The solutions to the challenges are finding inventive ways to get around the zoning, codes and permit laws.

The Plan: Now that all of the designing has been completed and information gathered, the next step is to work through problems with a couple of roofs as pilot volunteers. Once the boxes and bridges are used in the farming process the barriers and problems will become more apparent, and can be worked out for the following year. PRooF members will be doing the dirty work, planting, watering and harvesting. Volunteers will be given food as well as to the PRooF members and rest of food is yet to be determined where to go. The extra food will most likely be donated or sold to raise funds. And Jay will be talking to potential funders to help fund roof and box construction. This summer’s crop will determine how much money will be needed to support a roof. As Jay said, “Now it is time to get our hands dirty and make it happen.”