Garden – Shanghai Metal Corporation

When the weather is great and sunny, isn’t it nice to be able to spend your time on a rooftop ? Enjoying the sun, the view and feel that luxury of city living ! The access to a rooftop is very popular and many restaurants, hotels and apartment buildings offer a great place on the rooftop.

Hotel Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

Hotel Banyan Tree (Bangkok)

But this trend hasn’t exist 140 years ago. At that time, rooftop wasn’t viewed as a luxury, it was used by domestic servants to hang out wet laundry and for industrial equipment. The attitude of most residents against rooftop can be said to be awkward and the impulse of most residents was to stay away.

A group of boys play marbles on a New York rooftop as laundry hangs in the background. Date unknown. (Bain News Service/Library of Congress)

This attitude began to change in the 1880s, when Rudolph Aronsin, inspired by European traditional, built a garden on the roof of his Moorish-styled Casino Theatre on Broadway to stage operettas, musicals and concerts. Other theaters took note and roof gardens blossomed in New York. Theater rooftop gardens became a summertime entertainment and offered an exotic and relaxing place for the locales to escape from the din and heat of the city.

A beer garden on top of the Belasco Theatre, ca. the 1880s. (New York Historical Society)

Elevator is an important factor that increase the value of top-floor apartments. It has before lower rents because of the exhaustive climb and proximity to the rooftop service space. Elevator make these quieter, sunnier and with grand views place more easily accessible and therefore more valuable.

Invest in rooftops declined after the war, but we can find some modern architectures that remind us of American’s taste for rooftop garden. With more and more people being aware of sustainability, roof gardens are more and more often built for ecological benefits.

The Chicago City Hall

To help you build your perfect garden roof, Shanghai Metal Corporation can provide you with the necessary materials ! We have rock wool, ideal for growing plants and we accept any challenging construction projects. Please contact us if you need further information, our English speaking staff will be very glad to help you. To be fully updated on our products, follow us on social media.