Inspired by the pools at Marble Mines in Colorado and the sod roofs described in novels by Willa Cather and Laura Ingalls Wilder, Dakin imagined a place for people to interact with landscape in novel ways: to sit in the shade under prairies and to experience up-close “belly views” of mountain flora. 

Feathery grasses and wildflowers contrast with concrete architecture and the realities of the Holocaust. Seasonal changes in the roof meadow mark the cycles of the year and the inevitability of Spring.

This residential green roof garden was designed with the client’s specific lifestyle in mind. The client had long dreamed of being able to look out her bedroom window into a life-filled rooftop scene with flowering native plants and grasses frequented by local birds, butterflies and bees.

This green roof prairie garden melds with dramatic views of the syncline mountain beyond. A simulated prairie planted with natives, it echoes the natural prairie foothills behind.

The design of this roof landscape created a combination outdoor living / dining room and park for apartment-dwellers, complete with turf, lounge furnishings, bamboo screens and a teakwood deck. The resulting space is an urban haven.

Native and climate-adapted flowers, shrubs and cacti form miniature gardens bursting with color and life. This project shows that gardens can be brought to urban rooftops, improving the environment for human residents and pollinators alike.