Trees arrives for Icon Realty's newest roof deck

There was a lot of activity this morning outside 154 Second Ave., Icon Realty's new residential building between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street where rentals range from $4,500 to $9,500.

EVG reader Dan Theisen noted that workers were hoisting some trees and bushes up to the landscaped roof deck…







… roughly right here….



Perhaps this will be a more tranquil rooftop experience. There are reportedly an "endless barrage of rowdy DJ dance parties" on the roof deck at the Icon-owned 205 Avenue A, as the Post put it last August.

Cool for kids: Schools unveiling the new rooftop garden on the Robert Simon Complex

From the EV Grieve inbox...

WHAT: Ribbon-cutting-ceremony for Fifth Street Farm, an innovative new rooftop garden on the East Village’s Robert Simon Complex, home to the Earth School, PS 64, and Tompkins Square Middle School.

WHO: Students, teachers, and parents from the Earth School, PS 64, and Tompkins Square Middle School; architect Michael Arad; supporters of Fifth Street Farm; attorneys from the Community Development Project at the Urban Justice Center; city elected officials including Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, City Council Member Rosie Méndez, and State Senator Daniel Squadron.

WHEN: Friday, October 12, at 1 p.m.

WHERE: Robert Simon Public School Complex, 600 East Sixth Street (at Avenue B)

BACKGROUND: The Fifth Street Farm Project will unveil an innovative, low-cost rooftop garden designed by 9/11 Memorial architect Michael Arad at the Robert Simon Complex in the East Village, home to the Earth School, PS 64, and Tompkins Square Middle School. Working with a limited budget and challenging space, a dedicated group of teachers, parents, students, and community partners spent six years developing plans and gathering funds and permits to build the rooftop garden.

The new 2,400-square-foot rooftop farm will foster a greater awareness and understanding of the natural world, especially the role plants play in the food web, by providing the means for low- and middle-income inner-city schoolchildren to grow, harvest, and eat herbs, vegetables, and fruit. The space can also accommodate study of environmental and natural science, including experimentation with storm-water capture and solar energy.

The Villager wrote about it here back in April 2011.