EcoHeroes: Weiss Memorial Rooftop Farm Community

Garden Vegetables
Barn Images / Flickr
Garden Vegetables
Barn Images / Flickr

EcoHeroes: Weiss Memorial Rooftop Farm Community

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When he was 11 years old, David Tapper received an award from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to work on environmental justice. His focus was on how green roofs negate some of the bad environmental impacts of urban living by how they clean and cool the air in urban heat zones. 

Tapper’s project would eventually lead him to farm his own space with a green roof farming community on top of the parking garage of Chicago’s Weiss Memorial Hospital. The collective is comprised of neighborhood residents and community organizations. The urban farm also has a chicken coop, greenhouse, rainwater collection barrels and composting. 

Tapper and his mother, urban agriculture advocate, Carolyn Bronstein, tell us how the Weiss Memorial Hospital Rooftop Farm hopes to transform Chicago’s rooftops.