Chicago

Chicago has taken a huge step forward to market itself at Americas 'greenest city'. It has certainly put its money where its mouth is.

Apart from Millennium Park, which is one of Americas biggest green roofs, yes it was 8 years late and did have massive cost blow outs but now the people of Chicago are very proud of this fabulous facility.

The entire park is built over a car park on an old brown fields site. With the vision of Chicago's Mayor Daley the park is what it is today, attracting millions of visitors a year. The park is home to Frank Gehrys Pritzker Music Pavilion and British artist Anish Kapoor's "Cloud Gate". There are numerous other pieces of sculpture and different landscape elements through the park. The landscaping is superb and its hard to believe it's only 4 years old.

Chicago has implemented a large number of green roofs in a number of their public spaces. These are supported by information panels aimed at educating the general public.

A small, but well informed green roof has been installed onto of the Flamingo enclosure at the Lincoln Park Zoo. This is an extensive green roof and at this time of the year looks a little uninspiring, as does the extensive green roof on all of the horizontal roof areas at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. Extensive green roofs cover the entire building with all small visible roof areas supporting green roofs accompanied by informative and interactive displays.

Private business's are also joining the green roof push. The Apple store has an extensive green roof, I am hoping to get access, they cancelled my visit due to meetings. One of the down town McDonald's also has a green roof. One of the biggest issues, especially with extensive green roofs, is that you can walk past every day of your life and have no idea that it's there as they are rarely visable from the street.