I will never forget my evening walks on Bowen Road in Hong Kong. In a “concrete jungle” that boasts a population of 7.8 million pax filled with sparkling sky scrapers; it never ceased to amaze me that you could be hiking in a tropical rain forrest within 10 minutes of most door steps in this concrete metropolis. One moment you were surrounded by honking red taxis, swirling double decker busses, mini buses, cars and swarms of foot traffic. By simply heading up a trail you could quickly be surrounded by a jungle or trees, vines and foliage, with world class views of the city sky scrapers below.

As I would walk along Bowen Road on my evening walks; I would see hunderest of baren roof tops. Being from Montana with sprawling acerage and outdoors filled with pristine rivers and mountains… I LOVE being outdoors. It blew my MIND that there were empty roof tops when people were on average living in 400-2,000 square foot apartments.

It was incomprehensible to me why people that were lucky enough to be on the top of the building did not utilize they could double their livable square footage by using their roof top. My own roof top was my sanctuary. I do not think I would have lasted 12 years in Hong Kong with our my roof top garden refuge. My apartment was 700 square feet and two bedrooms; which meant I did not have room for a dinner table. My roof top was where I did most of my cooking on my grill; and all of my entertaining. I had enough room for a second outdoor living room and a long dining table to host friends.

Our air quality was not always at its best as factories just an hour from Hong Kong Island in China often filled our skies with smog. I could not help but think that if every single home in Hong Kong had 4-8 oxygen giving plants on their window boxes, that would be 31.2- 62.4 million oxygen giving plants. I wanted to give the city lungs. I was lucky to have the privilege or helping a few home owners with their private roof top gardens.

The below roof top garden was done for a client on Hollywood road. We did a built in outdoor kitchen, a faux grass lawn, outdoor dining table and a retractible outdoor projector for movie nights and rugby matches.