Cualquiera sabe que las terrazas y espacios abiertos son un gran beneficio en las ciudades, particularmente los frondosos jardines de terraza, tales como los extraños y grandes azoteas ajardinadas. Aunque los mejores jardines urbanos muchas veces están aislados de nosotros y otros hermosos diseños de jardines son semi privados o enteramente públicos.

The above photographic examples (part of a collection from Oobject) are all more-or-less accessible to the public, from the extensive wrap-around roof garden paths of the Waldspirale (literally: "Forest Spiral") apartment complex in Germany to the green roof of the convention center visible from anywhere in Vancouver, Canada and waterfront sculpture park in Seattle open during museum hours.

Other green roofs are like urban backyards in the only available space - on top of an existing building. A relatively intensive (meaning: one meant to support the weight of heavy plants or even trees) green roof such as the one in the photo above usually involves a structural retrofit to support it. It is not cheap but the results can be beautiful.

More conventional public and private green rooftop deck designs attached to hotels and other downtown structures tend to be well-organized and heavily manicured, a kind of idealized oasis above the pulsing urban flow on the streets below. As more and more people think about the sustainable benefits of eco-friendly roofs, however, this more formal expression is increasingly becoming a thing of the past.