Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/641712
Gotham Greens founders ( left to right ) CEO Viraj Puri, CFO Eric Haley, and Chief Agriculture Officer Jennifer Nelkin Frymark. above : Gotham Greens' rooftop greenhouse in Chicago. PhotograPhy courtesy of gotham greens There are green roofs in Chicago—and then there's Gotham Greens. Set atop the Method soap factory in Pullman, the Brooklyn-based outfit's recently opened greenhouse grows more than a dozen leafy greens and herbs—from arugula and basil to Chicago exclusives like Pullman Green Leaf and Windy City Crunch—over a football field-size space, making it the largest rooftop farm in the world. "Chicago has a thriving food culture, so it seemed like a market where we would be well- received," notes Gotham Greens CEO (and former Lakeview resident) Viraj Puri of the company's local facility, which officially launched November 1 and employs a state-of- the-art computer system to achieve the yield of a 50-60 acre farm in a fraction of the space. For Puri, though, it all comes down to flavor. "It's cool because it's grown on a rooftop in Chicago, but if the product doesn't taste great you're not going to buy it." gothamgreens.com . With state-of-the-art technology and a massive 75,000 square feet of farming space, Gotham Greens is changing the Way chicago gets its produce. GROWING POWER Space green scene 144 michiganavemag.com