Up on the green roof.

• Author: Murphy-Larronde, Suzanne
• Position: IOjo!

MATURE, LUSHLY verdant gardens abound across tropical Puerto Rico, but these days, it's a newly landscaped open space known as Lagoon Plaza that is garnering all the media attention. That's because this 40,000 square-foot expanse, poised above a three-story parking garage at the recently restored Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music in San Juan's historic Miramar neighborhood, is the island's first authentic green roof.

Green roofs, as the name implies, are landscaped areas designed to thrive atop buildings. In addition to their aesthetic attributes, they are credited with improving urban ecology by reducing heat and air pollution levels while controlling storm water runoff. They can also provide crucial wildlife habitat as well as open space for recreational activities and even food production.

San Juan's Lagoon Plaza is the brainchild of Cuban-born, Harvard-educated Vilma Blanco, 76, who heads up a firm known as the Office of Landscape Architecture along with her 30-year-old German-born partner and daughter-in-law, Sandy Balkow. The two landscape architects have created a tranquil, feng shui-inspired retreat where raised planters and paved walkways blend harmoniously with tree-shaded park benches and an eye-catching granite ball fountain. A small amphitheater ringed by grassy, undulating terrain is neatly tucked into one corner of the site, welcoming visitors as well as students from adjacent classrooms to relax and enjoy the balmy breezes and spectacular views of Condado Lagoon and beyond to the azure waters of the Atlantic and pint-sized San Geronimo Fort.

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State of the art green roof technology was...