Attention Chicagoans. (Chicagoites? Chicagoistes?) The Hyde Park Art Center, all aglow in a new location, is offering the chance to feel your city's roots. Or to feel some kind of roots, anyway: Among the reopening exhibition's new works is a modular green roof installed by Chicago artist Stuart Keeler, who says he was inspired by the many green roofs he saw from his studio window while working in Germany. The exhibition, called Takeover, features art seeking to "utilize, incorporate, correspond or disrupt a particular space" of the new building, according to the Center. (Hey, they can disrupt my asphalt-shingled roof anytime.) Takeover runs until June 11.

Umbra on Green Roofs

You see them sprouting up more and more: rooftops covered with growing plants. We’re not talking ferns in pots, here—we’re talking grasses and other hardy vegetation taking root right there on the roof. Today, a reader wonders whether she ought to shed her shingles and go green. In response, advice maven Umbra Fisk climbs up on her ladder to poke around the topic.

Many Americans assume green homes are either hippie eco-shacks in the wood, or Hollywood eco-palaces with expensive solar rooves and sustainably harvested hardwoods. But now, it’s becoming possible to live sustainably – with filtered air, green roofs and energy-efficient appliances – in any income bracket. According to a new article in the Christian Science Monitor, green low-income housing developments are sprouting up nationwide.