When asked to design a building for a vacant lot in downtown Manhattan, the designers at Work AC went hog wild. They're local foodies, you see, which means that they try to avoid buying produce that's traveled from far-flung places like New Zealand. What better way to eat local than to bring the farm to the city? Their design incorporates residential apartments that are topped by strips of farm land and watered using rain water stored in the tanks on the building's roof. The staircase-shaped structure is to be propped up by elegant sculptures. The people underneath the structure seem to be shopping at a green market (how appropriate!). And during the years when some of the fields need to lie fallow, they can be used for sportive activities like golfing.

Yes, the design is a bit unrealistic, but we like it a lot better than this alternate proposal for the same space. We hope architecture firms like Work AC keep thinking green, but that they'll come up with some more realistic plans as well.

via New York Magazine