Seeing things from up high is a distinctly urban privilege. And space constraints have pushed New Yorkers to use rooftops for all kinds of unusual activities, which are documented in painting, photography and song.

The eternal quest for light and air defines life in the modern city. New Yorkers have to climb high to get a room with a view. The rooftop provides a bird's eye point of view on the rest of the city, which affirms the spectator's relationship to the urban scene, while giving him or her a commanding vantage point. This point of view is available to both the humble and the mighty.

Up on the Roof surveys life on high, ranging from the elegance of penthouse gardens to the casual milk crate and laundry lines atop a tenement. Rooftop activities include all-night parties, star-watching, Times Square cabaret shows, pigeon keeping, kite-flying, astronomy, sports, laundry-hanging, and exotic horticulture. Underneath the spindly legs of the ubiquitous Rosenwach's water tower, an astonishing variety of rooftop activities, flourishes above the secret society of gargoyles and goddesses that sometimes decorate these summits.

BACK STORY - Rebecca's own garden transformed.

Create your own STONE FLOOR - Improve your garden with these easy steps, from Rebecca Cole and Garden Design

GARDEN DESIGNER MEETS INTERIOR DESIGNER - This relationship is important to your home's final result. Find out how to make it work.

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