It has four square roofs, and is roofed with blue pile-shaped tiles.
He now tends to five of the wooden box hives on a 30-foot-square roof overlooking the mansards, steeples and domes and of his native city.
In the late 1990s the inner courtyard and the Reading Room were enclosed by a 2-acre (0.8-hectare) square glass roof, transforming this area into one of the largest covered public squares in Europe.
The building, which will cost about $15 million, will also contain a two-level parking garage with space for at least 70 vehicles, and there are plans for a 2,590 square foot roof garden, with benches, planters and a view of the East River.
A one-inch rain will collect 600 gallons from a 1,000 square foot roof.
The company became profitable in 2010, thanks in part to the 18,000 square foot roof of its bottling plant that doubles as a rain collection system (a single inch of rainfall can yield up to 12,000 gallons of drinking water).
For a relatively average house with a 1,500 square foot roof, the total of underlayment and tiles will equal something approaching 8 tons in weight.
A 1,000 square foot roof can produce more than 600 gallons (2,271.2 L) of runoff for every 1" of rain that falls on it.
There also is a 120-square-meter roof garden, planted with three different types of berries.
Mr. Rasiej, 45, has 18 inches of topsoil on his 800 square-foot roof.
