Everybody knows this one, and it wouldn't be right to start anywhere else. Even the planters on the roof are made from coconut husks and tree sap. During the spring blooming season, it's the densest concentration of wildflowers in San Francisco.

A city creation and part of a larger general roof renovation. There's a 6,500 gallon tank up there for capturing rainwater. Plants include native buckwheat, stonecrop, and tufted hair grass. It was designed as an ideal habitat for butterflies and honeybees, which, yes, the most adorable thing Public Works has ever done.

Dubbed "Bernal Tower" by designers at Santa Monica-based Blue Truck, this remodel of a once rundown Bernal bungalow gained national recognition. Unfortunately, recent satellite photos reveal what happens to the living roof of a private home during a record drought. Well, mother nature is resilient, this one can always bounce back.

Not to be confused with the landscaping firm of the same name whose offices are only a few blocks away in the Design District, these Mission Bay condos sowed the roof with native grass for insulation, and LEED certification sprouted.

The Bently Reserve building dates to 1924. Presently home to SmithGroup architects, they decided it had been missing a little something all these years. The results verge on Edenic, and the effect is particularly startling from the air (or Google Earth).

Noted for its incredibly dramatic, overgrown-looking vertical garden on the eastern side (the work of Roma Design Group), few realize that there's also a 2,900 square foot swath of native grasses up top as well. The soil is composed largely of lava rock, and hummingbirds are said to be fond of the building.

Designed by David Baker Architects and named for doctors Julian and Raye Richardson, founders of Marcus Books, the onetime parking lot is now 120 units of affordable housing. The green spaces in the courtyard and roof are meant to be therapeutic.

The roof includes a "succulent carpet" (which sounds accidentally delicious) and creeping vines that help protect sensitive equipment on the roof. The "growing medium" is eight inches deep. This is a particularly heavy living roof, since the building was designed for an extra floor that was never built.

One of only 15 hospitals in the world with a LEED certification, the tiered design by McDonough + Partners makes for one of the most striking rooftops in the city.

The line between a living roof and a mere "rooftop garden" can be something of a judgment call. The green space atop the Twitter building runs the company $100,000 a month.

This upscale condo complex on Market promotes itself as the greenest of green living. The green roof even includes a butterfly habitat full of local, endangered butterfly species, including the San Bruno elfin and bay checkerspot.

Matarozzi Pelsinger Builder's needed a few trial and error efforts on their roof. The first planting fell prey to San Francisco's powerful winds and never quite got enough water, necessitating a second try.