The brownstone has three floors, plus a large basement with living quarters, a rooftop greenhouse also with living quarters, and a small elevator, used almost exclusively by Wolfe.

At its summit, a rooftop greenhouse houses a public restaurant, alongside a roof garden and a panoramic terrace that provides far-reaching views over the city.

Example retrofit projects include: Eli Zabar's Vinegar Factory Greenhouse, which has been growing vegetables since 1995 heats his rooftop greenhouse with waste heat from the store's bakery.

The restaurant will occupy the rooftop greenhouse at Harrison James, a new men's clothing store that Alan Katzman, formerly of Bijan, is opening.

Its architect, the Stein Partnership, completed a 5,000-square-foot rooftop greenhouse atop Schermerhorn Hall on the Columbia University campus on the other side of Broadway last year.

He argued that the restriction was unreasonable, precipitated by a personal vendetta by a board member whom he had criticized for hooking up a sink in her rooftop greenhouse.

The five boys were welcomed into a new world that included, along with rooftop greenhouses and bountiful pantries, strict homework and reading sessions, cleanup regulations, curfews and wake-up times.

Cityscape Farms, a San Francisco start-up developing urban rooftop greenhouses that combine aquaculture and hydroponics, was one of the companies selected to make a presentation at the Silicon Valley conference.

"I've been compared to Nero Wolfe," said Luther Travis, who inhabits a Greenwich Village town house and, like Wolfe, has a rooftop greenhouse.

Now he has an automatically ventilated, 16-foot-wide greenhouse grafted to his dining room and a 640-square-foot rooftop greenhouse as well.