My friend Kristen forwarded this to me. Pretty cool looking, and practical.  Think how awesome Michigan Ave would look if the fronts of all the buildings were covered with plant life.

PingMag - The Tokyo-based magazine about “Design and Making Things” » Archive » Vertical Garden: The art of organic architecture
Patrick Blanc overgrows the vertical surfaces of buildings in the most beautiful way. What he creates is far away from any fancy horticultural show, his Vertical Garden could rather be called eco-art, or greener architecture consisting of a variety of plants trailing gently up any interior or outside wall. Imagine the Hanging Gardens of ancient Babylon but this time on modern concrete buildings. But Patrick is not just simpy putting green on the walls which last for a day or two: set up with a highly scientific background he studies the many ways plants adapt to extreme situations at the CNRS, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris since 1982. Let’s have a closer look at these organic wallpapers of botanist Patrick Blanc today.