Team
By admin on 25-05-2008
Linda S. Velazquez, ASLA Associate, LEED™ AP, is publisher and editor of Greenroofs.com and is the author of its original content, and is also the designer of The Greenroof Projects Database. She has a Bachelor’s of Landscape Architecture degree from the University of Georgia (2000, cum laude) and an Associate’s in Art in Business Administration (1982). She heads up the brand new Blog, Sky Gardens ~ where cool green meets lofty blue. “Cool green?” Cool green architecture, cool green people, cool green environments, etc., you get the picture. “Lofty blue?” As in sky high spaces, places, ideals, and ideas.
Linda is a greenroof design consultant and and principal of Sky Gardens Design (2003), and has presented on greenroofs all over the world. Linda is also a mom of three and has been an international flight attendant since 1979 (Yes, she’s still flying). Back in 2003, when not too busy writing, editing, and flying, she started her Sky Gardens ~ Travels in Landscape Architecture column which featured areas of the world currently greening their roofs. But reality set in and this turned into this blog in May, 2008! She lives in Alpharetta, Georgia with husband and business partner Aramis, and the occassional “children” who keep coming back every now and then.
email: lindasv@greenroofs.com
Guest Editors
Our Guest Editors are colleagues and, yes, friends of ours, yet are independent of Greenroofs.com. The opinions expressed by our Contributing Editors may not necessarily reflect the beliefs of Greenroofs.com, and are offered to our readers to simply present individual views and experiences and open a dialogue of further discussion, debate and research across a wide spectrum of subjects within the greenroofing world.
Meet our Guest Contributing Editors, in order of coming on board, who graciously provide unique insights in their field of expertise without compensation. They blog about cool design, projects, the industry, and their own practices and businesses, too:
Ed Snodgrass is the Plant Editor (July 2004). He writes an occasional Q & A column entitled “Ask Ed” where he answers your plant and horticulture questions, and also contributes an occasional Plant Feature, which highlights a particularly interesting and useful greenroof plant.
Ed is a Horticultural Consultant and co-owns and operates Emory Knoll Farms, a perennial nursery specializing in green roof plants, currently stocking over 100 varieties and providing over 2 million sf of planted roofs. Ed, along with Lucie Snodgrass, is co-author of Green Roof Plants, A Planting and Resource Guide, published by Timber Press, 2006. Located in Street, Maryland, Ed lives as lightly on the Earth as he can with his wife.
email: PlantEditor@greenroofs.com
Christine Thuring is the Student Editor (July 2004) and has been focused on green roofs since 2001. After interning with a green roof company in Germany, she earned a a MSc from Pennsylvania State University’s Centre for Green Roof Research (2005). She helped organize the World Green Roof Congress in Basel (2005), has taught green roof courses at BCIT Centre for the Advancement of Green Roof Technology, and helped develop Green Roofs for Healthy Cities’ 401 accreditation course. Sign up for her Student Forum Ramblings Newsletter, “Students on Green Roofs” and read her column “Green Roofs on the Curve.”
Christine is best defined by Chlorophyllocity, through which her many interests and activities are represented. From collaborative design projects to applied research, translation to study tours (check out Green Roof Safari), her mission is to facilitate and support humanity’s transition from the carbon into the ecological age. A citizen of the world, Christine lives and works between Vancouver and Reutte, a Tyrolean village in the Alps. She flies carbon neutral, loves bogs and spring wildflowers, and rides her bike everywhere.
email: StudentEditor@greenroofs.com
Kelly Luckett, LEED AP, is “The Green Roof Guy.” He fine-tuned his editorial focus and inaugurated his new column of the same name in April, 2008. Formerly “The Roving Exhibitor (March 2005),” he wrote about his experiences at green building conferences as president of Green Roof Blocks and St. Louis Metalworks Company. They manufacture various modular green roof products and accessories. As president of both, he still is a frequent trade show exhibitor at greenroof and green building conferences, workshops & seminars - but Kelly also roves around the country attending ASTM, GRHC and other roofing and greenroof related organization meetings, and has become a central figure here.
Look for this column about his experiences and impressions within the greenroof industry as just a regular (green)roofing guy from St. Louis, Missouri, where Kelly lives with his wife, son and daughter. So read his column to stay up to date within the greenroof industry!
email: GreenRoofGuy@greenroofs.com
Ralph Velasquez is the Sustainable Roofing Technologies Editor. He changed his editorial focus and inaugurated his new column “Sustainable Roofing” in April, 2008. Previously, you knew him as the ASTM Editor. He wrote a quarterly “ASTM Update” (March 2005) as a member of the American Society for the Testing of Materials Green Roof Task Force (E.06.71.07), part of the sub-committee for Sustainability (E.06.71), which in turn is part of the committee for Performance of Buildings (E.06).
Ralph is Director, Sustainable Technologies Group with Tremco Inc., heading up their new program for sustainable roofing, waterproofing and building envelope solutions, including green roofs, photovoltaics (incl. BIPV), cool roofing and bio-based materials. Ralph lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife.
email: SustainableRoofingEditor@greenroofs.com
Patrick Carey is the Architecture Editor (April 2005). He writes an occasional architectural column entitled “A View from the Sky Trenches,” where he selects and discusses pertinent greenroof industry topics.
Patrick has a degree in architecture and lives in Seattle, Washington, principal of hadj design, a green roof design-build company. Patrick is also director of the Northwest EcoBuilding Guild’s Green Roof Project. PKC is also a trainer for the Green Roofs for Healthy Cities Green Roof 101, 201, & 301 Courses.
email: ArchitectureEditor@greenroofs.com
Haven Kiers is the Design Editor (October 2005). She writes an occasional column entitled “Chic Sustainability,” and co-writes and co-presents the “Top Ten List of Hot Trends in Greenroof Design” series. She feels the “Greenroof challenge lies in finding the right balance between idealistic principles and cutting edge design.”
Haven is a new Mom and lives and works as a landscape architect in California, with Mono County with her husband and baby girl. Haven designs and presents nationally about greenroofs, and is also a trainer for the Green Roofs for Healthy Cities Green Roof 101 & 201 Courses.
email: DesignEditor@greenroofs.com
Dr. Bill Retzlaff is the G.R.E.E.N. Editor (June 2006). He writes a bi-annual column entitled “The G.R.E.E.N. Research Report.” Dr. Retzlaff is the research coordinator of the St. Louis metropolitan area research collaboration G.R.E.E.N. - Green Roof Environmental Evaluation Network - between Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUe), Green Roof Blocks, Jost Greenhouses, Midwest Trading and Horticultural Supplies, Inc., Midwest Groundcovers, JDR Enterprises, Emory Knoll Farms, Garick, The Gaia Institute, and Greenroofs.com.
Bill Retzlaff, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Biological Sciences, Environmental Sciences Program at SIUe, and lives in the St. Louis, Missouri area with his wife.
email: GREENEditor@greenroofs.com
George Irwin is the Green Wall Editor and writes “The Green Walls Column“ (March 2008). George is President and CEO of Green Living Technologies, LLC, a company that manufactures and designs Green Living™ Walls & Green Living™ Roofs in addition to other Green Living™ Accessories. He is also a trainer for the GRHC Green Walls 101 and contributes to the GRHC Green Wall Committee. George also is the moderator for the Greenroofs.com Green Walls Forum & oversees additional green wall research with various higher educational facilities in the U.S.
George lives in Rochester, New York with his wife, son and daughter. In his spare time he is still an avid gardener he also enjoys travel and lecturing.
