With the holidays right around the corner, are you like me, a world renown procrastinator, still looking for last minute gift ideas for your loved ones?  If so, here are my favorites for all you greenroof aficionados out there.  The best part is that they can all be ordered online with a quick click of your mouse, they’re all in stock - and without any traffic or long lines!  You might be familiar with Haven Kiers‘ and my annual Top 10 List of Hot Greenroof Design Trends, where we compile the not to be missed, new, noteworthy and exciting projects from around the world, so in that spirit…

Some are new offerings, and some are “old” favorites - in our relatively young industry it’s pretty funny to refer to something as old, but so be it - and each is all about vegetated roof projects.  Without further ado, here we go:

My Top Ten List of Greenroof Gifts

1) The 2009 Greenroofs of the World Calendar!  At just $12.95 each, including shipping & handling, (less if you buy more), it’s also the least expensive item on our list, via Greenroofs.com.

An exclusive of Greenroofs.com, we’re now in our second year of publishing the “Greenroofs of the World” 12-Month Wall Calendar series which combines two of our most popular destinations:  The Greenroof Projects Database and Upcoming Events.  2009 is filled with beautiful living roof projects from municipal applications to recreational areas to private homes and beyond, and there’s even more green building events from around the world than last year’s.   This year we have greenroofs from Spain, Germany and Canada alongside the U.S. cities of Portland, Chicago, Birmingham, Northbrook, Steamboat Springs, Newport, Pittsburgh, Port Townsend, and Washington, D.C., ranging from 350 to 765,000 sf.

The Calendar will make a great inexpensive last minute gift or stocking stuffer (well, if you have a really wide stocking) for friends, family, colleagues, and even you!

2)  Green Roofs in Sustainable Landscape Design, 2008, by Steven L. Cantor.  $44.07, via Amazon.com.  Wow - after years of hard work from this talented landscape architect and former university professor, what an amazing compilation and final product!  I’m currently reading and writing a Recommending Reading for this absolutely invaluable must-have. 

It’s truly spectacular in scope and breadth with approximately 70 detailed case studies alongside terms and definitions; issues; the design process; plant materials, irrigation and specifications; trends; and numerous appendices - I (obviously!) highly recommend this for everyone.  I beleive this is the true reference manual for living roofs that we have all been waiting for since Ted Osmundson’s initial offering - see below at #6.

3)  Green Roof Plants: A Resource and Planting Guide, 2006, by Edmund C. Snodgrass and Lucie L. Snodgrass.  $19.77, via Amazon.com.  Although plants are the obvious focus, it’s comprehensive in scope and a considerable amount of effort has been placed on examining greenroof fundamentals.  The book serves as an insightful and practical design resource as well as greenroof planting guide for beginners and experts alike.

Their research and compilation of a North American climatic-wide palette of proven greenroof plants encompassing USDA hardiness zones 2 - 9 is a testament to their expertise and years of species trial and error on Emory Knoll Farms.  Read my Recommended Readings Review.

4)  Planting Green Roofs and Living Walls, 2004, revised and updated 2008, by Nigel Dunnett and Noël Kingsbury.  $23.07, via Amazon.com.  The book’s forte and major value is as an essential resource - especially in terms of plant description, characteristics and specification.

It’s also a great bargain in that the book is filled with color photos, drawings, charts and reference material.  Here is another indispensable  reference guide containing a truly massive collection of extensive plant directories for both greenroofs and façade greening.  Read my Review.

5)  The DIY Guide to Green & Living Roofs, 2008, by John Little and Dusty Gedge.  £11.65, via livingroofs.org.  John Little of The Grassroof Company and Dusty Gedge of Livingroofs of the UK have joined forces to provide a practical guide to creating small scale greenroofs. 

On my to-do list for upcoming Recommended Readings, it’s really a highly informative, hands-on design and construction reference for Do-It-Yourselfers.  Full of photos, details and diagrams, the guide includes terms and considerations for both the UK and North American markets. Available in various eBook formats.
 

6)  Roof Gardens: History, Design, and Construction, 1999, by Theodore H. Osmundson.  $47.25, via Amazon.com.  Ted Osmundson has enjoyed a long and productive career in landscape architecture, and has been a true pioneer in the field of roof gardens.  This reference standard is appropriate for roof garden fans and design professionals alike and has been considered THE bible of traditional rooftop design, and really, the title says it all.

Roof Gardens is a classic even if it’s just (almost) ten years old and certainly a must have in your library of design books.  Read my Review.

7)  Green Roof: A Case Study: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates’ Design For the Headquarters of the American Society of Landscape Architects, 2007, by  Christian Werthmann.  $45.00, via Amazon.com.  The ASLA Headquarters greenroof is a living representation of the Society’s ideals regarding sustainable design - in other words, they’ve put their money where their mouth is with their own living roof! 

And it’s not only highly educational and functional, it’s beautiful, too, so much so that we featured it in the August spot in our 2009 Greenroofs of the World Calendar.

8)  BUILDING GREENer - Guidance on the use of green roofs, green walls and complementary features on buildings (C644), 2007, by Paul Early, Dusty Gedge, John Newton, and Steve Wilson.  £90.00 via CIRIA.  Although intended for UK readership, this book is expertly written by well known and respected environmental design leaders whose message is clear that this guidance can be applied universally.

A comprehensive assessment of published research and information on living roofs and walls, BUILDING GREENer shows us ecological designers how such low tech features as nesting boxes can easily be incorporated to encourage greater biodiversity in our building construction practices.  Read my Review.

9)  Green Roofs: Ecological Design and Construction, 2004, by Earth Pledge Foundation; contributing authors include Leslie Hoffman, William McDonough, Katrin Scholz-Barth, Tom Liptan, Ed Snodgrass, Dusty Gedge, Steven Peck, Manfred Koehler, Takehiko Mikami, Colin Cheney, Mathew Frith, Melissa Keeley and Joel Towers.  $26.37, via Amazon.com.

Forty-seven spectacular international case studies are highlighted, organized based on three major factors in sustainable design: economy, social value and ecology.  Appendices and endnotes are particularly detailed and extremely useful.

10)  Last, but certainly not least, is Award-winning Green Roof Designs, 2008, by Steven W. Peck, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities.  $39.99, via Schifferbooks.com.  The first five years of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities’ Awards of Excellence North American-winning projects and designers have been chronicled in the categories of: Residential, Institutional, and Institutional/Commercial, totalling 30 in-depth case studies. 

Outstanding individuals are also featured, highlighting the first five recipients of the Civic Awards of Excellence and the first Research Award of Excellence, going to the late Dr. David Beattie.

I trust you’ll enjoy these selections and hopefully you can carve out some down time in the next couple of weeks after the hustle and bustle of the festivities, to slow down, enjoy your family, and perhaps even catch up on some reading in the New Year. 

Warm wishes throughout your holiday season, and Season’s Greetings to all!

~ Linda V.

As an airline employee I’ve flown now on numerous 9/11 anniversaries, including today, returning from Orlando this morning from visiting my beautiful daughter, Anjuli.  Days after this other day which will also live on in infamy, we were given lapel pins which read “Remember, Honor, Renew” and I’ve worn it ever since on my uniform in remembrance.  You can’t help but Remember the horrific events of September, 11, 2001 - the panic, the disbelief, the heroic actions of so many, the souls lost, the families separated within this lifetime, and also the rather selfish line of ”Where were you on this date?” which people love to go on about.

So today on Patriot Day here in the Untied States we Honor the people from around the world whose lives were lost on U.S. soil here in New York, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvannia because of what, obvious acts of aggression and extreme violence which equate to social/psychological/political intolerance? religious fanaticism? or perceived meritorious acts of moral justice or superiority?  Maybe also a combination of these and ideals from a certain small but albeit powerful faction of Muslim separatism, an extreme type of eco-centrism, and a belief that these terrorist acts are selfless, divine, and which according to these fanatics result in the extinction of evil and the promotion of greater good?  I recently read about “The Romantic Ideal” pertaining to The Holy War, which on one website states, 

“Muslims emphatically insist that the Jihad, or Holy War, was only a means of defence and was never used as an offensive act…”

I don’t pretend to know much about it, but I do know that many Muslims were dismayed and appalled at these actions.  Read much more on the war on behalf of Islam.

We also need to Honor everyone who reacted immediately with selfless acts - specifically the brave firefighters, police, and unnamed civilian heroes, and afterwards also to those of all races, creeds and nationalities who spoke against these inhumane actions - thank you!

So how about Renew part?  Let’s continue the healing process to renew our faith in human beings - as neighbors carpooling each other’s kids to individuals influencing our local and national political candidates - to ourselves as citizens of the world.   If we understand that we all live on one Earth, we can extend this committment to renewing our stewardship of our own planet - I mean, if we’re going to renew something, there’s nothing more sustainable for the long term than “live locally, act globally!”

When I put my pin on this morning it occurred to me, as a former student of landscape architecture back in the late 90’s and now as an ecological designer of greenroofs and green walls, that “Remember, Honor, Renew” is also a great philosophy in terms of environmental design.  We are taught to look at a site’s history, both physical and cultural, to determine the “genius loci” or spirit of place as a basis of design.  So from this perspective we can create a spiritual connection to the past in addition to promoting a renewal of ideals and ecological principles for the future, and really express the true nature of a site.

But the Imagine piece of the equation came to me from a rather personal perspective, but one that fits this new amended motto of “Remember, Honor, Renew…and Imagine.”  Our oldest son, Joey, celebrated his first anniversary with his wife, Korinne, in late July, and he picked out John Lennon’s “Imagine” as our wedding song together as mother and son - talk about a tear jerker!  It seemed the perfect fit for my firstborn who has grown into a young creative man with high ideals, so why not for the more jaded of us, too:

“Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today…Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world…

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one” ~ John Lennon, 1971

 

 

 

Imagine a world working in tandem to combat issues as seemingly unimportant as a specific religion (God is God, right?) or political theology to more pressing ones such as global warming (Nature as God perhaps?) and freedom, peace and safety for all.

So, “Remember, Honor, Renew…and Imagine.”  Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, maybe the new Freedom Tower which will replace New York’s World Trade Center (finished by 2011 or so) will embrace this new credo, but we certainly don’t have to wait until then to continue believing in ourselves and each other, and imagining a better future, do we?

Linda V.