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Each week you can expect to learn What’s New here on Greenroofs.com through our “This Week in Review” video. Here is the transcript from June 1, 2012 from our daughter, Anjuli – click on the photo below to see the video, or here. Enjoy!
– Hello, I’m Anjuli Velázquez and welcome to “This Week in Review” for June 1st, 2012 on GreenroofsTV.
– Our project of the week is the City Creek Center, built in 2012 in Salt Lake City, Utah. City Creek Center is Utah’s newest retail and dining destination and one of the largest sustainably designed urban communities in the state. It covers two downtown city blocks and features a unique shopping environment with a retractable roof, a creek winding through the property, a pedestrian skybridge, and two 18 foot waterfalls. The Center’s fully retractable glass roof is the nation’s first in a shopping center and retracts over the retail galleria so visitors can enjoy the shopping center in any kind of weather. It also features three unique fountains that delight and entertain Salt Lake City shoppers with musically choreographed animations using the elements of fire and water.
Designed by SWA Group, City Creek has earned Silver LEED for Neighborhood Development as a pilot project. Sustainable principles have been applied in design, construction and operation of City Creek; for example, more than 50% of the demolition debris was recycled. The 1-kilometer-long recreated creek with live fish and other flora/fauna habitat serves as the central organizing feature for the retail/housing/office development downtown, and is the largest flowing watercourse of its kind built on-structure in the U.S. The water portion of the creek totals about 19,000 sf of over-structure greenroof, but paving, plantings, courtyards, and roof gardens add up to a total of 90,000 sf over-structure. There is also a pond with live trout, lush plantings of native material and an interactive fountain in which children can play. American Hydrotech supplied 300,000 sf of waterproofing for the entire City Creek Center.
– Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2011 Video
– Watch our Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2011 Episode #25: “Biodiversity and Greenroofs” Panel Presentation with Christine Thuring, Nathalie Baumann, Gary Grant and Dusty Gedge.
And find the rest of the videos in this series on our GreenroofsTV page and/or our greenroofsTV YouTube channel.
– The Greenroofs.com eNewsletter
– Our May 2012 eNewsletter is out! Check your inboxes for what’s been going on here all month long and if you’re not subscribed, click on the mail icon on our homepage and enter your e-mail address!
– Joblinks
– Sika Sarnafil USA is seeking a Technical Sales Representative in the Greater Chicago Area, Illinois.
– The American Institute of Architects introduced the first overview guide on how architects can implement the International Green Construction Code in their practice which was introduced in March by the International Code Council. The guide, entitled simply, “Guide to the IgCC,” is meant as a one-stop-shop document exclusively for AIA-member architects working in jurisdictions where the IgCC is adopted or soon will be.
– According to the 2012 Residential Landscape Architecture Trends survey conducted by the American Society of Landscape Architects, results show a preference for an undemanding outdoor space for lots of entertaining. Landscape architects with a specialization in residential design across the country were asked to rate the expected popularity of a variety of residential outdoor design elements. When thinking of gardening, Americans tend toward the practical and sustainable with native plants (86.3%), food/vegetable gardens (81.2%) – with over half of them preferred to be organic (61.2%), rain gardens (55.6%), and rooftop gardens (38.3%).
– Over at Sky Gardens, check out Linda’s latest posts: “Submission Deadline to the Green Roof and Wall Awards of Excellence Extended to June, 1st!,” “Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2011 Episode 25: Biodiversity and Greenroofs Panel Presentation,” and “Greenroofs.com’s “˜This Week in Review’ on GreenroofsTV: May 25, 2012.”
– “Upcoming Events“
– June 1: is the new submission deadline for the Green Roof and Wall Awards of Excellence presented in Chicago at this year’s CitiesAlive in October.
– June 2nd: is the Summer Exhibition – Urban Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, in Brooklyn, NY.
The new Garden Shop will have Green Roofs and Rooftop Gardens, a comprehensive look at New York’s most exceptional rooftop gardening projects””including BBG’s Visitor Center””on sale for the first time. Featuring an authoritative guide to NYC green roofs””including a rooftop farm in Queens and a high school classroom in the Bronx in addition to BBG’s own Visitor Center””Green Roofs and Rooftop Gardens offers inspirational ideas and practical advice for a gardener of any level interested in learning more about gardening on the highest level. Chapters include contributions from editors here at Greenroofs.com including: Green Roofs Past, Present, and Future, by Linda S. Velazquez, Green Roof and Living Wall Trends, by Linda S. Velazquez with Haven Kiers, and Green Roof Horticulture, by Edmund C. Snodgrass.
– June 2nd-3rd: is the Mother Earth News Fair, in Puyallup, WA. Follow on Twitter: @MotherEarthFAIR #MENF
– June 5: is World Environment Day. Follow on Twitter: @UNEPandyou
– And June 6th-7th: is the 7th Annual Northeast Buildings & Facilities Management Show & Conference, in Boston, MA.
– “In the News“
– Jackie Wills of The Guardian, reports on “M&S: a sustainable blueprint to behold.” The retailer’s landmark Ecclesall Road M&S store combines a range of unique characteristics, from LED lighting to rainwater toilets; and has become a learning store, where sustainability skills are shared among staff and local students. It is the first United Kingdom store to win full Forest Stewardship Council project certification.
Some of the unique features include: natural ventilation in the stockroom and staff areas rather that air conditioning, glass doors on mobile fridges that cut energy use by 45% and an HFC-free refrigeration system, water use has been cut by 46% by installing low flush toilets, sensor taps and a rainwater-harvesting tank below ground. Also, sun pipes bring natural lighting onto the shop floor, every brick was reclaimed from a disused mill in Manchester and polishing the concrete floor meant no need for coverings; and the shop has a sedum roof and a living wall for wildlife, which among other environmental benefits, will insulate the store and filter pollution.
– Sarah DeWeerdt of The Atlantic Cities, talks about “A 30,000-Square-Foot Community Garden, in a Parking Garage.” The project, dubbed the UpGarden, will have space for about 120 local gardeners. The project came about because Seattle’s P-Patch community gardening program was looking for space to build a new garden in the neighborhood. Eric Higbee, a landscape architect working on the project says, “as far as we can tell it’s the first community-managed food production garden on a rooftop” in the country.
Typical green roof technologies were too expensive, so they settled on a series of wooden raised beds 12 to 18 inches deep, which will be filled with potting soil, which is lighter than topsoil. Roofs are bright and hot, which should make it easier to grow hot-weather crops like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants but to offset the windy element and to help the soil stay moist, the team is considering putting in a drip irrigation system. The knowledge developed here will aid in the development of other rooftop gardens in Seattle and elsewhere around our country.
– To learn more about these stories and new ones posted daily, go to our In the News or Newslinks section of our website.
– Send us your green articles, videos and images to editor@greenroofs.com and share your greenroof or greenwall info with the world!
– Make sure to keep up with everything Greenroofs.com by following us on Twitter, liking us on Facebook, being a member of our network on LinkedIn, and subscribing to our greenroofsTV channel on YouTube!
– This has been This Week in Review for June 1st, 2012 on GreenroofsTV. I’m Anjuli Velázquez and I’ll see you next week!
*This week’s episode is sponsored by The Greenroof Directory, brought to you by Greenroofs.com.*
Did we miss something? We’d love to hear from you!
~ Linda V.
– Peter Raabe of the American Rivers Blog, has “A Vision Of Green Roofs In Durham, NC.” He says “North Carolina has a stormwater problem.” Many of its rivers are polluted due to stormwater runoff. The state has put rules into effect to clean up its act and Durham is at the center, on one side, Jordan Lake and the other, Falls Lake reservoirs, and both have strict clean up requirements due to the poor land use practices around them.
