Green architecture is really hot right now and after about a decade and a half’s worth of exploring the ecology of organic greenroof architecture in North America, greenwalls are the newest darlings in the green building world here and abroad.

More than just “green bling,” as one proponent told me recently, greenwalls add many benefits on their own to a building envelope.  While creating a lush and deliciously tactile tapestry of living plants, they offer a showy feast for the eyes that are much more visually accessible than many of their roofing counterparts.

I was asked to present on the subject last November for a local Atlanta USGBC group by Julia Gray Hines, ASID, RID, LEED AP ID+C of Chartreuse Inc. Interior Design Studio, and of course I propsed our Green Wall Editor, George Irwin, too.  Julia suggested Atlanta City Hall as a possible location, and I knew it was perfect because of their beautiful greenroof and the willingness of its resident (and entertaining) landscape architect and greenroof guru, Bill Brigham, ASLA, to share his experiences.

Learn about early influential designers such as the ground-breaking Austrian painter and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser, and more recent innovator French botanist Patric Blanc and his Le Mur Vegetal, seen above left at the Musée du Quai Branly, and see how designers are pushing the limits in my compilation of the Top Hot Trends in International Greenroof and Greenwall Design.  I’ll also provide a sneak preview of the Greenroofs.com Top 10 List for 2010 (which I’ll present along with our Design Editor, Haven Kiers, in Vancouver, B.C. at the upcoming 8th Annual CitiesAlive! Conference later this year).

Understand the differences between green façades and living walls from George Irwin, the many new systems available today - along with options for growing media (including none at all!) - as well as the new and exciting economic and social benefits and opportunities for urban vertical farming.

Presented on Thursday, July 22, 2010 by the USGBC Atlanta Events & Education Committee, you’ll receive 1.5 LEED Credential Maintenance Units offered, and the cost is an extremely affordable $10 for members and $20 for non-members!

Registration is open from 3:30-4:30 pm at Atlanta City Hall, 55 Trinity Avenue SW Atlanta, GA 30303, on the fifth floor Cafeteria where Bill will be on hand to show off the Atlanta City Hall Pilot Greenroof, the first public municipal non-irrigated vegetated roof, and then George and I will speak from 4:30 to 6:00 pm.

Come join us next week for the USGBC Georgia Chapter ”Green Walls, Red Tomatoes and Urban Farming,” a fun and informative afternoon on the surging proliferation of these architecturally important, and sexy, planted façades!  For more info, download the PDF here.

See you ~ Linda V.

On Saturday, May 22, 2010 we believe history was made in downtown ATL when Bill Brigham and Beate Allio took their wedding vows.  A traditional affair with silk and lace, ribbons, flowers, and lovely music, this was still no ordinary wedding ceremony ~ we’ve all heard about going down to City Hall to get hitched, but our bride and groom were married in front of about 50 family and friends high above the city street on the Atlanta City Hall Pilot Greenroof!

We’re sure it was the first wedding on the Atlanta City Hall Greenroof, and believe it was the first on an ATL living roof, maybe the southeast or even the  U.S. – if you know better, please let us know and we’ll blog about it, too.  But until then, Bill and Beate will claim the title.

I’ve known Bill Brigham, ASLA, Principal Landscape Architect/Project Manager, Bureau of Watershed Protection, Department of Watershed Management, City of Atlanta since 2001 when I was involved in the initial planning sessions for the greenroof on the Atlanta City Hall, back when then Environmental Manager Ben Taube and team were considering the old Atlanta City Hall East…  Bill eventually designed the greenroof on the new City Hall at 55 Trinity Avenue, and we’ve attended many meetings and conferences together, were on the Atlanta Local Host Committee for last year’s Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities Conference, plus we filmed him here last October (see Rooftop Hopping in Metro Atlanta, photo below), and anyone who knows Bill is immediately impressed by his extreme good nature and sense of humor (landscape architecture skills not withstanding!).Due to weight and space limitations, the guest list was very selective, so Aramis and I felt honored to have been included in the couple’s special day.  A second marriage for both, it was very touching to see the blended family together.  Bill’s son, Roland, was the Best Man, and Beate’s daughter, Nicole, was the Maid of Honor.  The bride’s two sons, Chris and Devon, were Groomsmen and both the Mother of the Bride, Mrs. Renate Freter, and the Mother of the Groom, Mrs. Charlotte Larsen, were part of the wedding party.

Scott Lubar was the Officiant uniting the couple, and we all enjoyed Bill Grabbe, the pianist, and Carol Smart, the soloist with their delightful music and voice.

The colorful, intimate setting was perfect for a man so instrumental in the design, ongoing research and maintenance of the greenroof, and fitting for a woman who was introduced to the future groom by Lucy Smethurst, a conservationist, plantswoman, artist, and neighbor of Saul Nurseries‘ “Swamp” location.  Bobby Saul donated all the plants for the project in 2001 along with the greenroof growing media from Ernie Higgins of ItSaul Natural – Mr. Natural (both in attendance), and Bobby had afterwards introduced Bill to Lucy, and then Lucy introduced the bride and groom!  So you could say greenroofs and kismet played a part in the couple’s future.

“Plant love.  Leave no waste.”

That could have been the motto of the wedding.  The invitation was printed on 100% post consumer waste, on seeded, plantable paper – all we have to do now is plant the invitation in a sunny corner and keep it moist, and we’ll have a mini wildflower field to remind us of the balmy late spring day.

And wait, it gets better!  Instead of throwing rice or bird seed during the recessional -Bill had said, “Heaven forbid!”  The couple opted for a safer alternative, both environmentally conscious and beneficial:

“We will be using the green rice look-a-like… sedum leaflets stripped from the sedum species already being used up on the existing roof.  (Another one of my crazy ideas.)  This way it keeps any “invasive” plant species from destroying the roof and will instead act as a “re-seed” to the existing roof’s sedums.” ~ Bill Brigham 

Regeneration at its best with pretty sedum packets after the expression of vows, exchange of rings and announcement of marriage!  The reception followed at Lucy Smethurst’s estate, which is nestled in a beautiful natural wooded area with naturalistic plantings, trails and artist gallery.

Thanks to Bruce Morton of Exposure Media Photo for sharing his photos with Greenroofs.com (which are available for purchase). 

Congratulations to Bill and Beate and the new Brigham-Allio family!  Perhaps this will be just the first of many more greenroof weddings to come at Atlanta City Hall.

~ Linda V.

Last Friday October 9 I spent the entire day greenroof hopping in Atlanta with Landon Donoho, a student film director from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), and his crew (Rachel, Logan, and Curt).  A friend of our youngest son, Ari, as a senior Landon has to make a documentary for school and decided to do it on greenroofs in the Atlanta area – enter me for a little help!  I gladly obliged since I know so many people here and he is such a nice young man. 

We started bright and early (way earlier than I would normally get up) at Atlanta City Hall at 8:00 a.m., where Landon interviewed Bill Brigham who has been intricately involved from day one with the Atlanta City Hall Pilot Green Roof, the first municipal greenroof in the southeast U.S.  If you don’t know Bill yet, you should – he’s a transplant from Jersey and is really funny – in a good way!  He kept us laughing with his continual banter and commentary, with blatant teal blue socks in view.  When asked what his position with the City of Atlanta was, he explained that after 17 years his title was really much more of an epithet: Bill Brigham, ASLA, Principal Landscape Architect/Project Manager, Bureau of Watershed Protection, Department of Watershed Management, City of Atlanta.

Greg Harper, the local GreenGrid rep, was there and afterwards showed us a mirror image testing area also off the fifth floor where they’re monitoring plant survival on various GreenGrid modules.  We had quite an entourage as our oldest son, Joey (the screenwriter and director), and our daughter Anjuli (passionate about film herself and an aspiring producer) joined us for a while, too, along with Saul Nurseries‘  Kathy Saul and Robin Andrews.

From City Hall we travelled a couple of minutes north to the Southface Energy Institute Eco Office and their Turner Foundation Green Roof, where Landon interviewed Bourke Reeve, a seemingly mild mannered MHP, LEED AP, Technical Associate Commercial Green Building Services kind of guy, but he turned out to be a real natural in front of the camera!  The views of downtown were spectacular.

After a very quick lunch next we headed a few blocks north again, and with Greg as our tour leader and were able to see all three of the greenroofs located on the property of the Woodruff Arts Center, home of the High Museum, the Alliance Theatre, and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, among other facilities.

Via the higher, normally non-publicly accessible roof of the #1 Woodruff Arts Center SCAD Dormitory, we could see across to #2 the Frances Bunzl Administration Center of the High Museum of Art, and down to the actual overstructure roof (over the huge parking garage) of the #3 Woodruff Arts Center itself with one of its sculptures in the garden below in view.

The view of midtown Atlanta was great, and from this vantage point we could even see the intensive greenroofs on 1010 Midtown, 1180 Peachtree, and Colony Square.  Greg spoke about the Woodruff Arts’ commitment to sustainability and their efforts to green a multitude of buildings on the campus, and how the SCAD Dormitory was the second GreenGrid roof here after the Bunzl roof.

We then rode north up 400 and visited Northpark 400 and Northpark 500, the award-winning office towers and corporate campus.  We spent most of our time filming on 500, which has great vantage views of the some of the Atlanta skyline and the northern suburbs.  While they got great shots of the surroundings and some cool time lapse photography of the gorgeous, fast moving clouds, Landon tried to interview me amidst some very high winds, which didn’t prove too successful – so we returned on Sunday afternoon and re-shot some of that sequence under more peaceful skies.

Other greenroof sites were visited by Landon and crew over the weekend including the new Chattahoochee Nature Center and 901 Moreland Avenue, a single family residence, where they interviewed architect David Butler.  We got really lucky with a pretty spectacular, drizzle-only weekend as we were sandwiched by continuous thunderstorms on either end.   These storms accompanied by flash flooding have been wreaking havoc recently on a multitude of Georgia communities, and many are still feeling the effects of the “Flood of 2009.”  It really drives home some of the potentially dangerous effects of stormwater gone wild. 

Landon hopes to have a finished documentary in about five weeks, and I know he’ll make a great director, he’s really kind and patient and passionate about his craft – all qualities that should guarantee success in life.

Can’t wait to see it! ~ Linda V.

As you should know by now, I’ve been involved with the Atlanta Local Host Committee for the 7th Annual Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities Conference, Awards & Trade Show on June 3-5, 2009.  Janet Faust, LEED AP, Environmental Horticulturist and Greenroof Product Manager with JDR Enterprises, and I are the Co-chairs of the Tour Sub-Committee, and along with a bunch of others we’ve put together a mighty fine line up of a very diverse group of greenroof projects for the guided tours on June 2 and June 6 – many of these are private and not usually accessible and open to the general public, so take advantage!

It was really hard for us to determine which projects to include on the various tours – the Atlanta area has so many types of intensive and extensive, retail/commercial, industrial, municipal/corporate, educational, single family and multi-family residential, multi – use, you name it!  We tried to keep each varied within a common theme with examples of conventional built-in-place, modular, custom, and by different system providers, too.  By no means do our tours represent all of Metro Atlanta, but it will give the visitor an all-around flavor.  To see more of Georgia’s many living roofs, search The Greenroof Projects Database by Location: State: Georgia.

The tours are filling up fast, and if you’re considering joining us, you need to sign up quickly!  They are $35 each, and you can register here.  See the tri-fold Tour Brochure - the outer side here and the inner here, designed by Caroline Menetre – our Student Intern, environmental horticulturalist and graphic artist extraordinaire - who did a great job, by the way!  These are the details with some photos to get you inspired:

Tuesday, June 2, 2009:

TOUR # 1: Cooling It in Hotlanta
1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Tour Coordinators: Greg Harper, GreenGrid and Ernie Higgins, ItSaulnatural
Tour Hosts: David Floyd and Greg Harper

Midtown Atlanta is vibrant and exciting with a dynamic mix of cosmopolitan retail, restaurants and entertainment.  Join us at the epicenter of the Atlanta cultural scene as we stroll through midtown touring contemporary multi-use corporate/office buildings, commercial/institutional complexes and multi-use retail/condominiums.  Midtown boasts the area’s most concentrated number of intensive/extensive greenroofs and even a stunning green wall at the luxurious W Hotel.  Many living roofs are within a mile radius; you will not be disappointed with the projects and a great opportunity for spectacular views of the city.  Guests will use the MARTA rapid trail system and should expect a good amount of walking, too!

 1. Viewpoint:  855 Peachtree Street NE, Atlanta.  Twenty-six stories high, the Viewpoint offers luxury condo residences and over 50,000 sf of eclectic retail located in Atlanta’s trendy Midtown district.  From here you can see amazing views of the city and other greenroofs, including those on the equally stunning Spire Midtown (as well as their green walls) and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Building greenroof, too.

2. 1010 Midtown:  1010 Peachtree Street NE, Atlanta.  Neighboring Piedmont Park, the High Museum, and the Fox Theatre, 1010 Midtown is the first phase of 12th & Midtown, a massive 4-block master-planned development located in the heart of Midtown Atlanta.  The property also features a lush “Park in the Sky” with a signature swimming pool, cabanas, and manicured gardens.

 3. The W Hotel: 188 14th Street, NE, Atlanta.  This Green Wall in W Hotel’s new Midtown Atlanta property is the showpiece of the exterior design.  Showcasing stylish LED lights interspersed throughout the wall, the architects successfully married the trademark chic W style with a beautiful green feature wall that greets guests at the hotel’s main entrance.

4. 1180 Peachtree: 1180 Peachtree Street NE, Atlanta.  1180 Peachtree, also known as the Symphony Tower, is a Gold LEED-CS 41-story skyscraper (24 floors of office in main tower, three podium floors on top of the parking deck, 12 levels of parking incorporated into the structure and a 2-level, 40-foot high lobby).  The plaza level has an intensive over structure garden roof and where the garden tower steps back at the 18th level, a non-publicly accessible greenroof was installed as well.

5a. Woodruff Arts Center:  1280 Peachtree Street NE, Atlanta.  The Woodruff Arts Center is the heartbeat of Atlanta’s arts community.  Located in midtown, the large over-structure Center offers Atlantans a bold variety of performing and visual arts – both traditional and avant-garde.  For 30 years, Woodruff Center has set the arts standard for Atlanta and the Southeast.

5b. Bunzl Administration Center of the High Museum of Art:  1280 Peachtree Street, N.E., Atlanta.  This greenroof is the largest modular system installed to date in the metropolitan Atlanta area.  The 6,680 square foot greenroof sets an example of how vegetated green roofs would benefit the City of Atlanta by cleaning and reducing stormwater runoff, reducing the urban heat island effect, reducing energy consumption, extending roof life and improving air quality.

TOUR # 2: Goodbye City, Hello ‘Burbs
1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Tour Coordinator: Linda Velazquez, Greenroofs.com/Sky Gardens Design
Tour Hosts: Jeannie Hunt, Linda Velazquez, Terry Porter, Alan Wieczynski
and Bobby Saul

Southern hospitality is also found in the suburbs of Atlanta.  Travel north of the city as we visit some of metropolitan Atlanta’s oldest and newest vegetated roofs.  Referred to locally as ‘the building with trees growing on the sides of it’ Northpark 400/500 is a flagship commercial/office park with strong geometric design, combining fully landscaped garden roofs, outdoor dining terraces and walkways and two 56-foot dome skylights.  Also on the northern corridor is Rock Mill Park, an award-winning municipal park with Cherokee heritage.  Rock Mill Park is a showcase for stormwater quality treatment and includes constructed wetlands, sand and bio-filtration ponds, vegetated swales and the Greenroof Pavilion/Greenroof Trial Gardens, all set within the 100-year floodplain.  We end the tour at Saul Nursery; for 22 years, Saul Nurseries has introduced many new plant cultivars and has supplied thousands of plants for greenroofs in the southeast.  You will see a variety of extensive greenroof plants including Sedums, Delospermas and other succulents alongside a diversity of flowering herbaceous perennials, and Saul’s own test greenroof and green wall.

1a. Northpark 400: 1100 Abernathy Rd NE Atlanta, GA.  Part of the award-winning Northpark Town Center, Northpark 400 is an 18-story, 581,000-square foot office tower connected to unique garden office suites, and atop the suites is a 2-acre park, complete with a restaurant and cascading waterfall.  Northpark Town Center anticipates receiving LEED certification in the second quarter of 2009.  Northpark is one of our oldest greenroofs, planted in 1994, and the mature trees and vegetation are flourishing, including maples, hollies, crepe myrtles, grasses and more.

1b. Northpark 500: 1100 Abernathy Rd NE Atlanta, GA.  Although Northpark 500 has been around since 1989, the garden roof was newly waterproofed and a new greenroof system was applied in 2007.  The $6 million rehabilitation project involved removing the building’s 56,000 square-foot green roof and replacing it with a high-performance waterproofing membrane combined with lightweight, low profile, green roof technology.  A fully landscaped roof garden with outdoor dining terraces and a walkway connection to the office tower is one of the many unique features at the 18-story 500 Northpark office tower.

2. Rock Mill Park Greenroof Pavilion & Trial Gardens: 3100 Kimball Bridge Road, Alpharetta GA.  The award-winning City of Alpharetta’s Rock Mill Park is open and inviting and connects to the popular Big Creek Greenway path system.  The original owner of the site back in the early 1800’s was “Sitawake,” a full-blood Cherokee, and design features include the cultural significance of the Cherokee ownership.  The Greenroof Pavilion uses many native and non-native plants, including succulents, grasses, and flowering herbaceous perennials.  Funded in part by an EPA Clean Water Act Section 319 Grant and the recipient of greenroof material donations from many companies, the Pavilion and Trial Gardens offer respite and educational opportunties through hand-on models and interpretive signage.

3. Saul Nursery, ‘The Swamp’: 1115 W. Nancy Creek Drive, Atlanta GA.  Saul Nurseries in Atlanta and Alpharetta, Georgia, produces over 1200 varieties of plants and has supplied thousands for area greenroofs, both extensive and intensive, including the Atlanta City Hall.  The owners wanted to install a small test greenroof to trial appropriate plants for the hot, humid climate, and it has been featured many times on television.  We’ll stroll through the Nursery greenhouses and outdoor aisles, see and feel the numerous succulents they’re growing, and learn which herbaceous plants will work on greenroofs in the South.  Come meet Bobby Saul at the Swamp!

TOUR # 3: Green, Greener, Greenest
1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Tour Coordinator: James Johnson, Emory University
Tour Hosts:  James Johnson and Michael Vaughn

Visit two forward-looking ‘campuses’ with tour emphasis on green achievement.  Emory University was the first building on a university campus to earn gold-level “LEED-EB” and is now home to 11 buildings (including several with greenroofs) that have been, or are being designed ‘LEED.’  In addition to LEED buildings, the university boasts many environmental initiatives, including an extensive alternative transportation program, the creation and continued development of a core walking campus, and a nationally recognized recycling program.  The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) founded in 1894, is an international organization.  Their newly renovated corporate headquarter campus has applied for LEED Gold Certification and truly reflects how ASHRAE standards and guidelines, put into practice, result in high-performance buildings.  The Foundation Learning Center also boasts an 1,800 square foot greenroof.

1. Emory University:  201 Dowman Drive, Atlanta GA.  Completed in October, 2008, The Emory University Department of Environmental Studies installed 420 square feet of greenroof on the Math and Science building with the intent to conduct pilot studies on the modular greenroof.  Three other test greenroofs on another demonstration roof will also be visited.  A mix of Sedums and Delospermas are planted to assess a variety of greenroof plants in the Atlanta climate.

2. ASHRAE Headquarters: 1791 Tullie Circle, N.E., Atlanta GA.  The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers advances technology to serve humanity and promote a sustainable world.  Their newly renovated headquarters provides a healthy and productive environment for the staff and showcase ASHRAE technology while demonstrating the organization’s commitment to sustainability.  The Daikin Sustainability Garden is a vegetative roof garden above the new ASHRAE Foundation Learning Center.

Tour # 4: Lessons Learned Along the Way
1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
 Tour Coordinators & Hosts: Bourke Reeve, Southface Energy Institute
and Bill Brigham, City of Altanta

Learn the ins and outs, and lessons learned along the way, of two very community centered greenroof projects.  Since 2003, the 3,000 square foot patio outside Atlanta City Hall’s fifth floor cafeteria has been home to the first city-owned greenroof in the Southeast.  The project was completed with the assistance of more than 10 companies and has been a model to downtown businesses.  Another ‘it takes a village’ greenroof project is located at the new LEED Platinum certified Southface Eco Office.  Southface has spent the last 25 years promoting “real-world” solutions for environmental living, and their new Eco Office showcases state-of-the-art energy, water and waste-reducing strategies and a 2,000 square foot greenroof.  Expect MARTA-hopping as well as moderate walking, here, too.

1. Atlanta City Hall Greenroof:  55 Trinity Avenue, Atlanta, GA.  The City of Atlanta is setting an example of sustainable and ecological design for its citizens with the investment of a 3,000 square foot greenroof on Atlanta City Hall.  By implementing this vegetated roof project, the City of Atlanta hopes to generate reliable technical data on greenroof performance in areas such as energy efficiency, stormwater retention, the extension of roof membrane life span, and plant survival.  In 2009 the City installed an additional 100 square feet of two types of test modules looking at plant material growth in 4″ and 8″ depths.

2. Southface Eco Office: 241 Pine St. N.E., Atlanta GA.  One of the targets established during the initial inter-disciplinary design charrette was a 60 percent reduction in energy use below that of conventional design and construction practices, with a goal of achieving all 10 LEED Energy Optimization credits.  The greenroof area on top of the third floor expands the office space to a rooftop patio with a spectacular view of downtown Atlanta.

Saturday, June 6, 2009:

Tour # 5: ‘Wow’ in the Woods
9:00 am – 1:00 pm
Tour Coordinator: Janet Faust, JDR Enterprises
Tour Hosts: Steve Cannon and Janet Faust

‘Wow’ is the word you will hear exclaimed as you tour the largest sloped greenroof in the southeast.  The LEED Gold certified Gwinnett County Environmental & Heritage Center sits amid a 233-acre wooded natural park and has approximately 12 miles of paved greenway and mulched trails.  Part science and nature center, part energy institute, and part history center, it is a premier living and breathing model of educational opportunities.  The tour will highlight the uniqueness of the natural pine facility, the acre oxygen producing vegetative roof, and allow time to enjoy the hands-on science exhibits or trails.  The GEHC is a multi-sensory experience and ‘wow’ a great way to spend a leisurely Saturday morning.

1. Gwinnett County Environmental & Heritage Center:  2020 Clean Water Drive, Buford.  As a result of the award-winning Gold LEED Center’s sustainable design strategies, there is: no additional stormwater runoff; improved indoor air quality; 35% energy-use reduction; 50% water-use reduction; and demonstration of best management practices.  Some of the most important LEED features of the building include pervious paving, bio-swales, wetlands and the largest sloping greenroof in the Southeastern U.S.  The 40,000 square foot greenroof is planted with a variety of succulents.  A smaller roof on the premises is being tested exclusively with native plants, both succulent and herbaceous plant material.

TOUR # 6:  Downtown Atlanta by Foot  – Anytime
Tour Coordinator: Southface

This is a free, unguided sightseeing tour, but most of the venues require an entrance fee.  The Georgia World Congress Center/Georgia International Plaza, Centennial Olympic Park, CNN, Philips Arena, World of Coca-Cola and the The Far Coast Pavilion, the Georgia Aquarium, and the Fairlie Poplar Historic Dristrict are just some of the attractions you can visit with some good walking shoes.  Some either have greenroofs or are greenroofs, as many of these large venues are built over-structure!  See the Brochure for details.

All Green Roof Tours depart from the Hyatt Regency Atlanta Hotel Lobby at 265 Peachtree St., NE, Atlanta.  By the way, you do not have to be attending the Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities Conference to participate in a tour.  Thanks to the many people on the Atlanta Local Host Committee for all their hard work, and especially to those on our Tours Sub-Committee!

I do hope you choose one of these tours and take advantage of some of these secret, and not-so-secret greenroofs in Atlanta – see you around town!

~ Linda V.