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.