Today we have the pleasure to air our first of seven panel sessions from our Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit on greenroofs.tv and our GreenroofsTV channel on YouTube: ”Greenroofs & Walls for Educational & Social Equity in the Bronx” featuring New York State Senator Gustavo Rivera, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., Robert Bieder, Jon Beuttler, Jess Dannhauser, Javier Lopez and Steve Ritz.
We feel extremely honored to have had seven luminaries join us from New York City who are all passionate about where they all work, The Bronx. This is a very important roundtable discussion to hear for those people interested in learning about the passion and commitment of the civic, education, and business leaders of The Bronx and her constituents – and it’s also a great venue to see their real life challenges and triumphs of promoting and implementing greening policies as well:
Fueled by a passionate and committed Bronx Borough President, Ruben Diaz Jr., it is common knowledge that the Bronx is leading NYC in embracing green technologies and the green economy. To wit, the policies and educational initiatives underway in and of the Bronx are making dramatic strides in the quality of life and opportunities for all residents with concentric benefits and ripples felt citywide, statewide and nationally.
This panel featuring: a State Senator, noted business leader, NYC project manager, health care manager, social service providers and a dedicated educator speaks to triple bottom line benefits, impacts and the uses of green roofs, green walls, and urban agriculture as highly replicable, critical components to creating and leveraging social equity and economic and educational opportunities in challenging times.
Bronx, NY, USA. Robert Bieder is a third generation Bronx businessman who, with his family, owns and operates Westchester Square Plumbing Supply where this past December they had installed solar panels and reduced their electric costs by 60%. In addition, they are a leading distributor of water and fuel saving devices. Bob is also a member of the Bronx Coalition for Parks & Greenspaces, Chairman of the Bronx Merchants Coalition, and a member of Bronx Community Board 10.
New York, NY, USA. Jonathan Beuttler is a Project Manager in the Division of New Construction of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), the largest municipal developer of affordable housing in the nation. Prior to joining HPD, Jonathan wrote successful grant proposals for urban farming start-ups and policy proposals supporting growth in the urban farming industry. Jonathan has worked at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, the Fashion Center Business Improvement District and is a return Peace Corps volunteer.
Jess Dannhauser
New York, NY, USA. Jess Dannhauser is Graham Windham’s Senior Vice President for Program Performance and Planning. Jess came to Graham Windham from the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) where he had been serving as the Associate Commissioner for Performance Measurement, Monitoring and Improvement. As Associate Commissioner, he was in charge of ACS’s performance measurement and consultation system which aims to drive performance improvements in all of New York City’s non-profit child welfare agencies. He has extensive experience in New York City agencies as the former Chief of Staff for Commissioner John Mattingly and the Special Assistant to now Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs when she was Commissioner at the Department of Homeless Services. Jess received his Master’s of Social Work from the University of California, Berkeley and his BA in Psychology from Duke University.
Ruben Diaz, Jr.
Bronx, NY, USA. Elected Bronx Borough President in the Special Election on April 21st, 2009, Ruben Diaz Jr., previously served in the New York State Assembly since 1997, representing the 85th Assembly District. He demonstrated passion for constituent service, social advocacy and community empowerment balanced with support for sensible, green economic development and job creation programs. He sponsored and secured passage of important and innovative laws to address the consequences of the intolerable levels of asthma in the South Bronx, healthcare insurance fraud, and quality of life concerns. Throughout his seven terms in the State Legislature, Ruben Diaz Jr. was a champion for working families in the Bronx. A staunch defender of the environment, he is a leading voice against environmental racism and injustice. He graduated from Lehman College, City University of New York, with a Bachelors degree in political theory.
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. was interviewed after the panel session for Greenroofs.com at the Bronx County Courthouse.
Javier Lopez
New York, NY, USA. Javier Lopez is the Director of the New York City Strategic Alliance for Health (SAfH). SAfH is a consortium of advocates, community activists, organizations and professionals with an interest in lessening the impact of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease in Northern Manhattan, North and Central Brooklyn, and the South Bronx. The goal of the consortium is to develop local obesity prevention policy, system, environmental changes that can be adopted citywide. Javier has a BA from the State University of New York at Albany and a Master’s of Public Administration from Baruch College where he was also named a member of the National Urban Fellow program. In 2007 he was named a member of Cornell University’s “Strength through Diversity” Young Professionals Leadership Program.
Gustavo Rivera
Bronx, NY, USA.New York State Senator Gustavo Rivera was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico and graduated from the University of Puerto Rico. In 1998, Rivera came to New York to begin a doctoral program in political science at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He has lived in the Bronx for ten years. Gustavo Rivera was elected State Senator for New York Senate District 33 in November of 2010. The 33rd Senate District consists of the Northwest Bronx including Kingsbridge Heights, East Tremont, Crotona Park, Fordham, Bedford Park and parts of Riverdale. As a State Senator, Gustavo Rivera has been working to change the way business is done in the legislature and to ensure that the families of the 33rd Senate District have a voice in Albany. In addition to serving as a State Senator, Gustavo Rivera continues to serve as an adjunct professor at Pace University, where he teaches courses in political science. For the last ten years, Rivera has also served as a faculty member and mentor for “Somos el Futuro,” the annual Model State Senate program sponsored by CUNY, SUNY, the NY State Assembly, and the Puerto Rican Hispanic Task.
Steve Ritz
Bronx, NY, USA. Stephen Ritz is an acclaimed NYC DOE educator/administrator whose work in the Bronx continues to attract national attention and support. To date, he has grown more than 20,000 pounds of Bronx vegetables with his extended Bronx Family – the youngest certified workforce in America – who operate a profitable, in school, student Farmers Market and routinely install green walls and green roofs across NYC/NYS. Steve continually champions living wage opportunities along with stellar academic results for his students and his work has been recognized and celebrated by CNN, NBC, ABC, NY Academy of Medicine, US EPA, USS Intrepid, United Nations amongst others. Learn more about him and support his newest vision on Facebook and YouTube.
The “Greenroofs & Walls for Educational & Social Equity in the Bronx” video was filmed at the Bronx office of State Senator Gustavo Rivera in September, 2011. Enjoy! Visit greenroofs.tv to see “Greenroofs & Walls for Educational & Social Equity in the Bronx” or click below:
Next week on January 21st, 2012, Bronx educator Steve Ritz will be presenting at the sold-out TEDxManhattan on this very subject. See him at right, standing next to one of the GLT Mobile Edible Wall Units – full of fresh herbs and veggies -which he uses in his classrooms. (See Caroline Menetre’s related “GLT in NYC: A Weekend of Training, Education, & Fun“ Sky Gardens Blog post of January 21, 2011.)
Each week you can expect to learn What’s New here on Greenroofs.com through our “This Week in Review” video. Here’s the transcript from October 7th, 2011 from our daughter, Anjuli – click on the photo below to see the video, or here. Enjoy!
- Hello, I’m Anjuli Velazquez and welcome to This Week in Review for October 7th, 2011 on GreenroofsTV. We’ve been so extremely busy with our inaugural Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2011, that we haven’t been able to have a This Week in Review for a few weeks, so allow me to catch you up with what’s been going on here at Greenroofs.com.
- Our project of the week is Harvard Graduate Student Housing at 29 Garden Street built in 2004 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The former police station from the 1920s was renovated in 2003 with the greenroof installed the following year. The six-story complex has 75 apartments for the graduate students and “the garden courtyard provides a beautiful outdoor amenity space for residents and has made this housing building one of the most popular places to live on campus.” The American Hydrotech project profile states, “The once unsightly rooftop is now a 10,000 square foot Garden Roof® providing pleasing views and helping to add a sense of place and community for the graduate student residents there. The Garden Roof will significantly increase the life expectancy of the roof and is also helping to control stormwater runoff.” The rooftop plantings include a mix of succulents, sedums and delosperma, drought tolerant varieties that are perfect for Boston temperatures.
- According to Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, the City of Toronto’s award winning Green Roof Bylaw has already resulted in more than 1.2 million square feet of new green space planned on new commercial, institutional, and multi-unit residential developments across the City.
- Smart Growth America – Through a grant from the U.S. EPA’s Office of Sustainable Communities’ Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program, Smart Growth America is pleased to offer free technical assistance to help communities implement smart growth strategies to build stronger economies while protecting human health and the environment.
- American Rivers – Want to create 1.9 million American jobs and add $265 billion to the economy? Upgrade our water infrastructure. That’s the message of Water Works: Rebuilding Infrastructure, Creating Jobs, Greening the Environment, a report by Green For All, in partnership with American Rivers, Pacific Institute, and the Economic Policy Institute. The report looks at an investment of $188.4 billion in water infrastructure—the amount the EPA indicates would be required to manage stormwater and preserve water quality. That investment would inject a quarter of a trillion dollars into the economy, create nearly 1.3 million direct and indirect jobs and result in 568,000 additional jobs from increased spending.
- Joblinks: C. M. Hobbs has a job opening for a Grower/Plant Propagator on the west side of Indianapolis, IN, USA.
- Roberta Cruger of Treehugger reports on “The 9/11 Memorial & Museum’s Focus on Sustainable Design.” She says “From a green roof to locally harvested trees, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum opens on the 10th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center with a dedication and much media coverage of every angle, including Steven Spielberg’s The Rising: Rebuilding Ground Zero.” A grove of more than 400 swamp white oak trees, all harvested from within a 500-mile radius of the World Trade Center, on the Plaza act as a beautiful green roof for the 9/11 Memorial museum, the train station and other facilities 70-feet below street level. These trees are meant to represent the renewal of life in their natural cycles. The irrigation system includes stormwater capture in underground storage tanks to save energy and resources and the site is seeking LEED gold certification.
- The San Francisco Chronicle announces that “Academy of Sciences [is] honored with another green building award.” The say “everyone’s favorite combination of aquarium, planetarium and natural history museum has received a second Platinum rating from the council’s LEED program.” And this one’s for operations and maintenance. The extensive vegetation on the living roof consists almost entirely of natural species and the glass walls allow views from 98% of occupied spaces. Also, they use 100% recycled paper in all its printers and they are all Energy Star-rated.
- Caroline McMillan of the Charlotte Observer talks about “Green roof sprouts up in the suburbs.” LEED-accredited architect, Rebecca Fant and her mechanical engineer husband, John Alday, have recently installed their very own greenroof. Their porch roof was in need of restoration, so they decided to go green with the help of LiveRoof® vegetation. They aren’t reaping the full benefits of greenroofs like managing stormwater runoff, keeping their house warm in the winter and cool in the summer yet because their greenroof is just over their porch but Fant says, “it’s a little teaser for what we’re trying to do inside the house, as we renovate and improve the energy efficiency and other environmental features.”
- 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 green wall info with the world!
Watch our short, fun, trailer here (under 3 minutes):
Last week I highlighted international professionals from Germany, Mexico, Canada, Chile, and the U.S., and here is the remaining line-up of wonderful, talented speakers at our inaugural online event, also from countries around the world:
Matthew Dillon, Australia: The Vice President of GreenRoofs Australasia and member of World Green Infrastructure Network (WGIN) will present “GreenRoofs in Australasia.”
João Manuel Linck Feijó, Brazil: The principal of Ecotelhado, Director of ATVBrasil, and World Green Infrastructure Network (WGIN) board member will present ”The Work of ATVBrasil.”
John Shepley, USA: The engineer, co-founder of Emory Knoll Farms, founding board member of the Baltimore Biodiesel Cooperative, chairman of the Chesapeake Sustainable Business Alliance and contributing editor on Greenroofs.com will present “Sustainability at a Small Business: Emory Knoll Farms.“
If you haven’t yet, register today! Please help us spread the world – tell your colleagues, Twitter followers, Facebook fans, newsletter subscribers, and LinkedIn connections to register here.
I think there’s plenty of room in our relatively close-knit greenroof and wall community to explore new information technologies together and not feel threatened by competition – don’t you? In fact, don’t you agree we should celebrate each other’s innovations?
This is the social media event of the year! We need to support each other and continue to find ways to collaborate and share information. We’re thrilled with the many features we have up our sleeves, and we hope you will be, too.
We had an awesome time with him and thoroughly enjoyed our short stay in the Windy City! Caroline goes first and then I’ll follow with my reflections:
Caroline Menetre: Last Thursday I had the fantastic opportunity and pleasure to go to Chicago with Linda and her son, Joey (known for his photography and film work – he’s also the director/videographer for the Sky Gardens – Greenroofs of the World™ videos), for her exclusive pre-summit interview with Patrick Blanc.
Most of you Greenroofs.com devotees know of the noted French botanist and artist and his spectacular green wall installations all over the world. I can honestly say this man’s work was (one of) the main impetuses for me going back to school in horticulture and to some day design like he does. (I can dream, can’t I?)
There are numerous facets of Patrick’s knowledge and skills to admire, but as an artist I’m drawn to the design aesthetics, and well…he’s the master. Each installation is a magnificent work of art.
It was an honor to meet Patrick, and a thrill to sit-in and listen to such an intimate interview and conversation. He was enthusiastic and passionate about his work, understandably. I aspire one day to actually see some of his installations in person. And should Atlanta ever be the lucky recipient of his work, I’ll be the first one on-site. (Linda told him I would happily volunteer for any work!)
Linda will expound on the exclusive interview with Patrick, so I will just give a brief synopsis of our quick trip. We arrived early in the morning and went straight to the “magnifique” Hotel Sofitel for Joey (videographer extraordinaire) to set up for shooting later that day.
Patrick had two lectures that day – a master class to graduate students at the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of technology and the Alliance Française de Chicago (he had also given a lecture the day before at the Chicago Botanic Gardens), so we had some time in between sessions for a quick stroll around “the greenest, most environmentally friendly city in the nation.”
I could go on and on about all of the greening and environmental efforts achieved in Chicago, but the most obvious visual aspect is the lushly planted medians and storefront streetscapes. While the average Chicago visitor marvels at the upscale boutiques, restaurants, and hotels along “The Magnificent Mile” on Michigan Avenue, I strolled the stretch with head down, scanning from curb to curb, oohing and aahing at every plant and artful planting (shops? what shops?).
Of course, I had to photograph most of them for planting inspiration, and I also saw them as beautiful floral paintings – even did some effects on a few:
During our meandering travel towards Millennium Park, we did take a detour – into the Apple Store – to inquire if we could see their greenroof. Not accessible to the public, we were treated to a behind the scenes tour up on the top floor where the employees can enjoy overlooking their greenroof from the huge glass expanse of their conference room. Very nice!
And finally, before heading back to the hotel, we strolled the famous expanse of the 1 million+ sf greenroof that is Millennium Park, and the beautiful Lurie Garden – the featured nature component of one of the world’s largest greenroofs. The 2.5- acre garden is a combination of perennials, bulbs, grasses, shrubs and trees. It was a beautiful day to enjoy the park, and an additional pleasure to our trip.
Chicago and Patrick Blanc. These are a few of my favorite things…
Linda: Chicago was beautiful and we had a great day overall – neither Caroline nor I had been back here in a few years, and Joey had never been, so it was great roaming around like tourists. When we passed the Apple Store and Caroline suggested we stop in and see if we could actually visit the roof, I thought she was crazy – but, after showing my card – we were in! Very cool GreenGrid modular greenroof! The employees love it.
Believe it or not, I had never made it previously to Millennium Park – wow, what a great job the City of Chicago and all the excellent designers did on creating such an interactive and attractive space for all to enjoy!
Of course the highlight was capturing Patrick Blanc on film and creating an interview to remember. When Patrick agreed to speak at our Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2011 last June, we weren’t sure what format he’d be using because of his hectic travel schedule. So when we were offered the chance to interview him here in the U.S., we jumped at the opportunity. What a charmer he is, and what a pleasure we had!
“As a botanist, Patrick Blanc is at home in the jungles from Bali to the Amazon. As a landscape artist, he has brought breathing walls and biodiversity to the grandest hotels, restaurants and stores of Le Tout-Paris and worked with French designer Jean-Paul Gaultier on the catwalk. But what the man with green hair is best known for is the “vertical garden”, an idea seeded in the heart of Paris on rue d’Alsace that spread to Jean Nouvel’s Quai Branly Museum before being exported all over the world.” ~ Chicago.Cervantes.es
Very charismatic, “The Green Man” had on his customary green accents – flowered shirt, gorgeous brocaded paisley Indian jacket, shoes, streaks in his hair…
A genuinely nice guy, Patrick is best known for creating the hydroponic Le Mur Végétal or the Vertical Garden living wall system. Also a botanist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, he specializes in plants from subtropical forests and spends several months out of each year combing lushly foliated jungles and other exotic landscapes in search of new species for testing and additional research for use in his creations.
Of course, his work is highly popular and he is insanely sought out as a botanist, artist, and designer. We talked about some of his current projects, like Central Park in Sydney, Australia, with architect and long time collaborator Jean Nouvel, where over 12 vertical gardens envelope the façades with garden boxes and vertical wires incorporated into the loggias that wrap the towers in plant life.
Although Aramis and I met Patrick last November when I spoke at the International Skyrise Greenery Conference in Singapore, the only work of his that I have seen live is the gorgeous living tapestry at the Musée du quai Branly in Paris, which we also talked about – these are a few of my photos from May of last year:
Yet over the five years of our Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof & Greenwall Design, Haven Kiers and I have highlighted many of his projects – whether conceptual (top below) or real (bottom below), they simply are all stunning! Look for some more of Patrick Blanc’s works during this year’s Top 10 List, which we’ll be inaugurating at the Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2011.
Patrick is very passionate about his work and very optimistic about the future of ecological design. We spoke about his early inspirations and aspirations – and I mean early. He was into tropical aquariums and plants at the tender age of five and started creating and manipulating designs at eight! Clearly, his scientific mind was off and running, and it hasn’t stopped since.
After my interview, Patrick signed my copy of The Vertical Garden: From Nature to the City, 2008 – a big, beautiful coffee table book that just happens to capture his spirit, work, and purpose in glorious color. But, stay tuned – the upcoming revised edition with profiles of all his new projects is coming in October, 2011! I guess I’ll just have to buy it, too…
Patrick’s integration of the huge number of plant species he always includes in his work is a testimonial to his belief in the value of plant community biodiversity.
His quick smile and easy laugh plus his open sharing of ideas made our interview very pleasant and fun – look for about 30 minutes of my exclusive interview with him on September 27, 2011, interwoven with film from one of his recent lectures.
If you haven’t registered yet for the Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2011, please do so here.
Aramis and I were excited to attend and exhibit at CitiesAlive!, the 8th Annual Green Roof and Wall Conference on November 30 through December 4, 2010 in this beautiful harbor city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, co-hosted by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC) and the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). Neither of us had been here, and we really had been looking forward to seeing this naturally gorgeous city surrounded by majestic snow covered mountain peaks, and we weren’t disappointed!
Celebrating its 125th Anniversary on April 6 of this year, Vancouver, B.C. is “Canada’s Cultural capital.” Originally inhabited by the Coast Salish people – the ancestors of the Squamish, Burrard, Tsleil-Waututh, Musqueam (Xw’muthk’i'um), Tsawwassen, Coquitlam (Kwayhquitlam), Katzie andSemiahmoo Indian bands, Spanish explorers first “discovered” Canada’s west coast in the early 1590’s. Captain George Vancouver arrived 200 years later, and fur trading, gold mining, and tree logging soon followed by the mid 1800’s. Vancouver’s cultural diversity is reflected everywhere – you have a huge selection of shopping, restaurants, bars, pubs, and nightclubs in various locales throughout the city.
Vancouver also has professed a steadfast commitment to sustainability – their long term goal is to lead the world in green building design and construction, and it promises to be “the greenest city in the world” by 2020. Vancouver’s targets include requiring all buildings constructed from 2020 onward to be carbon neutral in operations and reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in existing buildings by 20% over 2007 levels. Reportedly, Vancouver has the greenest building code for new homes in North America, but they don’t plan to stop here - they believe the technology already exists to support a more ambitious new construction requirement: net zero or carbon neutral new buildings. Read the “GC 2020 Draft Green Building Action Plan” here.
“These green building innovations will create thousands of new jobs, create a significant economic stimulus, increase the value of buildings, reduce property owners’ operating costs, help Vancouver become more resilient to climate change and energy price fluctuations, and position Vancouver as a global leader in green building technologies and expertise.” ~ Talk Green Vancouver/ City of Vancouver
As you may know, Corporate Knights, Canada’s magazine for clean capitalism, recently ranked Victoria and Vancouver, B.C. at the top of the list of Canada’s most sustainable cities – see the 2.9.11 Press Release.
Our hotel and venue were both beautiful and green. The luxurious Pan Pacific Vancouver Hotel is situated atop a pier at the magnificent Canada Place complex on Vancouver’s dramatic waterfront. And its iconic white sails have made it a prominent landmark for the city (currently being renovated).
Part of the Green key ECO – rating program (rated 4) itself, the Pan Pacific is conveniently located just a short walk above or below ground to the multiple award-winning venue, the LEED® Platinum certified for New Construction Vancouver Convention Centre. This expansion project is also known as the Vancouver Convention Centre West, and last year it served as the international broadcast and media center for the XXI Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games. (Haven and I included it in 2007’s Top 10 List under the #2 category, Bigger is Better – Mega Greenroofs.)
In addition to its massive 261,360 sf living roof – the largest in Canada - seawater heating and cooling, on-site water treatment and fish habitat are built into the foundation of the Convention Centre’s West Building, making the expansion project one of the greenest convention centers in the world. Located both on land and in the water, the views were breathtaking and spectacular! The floor-to-ceiling glass allow for maximum viewing pleasure of the North Shore mountains and the harbor, its boats, and even sea planes landing at will.
Planted with more than 400,000 indigenous plants and grasses from the Gulf Islands, the roof provides a beautiful flowering natural habitat to birds, insects and small mammals. Many people worked on this project- see this gorgeous video taken by David Buge with Bruce Hemstock of PWL Partnership Landscape Architects narrating on top of the Vancouver Convention Centre:
Although the greenroof is inaccessible to the public, the designers cleverly have allowed glimpses of the various angles and vegetated planes on two separate levels for visitors to enjoy, see below:
And the interior is just as cool andeco-friendly as the massive six-acre native plant greenroof overhead. For example, a phenomenal mosaic of cedar and hemlock pieces covering the interior walls creates a warm glow and adds multi-dimension to the expansive space.
Kudos to GRHC and BCIT for securing this fabulous, uber-sustainably designed venue!
Back to the CitiesAlive! Conference and Trade Show: We arrived on Tuesday, November 30 to make sure we were on time for the following day’s pre-conference activities (this was also the first day of tours, but we were too late to make it).
On Wednesday, GRHC offered five half-day education classes and one anticipated new one, the Introduction to Rooftop Agriculture – a topic that is really hot right now. Additionally, they had four 1.5 hour education sessions which all sounded interesting! But since I had to choose, I attended the 4-hour “Integrated Water Management for Buildings & Sites” seminar presented by Jeffrey Bruce, FASLA, GRP, President of Jeffrey L. Bruce & Company (and Chair of GRHC), while Aramis set up our exhibitor booth and attended the Corporate Members Committee Meeting.
I had heard mixed reviews about the course from its initial launch in Washington, D.C. last year, that it was certainly informative but a bit dry. But as someone with a degree in landscape architecture and a fairly good background in stormwater management, I enjoyed it. It wasn’t particularly dry, just quite technical and very in-depth in terms of definitions, policies, and procedures – although it said it was an introductory class, I would say it was definitely not for beginners! Developed by GRHC and the Association of Irrigation Consultants (ASIC), with leads Jeff Bruce and Lynda Wightman of Hunter, it embraces new approaches to design for Net Zero Water consumption.
The course covered water types and sources, and how we may manage water and energy resources more effectively including application and recapture methods. Jeff is a very good instructor – patient and extremely knowledgeable (his company also developed the course) -and the class was very interactive. We had some lively discussions from a really multi-disciplinary group of professionals from across Canada and the U.S., both from private practice and government at various levels. And the 98-page “Integrated Water Management for Buildings & Sites” Participant’s Manual is a veritable Bible of Integrated Water Management information.
Greenroofs.com was proud, once again, to be a Media Sponsor for the 8th year. The CitiesAlive! Opening Plenary on Wednesday night, sponsored by Architek.ca, was extremely interesting as we were greeted with a lovely traditional Coast Salish welcome from Elder Rose Point of the Musqueam First Nation and welcome song from Gerry Oleman, photo above from BCIT.
GRHC President Steven Peck was the Master of Ceremonies and he spoke about the many efforts and accomplishments of the industry association in the past year, including many firsts. We also heard from City of Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, who proclaimed his city would be the greenest in world, and from Rod Goy, the Acting Dean of the School of Construction and the Environment at BCIT, who spoke about their commitment to greening the built environment.
The always popular Paul Kephart of Rana Creek Living Architecture was the eloquent keynote speaker and shared his vision as a restoration ecologist and designer of living architectural systems. He also spoke about several of his collaborations with unique and large scale projects including the Gap Headquarters, Transbay Terminal Bay, the California Academy of Sciences, and the Croton Water Treatment Plant (Mosholu Golf Course) in New York which, when completed, will be the largest continuous greenroof in North America at nine acres.
Afterwards the Trade Show opened, the socializing started and didn’t stop until late. Thursday dawned overcast but the sessions started bright and early at 8:30 am. As usual, there was a huge number of expert international speakers in every track, with four tracks in all – Policy, Design, Research, and Expert Discussion Panels. In my opinion, it’s almost too massive a program, since it’s impossible to experience even a fraction of all the excellent presentations. What most people did was jump from session speaker to another to ensure they could hear their favorites. I think the ideal would be to send four people from each company or organization to attend each and then get together and debrief, but, really, who could afford that.
I found that I ended up splitting the next two days worth of sessions between the Design Track and the Expert Discussions. I started off the first day, Thursday, December 2nd, with the Barriers and Opportunities to Advance Collaborative Design Practices panel and heard from Paul Kephart, landscape architect David Yocca of Conservation Design Forum, and environmental engineer Greg Allen from Sustainable Edge. Jeff Bruce moderated, and these four highly seasoned professionals provided an intense interplay of personal opinion and practical experience, with plenty of audience interaction adding to the pot of working with disparate professionals.
The Temperate Green Roofs session followed and we learned about The Ted & Lois Hole Green Roof Healing Garden in Edmonton, Alberta. Designed by the wonderful Kerry Ross, Project Architect with IBI Group Architects and Ernie Webster, Landscape Architect with IBI/Landplan, this 22,500 sf hybrid extensive/intensive green roof is located at a new facility for holistic healing, the Royal Alexandra Hospital. Designed to commemorate Lois Hole, the former Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, and her husband Ted, it serves as a passive healing garden and visual amenity. The trees, shrubs, tall grasses and flowers were selected to represent the natural flora of Alberta, and were supplied by the family nursery. Some of the beautiful features include lots of seating areas, a water fall and reflecting pool, colorful glass screens, and places for art.
I hopped over to Expert Discussions – Standards Development for Green Roofs and Walls – Future Directions, Challenges and Needs with Mike Curry of Midwest Trading, Dr. Robert Berghage of Penn State, Kelly Luckett of Green Roof Blocks, and Blair Bennett of Soprema. Moderated by Zachary Williams of CarlisleSynTec, it was pretty interesting. There was a lot of candid sentiment about the process and practical issues from from what appeared to be an audience of mostly engineers, architects, city planners and the likes. Everyone wanted to know how their product or system might fare and how to get involved, and maintenance issues and ensuring maintenance contracts were included in deliverables were also a hot topic.
But I hopped back after about 20 minutes because I didn’t want to miss Nate Griswold from American Hydrotech and his presentation about the Lincoln Center for the Performing Artsand some of their unusual challenges with this project shaped like a hyperbolic paraboloid. Problems arose with the varying slopes as well as the high amount foot traffic and as a result, a new steep slope product and assembly for this type of greenroof was developed.
Unfortunately, I missed out on most of The Hugh Garner Green Roof Project – an integrated process, presented by Monica Kuhn of Monica E. Kuhn Architect, Inc. and Carolyn Moss of Moss Sund Architects, Inc., but I learned more about it when we featured this great multi-unit residential Housing Co-operative in downtown Toronto as our first Greenroof Project of the Week for 2011:
The GRHC 2010 Awards of Excellence Luncheon followed and twelve awards were given this year – eight for awesome buildings withgreenroofs andgreenwalls, including local favorite, the Vancouver Convention Centre Expansion Project. Below is Peter MacDonagh, one of the principals of The Kestrel Design Group, who received a Special Recognition Award of Excellence for their work withThe City of Minneapolis Target Center Arena, which we featured in our 2010 Hot Trends Top 10 List in the #9 category, “Green Sporting Venues.”
There were some other really cool projects, see them all here, as well as four deserving individuals honored within our industry.
One of these was Kelly Luckett, above, AKA The Green Roof Guy, who won a Civic Award of Excellence for his hard work on the RP-14 Wind Design Guideline (read his Green Roofs, a Civic Award of Excellence, and a Lifetime of Memories article). Talk about someone who really should have been recognized! He has put in years of his life (not to mention probably tens of thousands of dollars from his own pocket) to further this important issue for our industry. And he was really excited and humbled about receiving it, too. I can only say how humble and proud I felt when he acknowledged me for giving him a platform to write. Way to go, Kelly!
The Lifetime Achievement Awardsceremony was truly poignant and inspiring as a special tribute was held for two legends of the roof garden/greenroofing industry. Author of “Roof Gardens, History, Design and Construction,” W.W. Norton, 1999, the late Theodore Osmundson, FASLA, was honored. Theodore Osmundson became a Fellow of the ASLA in 1963 and was ASLA president from 1967-1969. We heard about his lifelong passion for landscape architecture, and roof gardens in particular, from his son, Gordon.
Inspired by the Rockefeller Center Roof Gardens in New York City, industrialist Henry Kaiser hired Osmundson in 1958 to design the beautiful 3 and a half acre public park, the Kaiser Center Roof Gardenin Oakland, CA, which became Osmundson’s best known work. Gordon Osmundson, also a successful landscape architect, has taken on the task of working on a second edition of his dad’s highly successful “Roof Gardens” book.
Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, OC, FASLA, FCSLA, LMBCSLA then graced the stage and spoke about “Reflections of six decades designing natural sites.” Educated at Harvard University, she expressed her love and gratitude for landscape architecture where she has shone brilliantly as a leader in garden roofs, and spoke about her early work while raising a family. She shared the visions of some of her numerous important projects, including the stunning Visitor Centre Green Roof at the VanDusen Botanical Gardens.
Designed by Busby Perkins + Willand Cornelia, the center is slated to meet the Living Building Challenge 2.0 (as per the Cascadia Green Building Council) as well as LEED Platinum standards. To receive its Living Building certification, the center will have to operate for 12 months with net zero energy while providing all of its own water.
Thursday afternoon was spent in and out of our Exhibit Booth on the Trade Show Floor, popping into a variety of sessions, and simply catching up with lots of people!
The Trade Show floor had a good turnout, and most exhibitors we spoke to were pleased with the quality of visitors to their booths (meaning designers and specifiers). I have to say our Greenroofs.com booth was hopping most of the time, and we had tons of visitors – thanks to all of you who came by to say hello!
This may have been due to our lively and lovely in-house booth mates, Contributing Editors Patrick Carey (and GRHC Trainer), Haven Kiers (also a GRHC Trainer), andCaroline Menetre, above, who camped out here off and on. We had some interesting booth neighbors, including the vivacious Kathy of BusyBee Gardening across from us, seen below, as well as neighbors Craig of MYKE® Pro Premier Tech Biotechnology andGenevièveNöel of Mubi Regenerative Consulting, below her:
Dr. Clayton Rugh of Xero Flor America, above, andXero Flor Canada were also close by and I have to say Thank you! to Joy Schmidt for giving me a copy of the lovely book “Vancouver 2010.” All about the 17 Olympic and 10 Paralympic Games days, it features stunning photos of Vancouver and their Xero Flor greenroof technology that covers approximately 56,000 sf of the Millennium Water Project - Vancouver’s Olympic Village. Here are more Trade Show pics:
That evening, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities put on a really nice, invitation-only GRP Reception for the first year’s class (2009-2010) of graduating Green Roof Professionals. It was casually elegant and beautifully set up - the beverage and food selection was wonderful and the service was excellent. Aramis and I saw a lot of our friends and colleagues here, and met quite a few new ones, too.
We heard Sara Loveland and Ashleigh Uiska (with Dusty Gedge) threw an awesome afterparty, but we had our own much smaller version with our band of Contributing Editors and colleagues. By the way, Sara won our free yearly Premium Listing in The Greenroof Directory.
The Friday sessions were just as bustling and varied. I sat through (and thoroughly enjoyed) Green Wall Case Studies II, starting withInterior Living Wall Biofilter Projects – Lessons Learned from Pioneering Experience from Dr. Alan Darlington of Nedlaw Living Walls and Birgit Siber of Diamond andSchmitt Architects. They shared stories of years of research and project monitoring, and how living walls have the capacity to break down hundreds of different kinds of contaminants found in indoor air; they demonstrated how a biofilter can substantially reduce the need to bring in fresh air by generating its own clean air indoors.
One of my favorite presentations was next, Innovative and Cost Effective Biofilters for Residential Applications from Robert Cameron and Dr. Robert Berghage from Penn State University. They have an experimental site on campus as well as the one Rob Cameron built at his home using a combination of materials on site, some donated, and some leftover from experiments from other Penn State projects. They conducted studies showing that living systems do not need to be highly sophisticated to work beautifully.
Rob Cameron asks, How can we take wasterwater and make it a resource? Using plants, from food crops to ornamentals, he showed us how the living wall with “Living Columns” – basically vertical plastic corrugated tubes – act like a constructed wetland and can filter out pollutants from an entire household. At his own residence he integrated these living columns with a greenroof for downspouts and rain water harvesting, and combined a living wall with an extensive greenroof to provide a vertical garden for tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and other veggies.
By the way, George Irwin of Green Living Technologies (GLT) was scheduled to speak during this session, and was deemed a no-show. Since he’s a Contributing Editor here, Caroline texted him to see where he was – he answered that he had indeed let GRHC know early in the week that something major had come up and would not be able to make it.
That morning I also sat in on a couple of sessions from Local Interest – From Barn Raisings to Green Roof Raisings: Community-Built Green Roof was presented by Bryce Gauthier, Director of the Projects In Place Society. What a great story! Projects In Place has taken the concept from the old community-based barn raisings and applied it to building sustainable projects. Using almost 100 volunteers including BCIT students, this small non-profit installed a 500 sf greenroof in two days on top of a business on the edge of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Projects In Place Society posted their CitiesAlive PowerPoint on their website, make sure to see it.
I skipped Retrofitting Existing Buildings With Green Roofs by Dr. Karen Liu of Xero Flor International because I had already seen and loved her similar (I hope) presentation at 2009’s CitiesAlive! in Toronto. Instead, I listened in on the Expert Discussion- How Green IS Your Green Roof: Devising a LEED Style Credit System for Green Roofs – Challenges and Opportunities with Steven Peck, Kerry Ross, Dr. Robert Berghage and Chuck Friedrich of Carolina Stalite.
Talk about a charged subject! Some argued that we should not create yet another rating system, but should rally to make the highly universally accepted (yet sometimes controversial) U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)’s LEEDprogram work better for our industry in terms of rating greenroofs. Others argued that GRHC knows our subject best and that starting new made the most sense rather than trying to fix another existing product. Having both my LEED AP andGRP designations, I have opinions, but will share them in another post.
So even though I was extremely interested in this subject, I returned to the Design Track andLocal Interest to hear about The Visitor Centre Green Roof at the VanDusen Botanical Gardens from Ken Larsson of Sharp & Diamond Landscape Architecture and the lovely Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, which was a treat, indeed!
Cornelia is a force to be reckoned with, and her exuberance shone through the entire presentation. It is a fascinating project – 3/4 of the 20,000 sf roof is greened, while 1/4 is “blue;” the undulating roof is based upon the shape of a native orchid – this project would have fit nicely in our Top 10 List as an example of the #3 position,“Biomimicry as Eco-literacy and Holistic Design.” Maybe for 2011. Lunch on the Trade Show Floor followed, along with the Poster Sessions.
Next up was Haven’s and my session where we were right in the middle of The Big Picture View, and we were very pleased at the turnout. Kerry Ross started with her extremely informative Nordic Adventures: a field study of green roofs in Norway. She highlighted cold climate greenroofs from a recent Scandinavian trip; through her research and documentation of projects has been able to better promote greenroof design and maintenance within Canada.
We followed with our Top 10 List presentation, and it was jam packed! This was the first time we had co-presented together, and Virginia (Jennie) Russell from the University of Cincinnati, our moderator extraordinaire, kept us in-line with methodical announcements for us to pick up the pace. So, it was a bit rushed, but fun (see our PowerPoint here). So many great projects to show, so little time!
We were honored to be in the same session as Cornelia Oberlander, who followed us and presented along with Ross Dixon of Phillips FarevaagSmallenberg. They shared their experiences with the Rooftoptop Renewal – The Redevelopment of Robson Square – An Intensive Green Roof in Downtown Vancouver.
This iconic rooftop civic center courthouse complex and public plaza was originally completed in 1983 by Arthur Erickson Architects and landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander; replacement of the original waterproofing membrane and restoration of the plantings is currently underway, and is expected to be completed sometime within this year. Refurbishments included surveying to see which tree specimens would be saved and evaluating the best methods for removal, safe keeping during construction, and then replanting.
The Closing Plenary opened with its own lively Top 10 List invitation to join GRHC at the 9th Annual CitiesAlive 2011 in Philadelphia by members of the Philadelphia Local Host Committee. Co-hosted by the City of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the next Green Roof and Wall Conference will be held in the City of Brotherly Love from November 29 to December 3.
The Panel Discussion Peak Oil, Urban Farming and the Roofs and Walls of Our Cities: Creating a Future We Desire wrapped up the Conference. Delivered by visionary yet practical Keynote Speaker Greg Allen, PE, LEEP AP, of Sustainable Edge, the presentation was forward thinking but set in a very grim reality – we must release our bonds with oil and embrace sustainable energy strategies as well as develop local urban farming on our rooftops and walls to ensure food security – basically we need to explore alternative food options more intelligently.
Panelists included Thomas Mueller of the Canadian Green Building Council, Vancouver Councilor Andrea Reimer, KeithAgoada of Sky Vegetables and Jeff Bruce, and a lot of people raised their own concerns about food supply and quality control, organics, and infrastructure for urban agriculture in the sky. Greenroofs.com was definitely in sync, as Haven Kiers and I had Tower Oases as Skyrise Urban Ag in the 2010 #1 category for our Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof and Greenwall Design.
We enjoyed our Habitat Havens Tour the next day on Saturday, and especially our tour guide, the lively and informative Tyrel Sutton from Flynn Canada. We had a beautiful, clear day to roam around four rooftops (really three, more on that later) that were selected because they were designed to either replicate a specific ecosystem or to provide food for birds, butterflies, or bees. We were lucky because the tours on Tuesday were rainy – in fact, at least one was cancelled.
There are quite a few publically accessible projects around Vancouver, and the Local Host Committee put together a 9-stop Self-Guided Green Roof and Wall Tour list that was included in the program. We didn’t see much, but Caroline did – this is her photo of the ING Green Wall, left, designed by CitiesAlive exhibitor Green over Grey – Living Walls and Design Inc.
I would say there were maybe 700 people at CitiesAlive. With the exception of a few hiccups – spotty snacks, flimsy conference program, tour time changes - overall, I felt that Steven Peck and Green Roofs for Healthy Cities did a fantastic job of planning and executing this first “international” conference. Kind of funny since they’re Canadian, but this was the first time the conference was held outside of the U.S. Plus it was the first time under its new name – CitiesAlive. (As you’ll recall, the previous seven incarnations were titled “Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities.”)
And the Vancouver Local Host Committee (Rod Goy, Marita Luk, Andrea Martinello, Blair Bennett, Nicholas Rousseau, Dr. Katherine Dunster, Helen Goodland, Andrea Linsky, Andrea Kausel and Lyn Ross) should be commended, too, for their outstanding accomplishments and participation in this successful conference! Visit Green Roofs for Healthy Cities’ Acknowledgements page, where I borrowed this photo below:
In general, people were very happy with everything, with minor grumblings about not enough food at the Opening Plenary and dessert on the Trade Show floor after the Awards of Excellence Luncheon. Also, for the first time, CD’s of the conference proceedings were not available, but you can purchase video recordings of the over 60 speakers that go along with each’s PowerPoint presentation (“Full Compilation Streaming Media – Audio Synched to PPT”) from GRHC for $120.
In reflection, we should be happy the conference agenda is so big – I’m sure Greenbuild had similiar growing pains, talk about a massive, multi-day, multi-track program! Or ASLA, or AIA, for that matter. It simply, very clearly, illustrates the tremendous growth of our greenroof and greenwall industry, and acceptance of building integrated greenery into mainstream design. It is impossible to attend each presentation, so it’s great that GRHC developed the Living Architecture Academy – an online learning center with technical papers from all the past conferences and proceedings. Having such a resource at our fingertips is inmeasurable.
Regarding the Trade Show, we’ve all noticed a trend of some past exhibitors not exhibiting lately, sometimes due to the challenging economy, scheduling conflicts, or feeling resources could be better used elsewhere. So, I would also just like to add that all of us who are members of GRHC should pay a big thanks to all of the companies who have exhibited in the past, and who faithfully continue to do so. Being international for many of us, for Vancouver it was more cumbersome and expensive to ship everything, but conferences couldn’t be held without the support of exhibitors and sponsors. I would encourage everyone doing business within our industry to exhibit and work together to make our committment and exposure even better. Here are a few more Trade Show pics:
One of the very best things about all these conferences is the chance to meet new colleagues and see old friends from across the world and catch up on each other’s lives and happenings – we were happy to do this with the always effervescent Dusty Gedge of Livingroofs.org, Kerry Ross and her husband Bob, Chuck Friedrich and Ernie Higgins of ItSaul Natural – Mr. Natural (also from Atlanta), Contributing Editor Dr. Bill Retzlaff of SIUe, and too many other folks to mention! Many of our “usual” German colleagues were missing (Manfred Köhler and Roland Appl, among others), probably due to the numerous previous international congresses where we saw them, but it was great seeing several folks from the City of Portland’s Beaurau of Environmental Services and lots of international students, too.
I wish I had had more time with a bunch of people – the always wonderful Maureen Connelly from BCIT, Jennie Russell, and Andrea Martinello of N.A.T.S., for example, but there will be other conferences!
I’m sorry I couldn’t attend Maureen’s panel session of Expert Discussion: Taking Green Roofs and Walls to the Next Level in British Columbia – A Pathway to the Future! because it conflicted with our Top 10 presentation session. It included the fanstastic Deputy City Manager of the City of Vancouver, Sadhu Johnston – previously Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley’s Chief Environmental Officer and Deputy Chief of Staff, where he headed up much of their greenroof program.
In my opinion, Maureen Connelly is the true greenroof champion in Vancouver with her many years of dedication and research at British Columbia Institute of Technology’s Centre for the Advancement of Green Roof Technology, and should be commended for an outstanding job – keep up the great work, and thanks BCIT for all that you do! (See their project profile in The Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database here.) Their Mission Statement:
“The mission of the BCIT Centre for Architectural Ecology – Collaborations in Green Roofs and Living Walls is to conduct world-class, innovative research on green roof and living wall systems and to provide research-based education across disciplines, to students and practitioners.”
The BCIT Centre is evaluating the function and performance of extensive greenroofs and living walls in the rainforest climate of coastal B.C. Through collaborations with industry, government and academic partners, their vision is to help advance the widespread adoption of these technologies in this region. It would have been great to have visited the research facility, but, just like any working trip, there simply wasn’t enough time. Make sure to read BCIT’s “750 attend BCIT-co-hosted green roof conference” of December 13, 2010, where you can also see a huge gallery of photos.
We were here five nights and every day was devoted to conference events – although we didn’t get out to see the city and surroundings, many of our friends did (like Caroline and Janet Faust of JDR Enterprises). Caroline was fortunate enough to go up on a seaplane and took this wonderful aerial photo of Vancouver, above. Like most people, she also visited Whistler Mountain, one of North America’s top ski and snowboard resorts (and snapped this fun snow picture left).
The two greenroofed places I really wanted to visit but didn’t was the awesome Vancouver Public Library (also known as Library Square Building) with its pioneering rooftop built in 1995, and the fantastic 2010 Olympic andParalympic Winter Games Olympic Village, also known as Southeast False Creek and Millennium Water with about 287,000 sf total of greenroofs.
Read my 2.17.10 Sky Gardens post about it here. We featured Millennium Water in 2007’s Top 10 List in the #1 category – Visionary Proposed Projects since the City of Vancouver mandated that at least 50% of the buildings should be covered in green. Next time!
Not content to leave things alone, upon leaving the Vancouver International Airport (YVR), I had to take a bunch of photos of the 17-meter high YVR Canada Line Station 4 Living Wall, designed by the talented Randy Sharp of Sharp & Diamond Landscape Architecture. As you may know, the Canada Line is Vancouver’s new rapid transit rail link connecting YVR to downtown Vancouver, and visitors are greeted by this beautiful green wall of green and silver euonymus, mondo grass, and licorice fern. Read my 3.26.10 Sky Gardens post about it here.
We will defintely return to Vancouver, B.C. as a vacation destination, where we can take in all the sights and locations of this gorgeous city at our leisure! That’s it for now.
If you haven’t already, make sure to read our December, 2010 Guest Feature Article by Janet Faust of JDR Enterprises, “CitiesAlive! 2010,” where she did a great job in describing her reflections of this eighth yearly conference. Her account of compares the experience to a fine wine and Janet comments how these Green Roofs for Healthy Cities’ conferences have gotten better with age! If you’d like to present at the 9th Annual CitiesAlive! Green Roof and Wall Conference in Philadelphia, the Call for Paper Abstracts will be released in a few weeks.
Next up will be a series of posts about individual tour sites from each of these unique cities we had the pleaure of visiting last year: Mexico City, Singapore, and the lovely Vancouver, B.C., Canada.
As you know if you’ve been following us for a while (this is our 4th year of printing), the Greenroofs & Walls of the World 2011 Calendar™ combines two of our most popular destinations on Greenroofs.com: The Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database and Upcoming Events. It’s a great way to showcase fabulous projects and our website Sponsors, our highest level of advertising.
Newly redesigned by Caroline Menetre, 2011 has a sleeker look ~ her years in graphic design have helped us present a more streamlined calendar that is still bursting with colorful glossy photos of awesome projects plus all the international green events you could ever plan on attending in one year.
Also new for 2011 is the inclusion of greenwalls ~ the newest architectural darling in the living architecture world. And as always, our Calendar is eco-friendly, printed on 50% recycled paper with 25% post consumer waste using soy inks.
Building types are represented with projects from single and multi-family residences and the corporate world to an airport cargo facility, botanical garden, hospital, community college, municipal, federal research library, and even an elevated green street!
Check out the projects highlighted for 2011:
Pricing: Only $12.95 which includes free shipping within the contiguous United States and Canada – and we have discounts for orders of 11 calendars and above. Remember that shipping rates will vary with international destinations. Visit our Calendar page for all the specifics and ordering information here.
If you’re attending the the 8th Annual Green Roof and Green Wall Conference – CitiesAlive! in Vancouver, B.C. on November 30 – December 3, 2010, the first 50 visitors to stop by the Greenroofs.com booth (#416)will receive a freeCalendar, so make sure to stop by early! When we’re out we’ll be offering them for sale at a special Conference rate of only $10 – first come, first served. Afterwards, of course, the Calendar will be available for purchase and shipping at any time.
And thanks to all of the rest of Greenroofs.com’s Sponsors who weren’t featured this year, but whose support makes our website possible (along with all of you who are listed in The Greenroof Directory):
The 2011 Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Calendar will make a perfect holiday gift for you, your staff, and your green architecture like-minded friends and family, so order now in time for all the upcoming holidays and the new year.
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!
Next week on January 21st, 2012, Bronx educator Steve Ritz will be presenting at the sold-out TEDxManhattan on this very subject. See him at right, standing next to one of the GLT Mobile Edible Wall Units – full of fresh herbs and veggies -which he uses in his classrooms. (See Caroline Menetre’s related “GLT in NYC: A Weekend of Training, Education, & Fun“ Sky Gardens Blog post of January 21, 2011.)
In reflection, we should be happy the conference agenda is so big – I’m sure 
I’m sorry I couldn’t attend Maureen’s panel session of Expert Discussion: Taking Green Roofs and Walls to the Next Level in British Columbia – A Pathway to the Future! because it conflicted with our Top 10 presentation session. It
Not content to leave things alone, upon leaving the Vancouver International Airport (YVR), I had to take a bunch of photos of the 17-meter high 
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3. The W Hotel: 188 14th Street, NE, Atlanta. 
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