Our Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2011 is less than two weeks away!

Last week I told you about our seven fantastic panel sessions who you’ll be watching followed by a live Question and Answer session, including:  ”Biodiversity and Green Roofs,” Greenroofs & Walls for Educational & Social Equity in the Bronx,” “The Portland Ecoroof Program: A Cross-section of the Green Roof Movement in Portland, Oregon,” “Vertical Agriculture: A Global Movement Starts Locally, from Walls & Roofs to Table,” “Wind. Water. Heat. Grow. Greenroofs.,” “Greenroofs: Wind & Fire,” and “Green Roofs Without the Hype.”

In addition to our four awesome Keynote Speakers whom we’ve already profiled - Andrew Grant, Charlie Miller, Ed Snodgrass and Ralph Velasquez – and other luminaries previously highlighted, here are more brilliant speakers you will enjoy hearing:

Roland Appl, Germany:  The Technical Director of ZinCo and President of the International Green Roof Association (IGRA) will present “Combining Green Roofs with Photovoltaics.”

Jörg Breuning, USA and Germany:  The principal of Green Roof Technology (Previously Green Roof Service) and co-founder of Green Roof Safari will present “Green Roof Technology Sails Around the World.”

Ignacio Espoz, Chile:  The founder of LatinGreen, Director of the World Green Roof infrastructure Network (WGIN), and Director of the Chilean Association of Green Infrastructure will present “Green Infrastructure in Chile and Innovative Living Walls for Environmental Restoration in Mining of the Atacama Desert.”

Tanya Müller Garcia, Mexico:  The founder of AMENA – Asociación Mexicana para la Naturación de Azoteas – (National Mexican Greenroof Association), Vice-President of WGIN, and Director of Urban Reforestation and Bikeways for the City of Mexico will present “Development of Greenroofs and Walls in Mexico and Latin America.”

Richard Hayden, RLA, ASLA, CLARB, USA:  The landscape architect and Garden Roof Department Manager at American Hydrotech, Inc. will present “Sloped and Complex Green Roofs.”

Haven Kiers, LEED AP, GRP, USA:  The founding partner of GreenSwell Design and Planning, trainer with Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, and contributing editor on Greenroofs.com will co-present the “2011 Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof & Greenwall Design” with Linda Velazquez.

Terry McGlade, Canada:  The horticulturalist, landscape designer, and founder and President of Gardens in the Sky will present “Constructing Gardens in the Sky.”

Chris Wark, MSME, LEED AP, USA:  The engineer, Senior Energy Analyst for Viridian Energy & Environmental, and contributing editor on Greenroofs.com will present “E = MC2 of Green Roofs: Ranking Energy Benefits by Mission, Climate and Construction.”

Imagine a world of green:
What are we doing to create organic architecture?

Next week I’ll highlight the rest of our stellar cast of greenroof and greenwall professionals and enthusiasts!

See the GGW Virtual Summit Speakers page and Agenda to learn all about each presenter and their presentations or the panel sessions.

You’ve got to admit that you can’t beat the super low registration fee of $99 for September 27 and 28 plus the 30 days archived on demand through October 28 to hear from all of these excellent speakers…

… but we want everyone to qualify for the even lower Associate Rate of only $49 (just type in the name of the non-profit/organization/constituency that you belong when prompted) or the Students/Faculty/Government Professionals Rate of only $25 (state the school/university or government).

And, you’ll be automatically entered for the chance at winning our second Apple iPad2 drawing, announced on September 30, 2011.

Pre-register or learn more by visiting:  virtual.greenroofs.com.

We hope you join us for this very interactive virtual experience – think film festival meets 2-day webinar and online expo extravaganza!

Brought to you by Greenroofs.com, we’d like to thank to our Virtual Summit Sponsors TREMCO (Rare Earth) and American Hydrotech (Emerald) and our Exhibitors, Associates, and Media Partners – make sure to visit them at the Expo Pavilions.

See you online on September 27 & 28, 2011!

~ Linda V.

All Photos by Caroline Menetre Unless Otherwise Noted
Story by Linda Velazquez and Caroline Menetre

Along with my son and cameraman Joey Velazquez, our Greenroofs.com contributor Caroline Menetre and I flew up to Chicago on September 10 to interview world renown French botanist, Patrick Blanc, at the beautiful 4-star Sofitel Chicago Water Tower for the upcoming Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2011.

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.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank Jean-Luc Le Gouallec of MurVegetalPatrickBlanc.com for inviting us, Aimée Laberge of the Alliance Française de Chicago (who, along with Air France, the participation of the Services Culturels of the French Consulate in Chicago, the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Chicago Architecture Foundation and the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology sponsored Patrick’s visit) for arranging our Chicago visit, Carrie Makris of the Sofitel Chicago Water Tower who graciously allowed us to scope out the best site and set up filming, and most importantly to the lovely and talented Patrick Blanc for his time and participation!

See you online on September 27 & 28!

~ Linda V. & Caroline Menetre

Vancouver, B.C.

The stunning Vancouver, B.C. with its mix of rugged beauty, eclectic architecture, and progressive thinking was our last stop on our “international conference tour” at the end of last year - after previously having presented the Greenroofs.com ”2010 Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof & Greenwall Design” in Mexico City and Singapore.

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 and Semiahmoo 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 and eco-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 Carlisle SynTec, 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 Arts and 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 with greenroofs and greenwalls, 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 with The 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 Awards ceremony 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 Garden in 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 + Will and 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), and Caroline 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 and Geneviève Nöel of Mubi Regenerative Consulting, below her:

Dr. Clayton Rugh of Xero Flor America, above, and Xero 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 with Interior Living Wall Biofilter Projects – Lessons Learned from Pioneering Experience from Dr. Alan Darlington of Nedlaw Living Walls and Birgit Siber of Diamond and Schmitt 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 LEED program 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 and GRP 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 and Local 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 Farevaag Smallenberg.  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, Keith Agoada 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 and Paralympic 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.

Happy Greening from Alpharetta, Georgia,

~ Linda V.

Did you know that you can see the all the PowerPoint presentations for Haven Kiers and my “2010 Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof & Greenwall Design“ here on Greenroofs.com?”  Powered by authorSTREAM, you can view them in their entirety for 2007, 2008, 2009, and now 2010: 

2010 marks the fourth year of our ”Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof & Greenwall Design” – download the Press Release here. 

Compiled by our Design Editor, Haven Kiers, and I, this year’s list of categories represents amazing examples of both vegetated roofs and walls since the concept of “Building Integrated Greenery” knows no boundaries, and in fact blurs the distinction between a structure’s various planes.

As usual, we search the globe for the new and newsworthy and look for common threads among the most-often times spectacular and uncommon, projects.  Our favorite sites are Inhabitat, designboom®, ArchDaily, JETSON GREEN… just to name a few – and we also get project news from the designers themselves, as well as members of organizations such as Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, the International Green Roof Association, Livingroofs.org, etc., in addition to our own Greenroofs.com readers!

The focus of the Top 10 Trends of 2010 illustrates global shifts in thinking about how we can manipulate the built environment through design to lessen its burden on the Earth’s climate, energy, and natural resources, and increase the overall productivity of our built structures.  Showcased are simply stunning and important built projects, those that are still on the boards, and several amazing, beyond forward-thinking conceptual designs that hopefully will materialize in the future!

Without further ado:

2010 HOT TRENDS in GREENROOF & GREENWALL DESIGN
Top 10 List

10) Client Specific ‘Boutique’ Greenroofs
We’ve had this category each year, and it’s kind of a catch all for projects that are too unique to fit into their own category

9) Green Sporting Venues
From construction jobs, to parking, ticket sales, and concessions revenue, sporting venues bring in big bucks to a community and can be the lifeblood of a local economy. It should come as no surprise, then, that the trend in sporting venue construction is high end and green to attract an upscale clientele while simultaneously bringing in government subsidies. New baseball  & soccer stadiums, basketball arenas, tennis centers and even Olympic stadiums are sporting greenroofs these days.

8) A Symbiosis of Ecology & Architecture
It’s not enough to just design beautiful buildings any more. These days, structures need to be aesthetically stunning, sustainable. and more. Form still follows function, but we’re finding ways to design with nature, not just on top of it.

7) Greenwalls as Public Art
We’ve seen greenwalls used to advertise products, feed the homeless, and remove particulate matter from the air, but what about greenwalls as objects of art, themselves? Vegetated murals are the newest form of public art.

6) Daylighting Greenroofs
If there’s anything we’ve learned from the green building movement, it’s the importance of natural light to reduce energy consumption, connect people to the outdoors, and improve employee & student satisfaction and productivity. Pairing skylights and windows with greenroofs is the natural next step in sustainable design.

5) The Greening of Latin America
European, Asian and North American greenroofs have hogged the spotlight for long enough. Slowly but steadily, greenroofs and greenwalls have been sprouting up throughout Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America – all with a unique, local Latin flair.

4) Building Integrated Greenery for a Cooler Planet
We all know that vegetation helps cool buildings, and designers are taking it to a new level. Building Integrated Greenery – greenwalls and greenroofs – are increasingly integrated with sustainable building design to naturally manufacture cool air that reduces the need for energy hogs like air conditioners.

3) Biomimicry as Eco-literacy & Holistic Design
Designers are increasingly taking the lead from Mother Nature by creating structures that operate like natural organisms. Biomimicry informs the public by incorporating principles from the natural world into the design and function of buildings.

2)  Megacities & Redevelopment Enveloped in Green
What more can we say?  Designers and city planners are thinking bigger and greener!

1) Tower Oases as Skyrise Urban Ag
Last year our #1 category was “Towers of Power” – Mega Vertical Structures Linking Earth and Skywhich blurred the distinction between greenroofs and greenwalls.

For 2010 we continue on that theme – burgeoning populations and rapid urbanization are making vertical urban agriculture hot these days.  Most of these visionary projects are still in the conceptual phase, but with the support of governments and the exploding imagination of designers, building integrated agriculture is well on its way to becoming a towering urban reality.

I presented the 2010 Top 10 a couple of weeks ago in Mexico City at the WGIN World Green Roof Congress (an awesome conference – more on that later!), and will be presenting it next week in Singapore for the 2010 International Skyrise Greenery Conference, and both Haven and I will be hand for the 8th Annual 2010 Green Roof and Green Wall Conference – CitiesAlive! in Vancouver, B.C. in December.   Because of the time limitations for presenting at these conferences, ranging from 20 – 30 minutes, we can only show 4 or 5 representative projects in each category, although there are many more out there!

You can view the 2009, 2008 and 2007 PowerPoint presentations of the Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof Design, and we’ll be posting our 2010 PowerPoint in mid December, where we’ll post additional projects, too, for our newly titled “Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof & Greenwall Design.”

Happy Greening!

~ Linda V. and Haven K.

Have you read our latest Guest Feature, ”Save the Date: Skyrise Greenery Conference Singapore (1st-3rd November)” by Wolfgang Ansel from the International Green Roof Association (IGRA) and Dr. Tan Puay Yok, Deputy Director, Centre for Urban Greenery and Ecology (CUGE), National Parks Board?

And are you still planning on attending in awesome Singapore on November 1-3, 2010 but haven’t registered yet?  Well, this is probably your last chance to make a final decision – organized by CUGE, a project of the National Parks Board of Singapore, and the International Green Roof Association (IGRA), the conference will be held at the National Library.

Remember that Greenroofs.com is the Media Sponsor and has negotiated a spectacular deal with the organizers, guaranteeing you a special rate package rate that includes the conference, tour excursion and dinner.  

The promotional code for registration under the special discounted rate of S$1000.00 (less than $750 U.S.) per conference package for Greenroofs.com readers is: G3P94K04 – compare that to the normal Package Rate of $1,650 U.S.!

Here are just some highlights:

More than 450 delegates from 25 countries have already signed up for the conference, including 70 from China!

Who are attending the conference?
• over 120 policy makers
• over 60 developers and building owners
• over 120 professionals including architects and planners
• over 60 contractors and suppliers
• over 80 from the academia

A must attend event for all academias, architects, planners, building material producers, city planners, engineering and contracting services, government officials, horticulturists, landscape architects, park owners and managers, project consultants, real estate and property developers, and estate and facility managers.  Don’t miss this opportunity to network, share and start new business relationships! 

Sign up now and join us from 1-3 November to gain insights from world renowned award winning experts who will share about the latest trends and innovations on green roofs, skyrise gardens and vertical greenery.

Keynote Speakers:

Get Exclusive Access and Be Inspired by World-Class Skyrise Greenery Projects in Singapore:

Seven unique skyrise greenery sites will be offered on the skyrise greenery tour in Singapore.  Several of these are usually not open to the public.  Learn firsthand from the site architects about the challenges of building a 200m high sky park (the incredible Marina Bay Sands, see the graphic above and actual incredible infinity pool photo below that circulated the Internet a few months ago), be inspired by the ingenuity of developing a low cost patented skyrise greening system that requires minimal maintenance, and more.

Also, from hotels to schools, shopping malls to a dam across a channel – you can visit 13 must-see skyrise greenery sites within the city in Singapore with their walking map.

To see the complete line-up of speakers, register, and learn more, visit the International Skyrise Greenery Conference website.  See you in Singapore next week, where I’ll be presenting Haven Kiers and my 2010 Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof & Greenwall Design- we can’t wait!

~ Linda and Aramis V.

Before the second day of Ecoroof Portland’s Vendor Fair and program sessions, Tom Liptan co-led an ecoroof tour starting at 8:30 a.m.  Along with Jason King of TERRA.fluxus, on March 13 the group was comfortably and efficiently transported by ecoShuttle around northeast Portland to see a variety of roofs, below.

The five sites visited on Saturday morning were the Metro Regional Headquarters Ecoroof and Yakuza Restaurant (above), K-4 Condominiums (left), and the O’Brien and Omey residences (below).

I’m sorry to say we just couldn’t make ourselves get up early enough to join in!  But our trusty friends Casey Cunningham at the City of Portland Bureau of Environmental Services and Jason shared these photos with us (I hope to add/update these profiles soon to The Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database) – by the way, Jason King is a very talented landscape architect here and has been involved with many ecoroof projects, including the Multnomah County Multnomah Building, top photo above.

After the 10:30 Intro to Portland Ecoroof session, Commissioner Dan Saltzman welcomed everyone and spoke about the City’s vision for a sustainable future and some of their ongoing projects.  Then I was introduced as the keynote speaker, sharing my presentation “Hot Trends in Greenroof & Greenwall Design.”  A compilation of my favorites from the past three years of Haven Kiers, our Design Editor, and my Top 10 List of Hot Design Trends in Greenroof Design, I also added some outstanding projects that will make our Top 10 for 2010 (under construction), including this one below, the $90 million Oregon Sustainability Center, designed by Portland firms SERA Architects and GBD Architects:

Saturday’s first afternoon session was all about case studies – small and large, public and private.  Kevin Falkerson, AIA, and Kerrie Lee Cole, GRP, of SYMBIOS shared their experience of design-based solutions with the Salmon Creek School living roof, from concept through construction and follow-up.  The LEED Platinum Sonoma County, California environmental center has many eco-friendly features, offering the students of this K-8 grade school numerous opportunities for place-based learning – about the ecology of the natural site and the greenroof itself.

The semi-intensive roof sports a diverse palette of non-native and native sedums and succulents, accented with beautiful detail plantings including boulders and rocks.  See a photo gallery here.

Next up was the energetic Walt Quade, a general contractor with Cully Construction Co. (and Green Home Oregon), who built his own energy-conscious, partially underground home with a custom-designed 1,490 sf greenroof in north Portland.  He also started from research to conception through several design options, before deciding on the one that would best suit his family’s needs and desires.  Walt not only described the construction process step-by-step, he also provided insights on lessons learned.  His message was clear:  ecoroofs do not need to be a high cost item if you are knowledgeable about products, and they are not that difficult to execute – but you do need to know your limitations and hire professionals when necessary.  See his photo gallery here.

Karl Schultz from the Port of Portland followed with the new sustainable headquarters facility for the Port of Portland at PDX, Portland International Airport.  Situated in front of the terminal which is connected to the parking garage, the 10-floor LEED Gold-designed facility has extensive daylighting, high performance glazing, radiant heating and cooling ceiling, reflective membrane, and a Living Machine – an organic wastewater treatment system that treats wastewater onsite to be used in the building for non-potable uses.

The structure also features an intensive built in place greenroof on the 8th floor and the larger 10,000 sf LiveRoof modular greenroof on top of the 9th floor on the north side installed for rainwater treatment  – both incorporate “adaptive plant Micromist irrigation.”

The final session was the very interesting, informal, and lively ”The Ecoroof Doctors are IN” panel with Tom Liptan, Ed Snodgrass, Patrick Carey, Dave Elkin, and Alice Meyers from the BES Ecoroof Incentive Program.  They offered advice and fielded many questions from architects, homeowners, and designers about a ton of subjects – from which are the best plants to benefits of modular vs. built in place systems to construction details.

Earlier this year, March was declared “Ecoroof Portland” month by Mayor Adams, and the learning and fun didn’t stop with Ecoroof Portland 2010 - here are a few more opportunities to learn what they’re all about from sponsors the Portland Audubon Society, Urban Greenspaces Institute, and the City of Portland (check for space availability):

South Waterfront Ecoroof Tour, March 27th
Green Roofs and Living Walls for Wildlife, March 30th – with one of our perennial favorites, Brit Dusty Gedge of Livingroofs.org 
Downtown Ecoroof Tour, March 31st

We left Portland with a greater understanding of how City employees, from the Mayor to City Commissioners to everyone at BES, view their work.  I felt that the employee buy-in for eco-friendly stormwater management options for a cleaner and greener Portland is just amazing!  It was evident from everyone we met how much they loved their jobs and how strongly they felt that ecoroofs were a real solution.  They really impressed me with their friendliness, professionalism, and dedication – thanks for inviting me!

Oregon is a land of widely different people, places, and ecosystems, and the beautiful City of Roses is always a pleasure to visit.  The City of Portland serves as a shining example to the rest of the U.S. on how municipal government can really work effectively for and with their people to promote healthy, sustainable development.  Ecoroof Portland is a win-win event for everyone here – the citizens, the City employees, and as a result from all the support and financial incentives, the local environment as well.  Stay in touch by visiting the City’s BES website.

~ Linda V.

As we continue to ring in 2010 we hope you enjoyed warm holidays with family and friends and celebrated the New Year with renewed hope for the future.  Can you believe we’ve entered a new decade?  Shall we call it 2K10, Twenty Ten, or just good old fashioned 2,010?  In any case, we’re finally out of the 0’s, now we’re into the 10’s.

Our world economy has been through a lot in the past few years, yet with a promising light hovering just over the horizon.  Although development overall has declined, there is continued desire for green buildings from both the public and private sector, and in general our greenroof & greenwall industry has weathered quite nicely.  Many of us are taking time to reflect on this passage of time and make New Year’s resolutions (another topic altogether!), and I was thinking of how far we have come since the German experience entered our architectural radar and into our collective consciousness in the 1990’s.  Literally thousands of vegetated roofs and walls have been constructed since then in every continent except for Antarctica, with ever growing support from forward thinking multidisciplinary professionals: designers, government officials, organizations, companies, universities, students and other advocates looking to make Earth a little more sustainable.

Sadly, one of those special, innovative people passed away last November 27, the indomitable architect Malcolm Wells.  Regarded as “the father of modern earth-sheltered architecture,” he was a staunch advocate of living architecture, known for his way ahead-of-the-times underground earth designs with living roofs starting in the 1960’s, see just one example below.  He leaves a legacy of what he referred to as gentle architecture, design that would, in his own words, “leave the land no worse than you found it.”

The visionary Malcolm Wells' design for an eco-gas station, from MalcolmWells.com.

Many inspirational people and organizations have contributed to our current market, and I want to highlight just a few success stories from the past year, personal and global.  So in my review, here are my favorite 2009 Top 10 Milestones and Accomplishments for both Greenroofs.com as a company and our international community as a whole:

10)  In 2009 Greenroofs.com celebrated 10 years of being in business!  We’ve seen a lot of progress and change for the good here as well as across the greenroof world.  The fledgling Greenroofs.com – “exploring the ecology of organic greenroof architecture” started out as 60+ pages in 1999 as the result of an independent research study I did at the University of Georgia.

By 2003 we changed our format and grew into Greenroofs.com – “the international greenroof industry’s resource and online information portal,” and contained 600+ pages at the end of 2009 (not counting the hundreds of .php pages from The Greenroof Directory or The Greenroof Projects Database).  At present, each month Greenroofs.com receives more than 160,000 unique visits and about 400,000 page views, and we’ve also expanded our presence in social marketing, too, so now you can stay connected with us on: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, eNewsletter (our monthly eNewsletter consists of 10,000 opt-in subscribers) & YouTube, as well as our Blog.

9)  The proliferation of living architecture is greatly spreading and permeating into the areas of design, policy, research and education through numerous world conferences, congresses, expos, trainings, tours, and other events.  For example, the World Green Infrastructure Network (WGIN) – formerly the World Green Roof Infrastructure Network (WGRIN) - held its first CitiesAlive! World Green Roof Congress in Toronto, Canada, with the second scheduled for Mexico City this October, 2010.  The International Green Roof Association (IGRA) hosted the 2nd International Green Roof Congress 2009 in Nürtingen, Germany and the 3rd annual Green Roofs Australia Conference 2009 was held at the University of Melbourne.  Longevity was evident with the 7th National FBB Green Roof Conference in Ditzingen, Germany and the 7th annual Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC) Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities Conference, Awards, and Trade Show in Atlanta, Georgia.  By the way, look for the 8th annual GRHC conference to occur in Vancouver, B.C. on November 30 – December 2, 2010, rebranded as ”Cities Alive.”  Look for many new 2010 events throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Germany, China, Singapore, India and more under Upcoming Events, where you can also access Past Events.

8)  For the third year, we published our 2010 Greenroofs of the World™ Calendar.  I’ve already blogged about it, and we’re very proud of our first hard product.  And we thank our Sponsors for their support: American Hydrotech, Barrett Company, Conservation Technology, Express Blower, GREEN ROOF BLOCKS, GreenGrid, International Leak Detection (ILD), LiveRoof, Roofscapes, Inc., Saul Nurseries, Tremco, Xero Flor America, and ZinCo USA.  You can find the Calendar on Amazon.com, but it’s a better deal if you order from us!

7) Green walls are firmly becoming entrenched in sustainable design, evidenced by high media attention, as much for their green properties as for their edible gardening possibilities. We’ve had tons of news articles posted in NewsLinks, our huge database of global articles, concerning living walls and green façades!  In fact, they were listed as #31 in TIME’s 50 Best Inventions of 2009 and Triple Pundit recently proposed: ”Gardens Grow Up: Are Vertical Landscapes the New Green Roofs?“ - both featuring the works of Patrick Blanc.  In our business you’d have to be living under a rock not to know who the renowned French botanist is; his often fantastical “murs végétalisés” designs stretch the limits of horticulture and design.  Since 1994, he has created over 140 public vertical gardens as well as many private installations, including his most famous, the Quai Branly Museum in Paris, shown below.  Read more about green walls from Treehugger, Daily Telegraph, Daily Commercial News, The New York Times, Times Online and CNN.com, just to name a few.

Quai Branly Museum photo courtesy and by Jean-Claude Lafarge on http://www.jeanclaudelafarge.fr/paris.html.

In 2009 Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, the North American professional association, established greenwall research projects at the British Columbia Institute of Technology and the University of Maryland, and GRHC has included an award category for Green Wall Excellence in Design for a couple of years now.  In 2008 Greenroofs.com added our 8th Contributing Editor, George Irwin - aptly titled The Green Wall Editor - to cover this growing vertical gardening field, and new for 2010 we have altered the title of our Greenroof Projects Database to reflect the inclusion of these:  The Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database.

6) Investing in green building and infrastructure makes good economic sense by integrating green building policies into wider economic development goals, and creates a new job market. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) has prompted a gigantic increase in federal green spending, providing new money to all levels of government, aimed at stimulating the economy, promoting job growth, and lowering energy costs, providing an unprecedented opportunity for advancing green building and sustainability efforts in the U.S.  And last December, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported at least 138 U.S. cities with populations over 50,000 people have green building programs in place (compared to only 92 in 2007).  Referring to the economic recession, the AIA said “The downturn has had a devastating effect on construction generally, but sustainable building design continues to maintain and improve its market share.”  Read their 2009 in depth study “Green Building Policy in a Changing Economic Environment” to learn more.

American Institute of Architects 2009 Study of Green Building Programs by Cities

U.S. economic stimulus efforts encompass green energy and construction, including greenroofs along with other forms of green building, and just one such example of Recovery Act funds benefit Washington D.C., where the Washington Business Journal says “Nearly $4 million would go toward building more than 100,000 sf of green roofs on city buildings, including libraries, firehouses and a demonstration project atop the parking garage deck at University of the District of Columbia.  The stimulus funds would also expand the city’s green roof rebate program to allow residents and small businesses to afford another 20,000 sf of private green roof space.”

And importantly, many green building programs are also creating “green collar” jobs.  In late 2009, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and Booz Allen Hamilton conducted a study and stated “Green building will support 7.9 million U.S. jobs and pump $554 billion into the American economy – including $396 billion in wages – over the next four years (2009-2013).  The study also determined that green construction spending currently supports more than 2 million American jobs and generates more than $100 billion in gross domestic product and wages…The full report can be downloaded at www.usgbc.org/greeneconomy, where one can also find other research, resources, tools and information about green building and its role in the economic recoveries of professionals, businesses and the nation.”  According to an analysis by American Rivers and the Alliance for Water Efficiency, the Natural Resources Defense Council reports that a $10 billion nationwide initiative to install greenroofs alone would result in almost 200,000 jobs – the Senate is expected to consider its own version of the bill in early 2010.

Some U.S. leaders offering hope and opportunity by creating greenroof/greenwall-specific green collar jobs through training include Sustainable South Bronx (SSBx) and their various programs, i.e., “Green the Ghetto” and “Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training (BEST)”; D.C. Greenworks; Chicagoland Green Collar Jobs Initiative, and the Urban Farming Food Chain.

5) Green Roofs for Healthy Cities launched the Green Roof Professional (GRP) accreditation  for North America.  The GRP is a measure of knowledge of established best practices and although a voluntary program, with the designation professionals can distinguish themselves in the marketplace.  This association milestone was at least four years in the making!  Currently with more than 250 GRP’s in 2009, GRHC hopes to add more professionals in 2010.  Check their website for future testing dates, and consider attending one of their Green Roof Boot Camps to refresh and get you ready.  See my interview with Jeff Bruce, president of Jeffrey L. Bruce & Company, Chair of GRHC and the GRHC Training and Accreditation Committee, which developed the Green Roof Professional program, to learn why the organization felt this accreditation was needed, how it evolved, and where it’s heading.  For more info on the GRP, see “A Video Introduction to the GRP Program” from Green Roofs for Healthy Cities.

4) Within the U.S. industry, major contributions were made in the area to develop best practice wind and fire standards for greenroof design.  Since 2007, leaders from various organizations have been working hard on prescriptive standards, and in 2009 standards were inserted into the International Building Code from members of GRHC and Single Ply Roofing Industry (SPRI).  Read “Green Roof Wind & Fire Design Guidelines: After Three Years, Half the Battle is Won,” written by one of our Contributing Editors, Kelly Luckett, The Green Roof Guy, to learn about this winding road’s development of RP-14 and VF-1.  And stay tuned for updates with his column here on Greenroofs.com.

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUe) Wind Tunnel Testing in June, 2009.

3)  The global Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database surpassed the 1,000 mark in December!  So where are all these greenroofs and greenwalls anyway?  Let’s continue to work together to grow, update, and share valuable case studies for our communal benefit, for free.  Even in today’s openly transparent society (think Google Earth), some people worry about confidentiality issues, and we only post information that is submitted to us by owners/project principals or that which is openly available through various media channels, and we always list owners as “private” when requested.  The Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database is now searchable by 24 fields, including specifically for green walls.  After our Home Page, the Projects Database is the next visited page on Greenroofs.com – make sure your projects and valuable experiences are included here.

2)  My albeitly biased personal favorite, Greenroofs.com inaugurated our first episode of the Sky Gardens ~ Greenroofs of the World ™ WebTV series.  Premiering at Boston GreenFest in September, our new venture followed on the GreenroofsTV channel on YouTube, and next on our own greenroofs.tv, where you can now see it in its entirety at just under 37 minutes.  By the way, you can also view our video offshoot, ”Greenroofs 101 from Greenroofs.com” (4:50) in Greenroofs 101 or directly below, which is a great way to introduce the concept to newcomers.  Coming soon is episode 2, highlighting the gorgeous Cook+Fox Architects corporate offices in Manhattan, NY.  Our third episode is in the works, and more are being scheduled, so stay tuned!

1) 2009 saw some serious support for greenroofs, championed by professional organizations and governmental bodies alike. Global industry support has grown over the years, and many advocates continue to actively promote them worldwide.  For example, the City of Chicago, certainly the U.S. leader in greenroofs, now has over 7 million square feet of vegetated roofs completed or under development.  New support in 2009 includes:

North America:  In addition to offering eco-incentives for greenroofs, currently Toronto has the most progressive policy in North America – last May Toronto became the first city here to adopt a bylaw to require and govern the construction of greenroofs.  The new bylaw will be required on all new development above 2,000 m² (about 21,530 sf) of gross floor area and have a graduated coverage requirement ranging from 20-60%.  Working with a program budget of $800,000/year, owners of industrial and commercial buildings can apply for grants worth up to $100,000 (Canadian) to build a greenroof.  Mayor David Miller predicts the rules and incentives will create 50 to 60 green-roofed buildings per year, in addition to their current 135 vegetated roofs.  Green Roofs for Healthy Cities supported the by-law against pressure from developers opposed to the policy.  See more details under Industry Support and at the City of Toronto website.

Here in the U.S., in late 2009 ASLA, the American Society of Landscape Architects, worked with Congress to include the Green Act into the House-passed climate change legislation.  The Act would require the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to employ greenroofs, tree canopy coverage, and other site planning techniques to help reduce heating and cooling costs in certain HUD facilities.  Still pending before the Senate Finance Committee, last January Senator Maria Cantwell (WA) introduced the Clean Energy Stimulus and Investment Assurance Act of 2009 (S.320), legislation geared toward creating high-wage green-collar jobs and revitalizing the economy through clean energy investments.  ASLA worked with Senator Cantwell’s office to ensure that a section of the bill was dedicated to green roof tax incentives, and GRHC provided technical support.  Under section 506 of the bill, residential and commercial property owners will receive a 30% tax credit for qualified greenroof expenditures.

As you may recall, Congress enacted Section 438 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) to require federal agencies to reduce stormwater runoff from federal development projects to protect water resources and in October of 2009, President Obama signed Executive Order 13514 on “Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance” calling upon all federal agencies to lead by example and address a wide range of environmental issues, including stormwater runoff.  Federal agencies can comply with Section 438 by using a variety of green infrastructure / low impact development techniques including living roofs.  Prepared by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in coordination with other federal agencies, the “Technical Guidance on Implementing the Stormwater Runoff Requirements for Federal Projects under Section 438 of the Energy Independence and Security Act” PDF is highly detailed and instructive.

State and municipal governments also provided policy support:  Former Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine signed three bills promoting incentives in 2009: HB 1975 and SB 1058 authorize localities to grant regulatory flexibility and incentives to promote the construction of vegetative roofs on private homes and businesses.  The incentives or regulatory flexibility could include a reduction in permit fees, a streamlined process for the approval of building permits, or a reduction in any gross receipts tax on greenroof contractors as defined by the local ordinance.  The third bill, HB 1828, allows water authorities to offer rate incentives for vegetative roof construction, based on the percentage of stormwater runoff reduction.  In late fall, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA), Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati (MSDGC), and the Office of Environmental Quality created a Green Roof Loan Program utilizing money from the Water Pollution Control Loan Fund.  OEPA has made $5,000,000 available for linked deposit, below market rate loans to install green vegetative roofs within the service area of MSDGC on residential, commercial and/or industrial buildings.

Already a city offering several greenroof incentives, in October Portland’s city commission approved a Climate Action Plan which calls for a 40% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and an 80% reduction by 2050.  According to the Portland Business Journal, “The Plan calls for the city and county to take 93 actions over the next three years.  City bureaus must immediately begin implementing 15 of the new climate-related initiatives, such as establishing a tax credit for businesses that install ecoroofs and solar panels together.”  And last month, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District invited governments, organizations, school districts, and businesses within the 28 communities it serves to participate in their 2010 Regional Green Roof Initiative Program.  Among other prerequisites, proposed projects must minimize impervious roof area and maximize the reduction in the rate and/or volume of stormwater runoff.

Dubai Municipality launched a greenroof initiative in line with a Dubai law on green building specifications.  The Municipality’s strategic goal is to raise per capita green area to 23.4 square meters by the end of 2011, with the green building project coming under the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, United Arab Emirate Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai.  A public awareness campaign for greenroofs was announced last month, committed to the “development of laws and regulations to keep pace with international standards in the field of sustainable development by planting green roofs and facades in the Emirate of Dubai.”  Traveling display models and educational publications will circulate residential neighborhoods and shopping centers and markets for a 12-month period.  Read more on the Dubai Municipality Portal.  One spectacular greening project currently on the boards in Dubai is the self-sustained system “Food City” below, designed by Green Concepts Landscape Architects (GCLA):

The proposed Dubai Food City, conceptualized by landscape architecture firm GCLA.

 Well, those are my thoughts on the important highlights of 2009, and while on the topic of Top 10 lists, Haven Kiers – our Design Editor - and I are compiling our 4th annual Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof Designs for 2010, and we welcome your input with ideas and project example submissions, as usual!  Send comments to Linda@greenroofs.com or DesignEditor@greenroofs.com.

So here we are at the start of a whole new year – we hope you’re excited and optimistic about it, just as we are!   Whatever 2009 offered you, we hope you embraced new friends and opportunities and experienced great personal and professional growth, and we thank you for your readership.  What’s in store for our new decade?  We’ll see, but as the green building industry continues with positive signs of sustained growth, let’s also continue to collaborate and create a more sustainable world with eco-architecture embracing greenroofs and greenwalls as part of the overall green living architecture strategy.

“I woke up one day to the fact that the earth’s surface was made for living plants, not industrial plants.”  ~ Malcolm Wells

Here’s a gentle toast to continued health, love, and prosperity for you, your families, and all of our greenroof associates in 2010!

Happy Greening ~ Linda V.

After almost seven weeks of intense scrutiny and review, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC) has relased the names of their first “graduating class” of GRP’s, or Green Roof Professionals (download the Press Release “First Green Roof Professionals (GRPs) Announced” of July 21, 2009 here.  These hardy 100+ represent the inaugural group of professionals across multi-disciplinary fields to sit for and pass the GRP exam, held in Atlanta on June 5, 2009 at the 7th Annual Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities Conference, Awards & Trade Show.

The purpose of the GRP exam is to establish greenroof professional viability in our growing industrial sector.  Jeffrey L. Bruce, Chair of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, whom I interviewed in May said, “We are very pleased with the caliber of the new GRPs and the fact that they come from both the green arts side, i.e., the living components of a green roof, and the black arts side, i.e., the nonliving components. Industry experts from both the black and the green arts have worked hard over the past six years to develop training materials and a professional exam that covers best practices across the spectrum of professionals, in order to improve multi-disciplinary knowledge and practice in the field.”

Congratulations to the new designees and so many people involved in the whole process!  Many of our friends, colleagues, and several of our Contributing Editors received their GRP designtion, including Kelly Luckett, The Green Roof Guy; Patrick Carey, The Architecure Editor; and Haven Kiers, The Design Editor.  In fact, Kelly was on the GRHC Training and Accreditation Committee which developed the Green Roof Professional Accreditation program, and he can attest to the countless hours put in by all to ensure quality, integrity and equity.  But don’t feel too badly for them as, of course, everyone on the GRP Training and Accreditation Committee was grandfathered in and didn’t have to take the actual test!

So what about me?  Remember when I said I was going to take it, too, and to join me?  Yeah, well that never happened.  Long story, but kind of typical for me, I waited too long to actually sign up for the exam and when I tried, it was closed.  It was probably a blessing in disguise, because I hadn’t studied at all and was going to cram for the test at the last minute…  Now I can plan accordingly, study like a normal person and take the GRP exam in any of these North American cities this fall: Chicago (Sept. 18), New York (Oct. 16), Toronto (Oct. 19), and Seattle (Oct. 30).  And since I am also a greenroof designer, I do think it will be a good thing for me to have, along with my BLA and LEED AP.

So, did you take the test?  What do you think about it?  Share your comments here with us.

See the complete list of Green Roof Professionals in the latest issue of the Living Architecture Monitor online or download a PDF from Green Roofs for Healthy Cities here.  Once again, a job well done to all!

~ Linda V.