As I wrote about yesterday, today we are airing the Opening Keynote Address video by Charlie Miller from our Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit on greenroofs.tv and our GreenroofsTV channel on YouTube.

Charlie Miller, P.E. and principal of Roofmeadow (formerly Roofscapes, Inc.), has been a mentor and inspiration to me since my early days as a landscape architecture student who had “discovered” greenroofs in 1997/98.  It was a no-brainer for me to choose Charlie as our opening keynote speaker – to honor his open attitude about information sharing and to share his outlook and expertise with our Virtual Summit audience!

Charlie’s Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2011 keynote address is titled ”A New Place.”

“After an acquaintance of almost 20 years, Americans may think that they know green roofs.  In fact, there is much left to discover as we colonize the world of the great urban plateau.” ~ Charlie Miller, P.E.

Enjoy!  Visit greenroofs.tv to see “A New Place” here or click below.

We appreciate your feedback, and feel free to contact Charlie directly at: cmiller@roofmeadow.com.

Check back next week on GreenroofsTV for our second installment from the Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2011!

~ Linda V.

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.

- Project of the Week

- 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.

- To learn more about the Harvard Graduate Student Housing at 29 Garden Street, click on our project of the week photo on our homepage.  Also, to learn about our projects of the week for the past few weeks, you can go to the Sky Gardens Blog and read Linda’s posts about each one.  Or, go to our Projects Database and search project ID number “825” for the World Expo Zaragoza 2008/Zentro Expo Zaragoza greenroof from ZinCo, project ID number “553” for the Musée du quai Branly green wall by Patrick Blanc, and project ID number “996” for the Casa Feliz Studios greenroof from Tremco.

“What’s New”

Advertiser Press Releases:

- Industry News

- 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.

- Over at Sky Gardens, check out Linda’s latest posts: “Greenbuild and Greenroofs in Toronto!,” our GPWs for the last few weeks, “Thank You to Our Sponsors and the Winner of the 2nd iPad2 at the Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2011 is…,” along with other Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2011 related posts, “Notre Voyage Fantastique: Chicago & Patrick Blanc” by Linda and Caroline Menetre, “Remembering and Rebuilding: Ten Years After 9/11,” and “Greenroofs.com’s This Week in Review” on GreenroofsTV: September 9, 2011.”

- “Upcoming Events”

- Until October 28th: All of the content from our Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2011 – Connecting the Planet + Living Architecture: People, Projects & Design is still very much live, so you can access it all on demand and tell your friends and colleagues to continue to register!  You can even continue to chat live while in the virtual environment via video, audio, or text through October 28!

- October 1st-23rd: Leverage – Strengthening Neighborhoods through Design Exhibition in Philadelphia, PA.

-  Check out our homepage for more Upcoming Events!

- “In the News”

- 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!

- Make sure to keep up with everything Greenroofs.com by following us on Twitter, liking us on Facebook, being a member of our network on LinkedIn, and subscribing to our greenroofsTV channel on YouTube.

- This has been This Week in Review for October 7th, 2011 on GreenroofsTV.  I’m Anjuli Velazquez and I’ll see you next week!

*This week’s episode is sponsored by The Greenroof Directory, brought to you by Greenroofs.com.*

Did we miss something?  We’d love to hear from you!

~ Linda V.

Greenroofs.com Project of the Week: 8/22/11
Duke University
Ocean Conservation Center (OCC)
Beaufort, NC, USA
2,400 sf. Greenroof

Year: 2010
Owner: Duke University
Location: Beaufort, NC, NY, USA
Building Type: Educational
Type: Living Wall
System: Single Source Provider, Xero Flor Modified
Size: 2,400 sq.ft.
Slope: 2%
Access: Accessible, By Appointment

Project Description & Details

Located at the Duke University Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, North Carolina, the 5,600 sf Marguerite Kent Repass Ocean Conservation Center (OCC) is a stellar example of merging the built structure with the site. Built in 2006, it uses geothermal pumps for heating and cooling, solar panels for hot water, and photovoltaic rooftop panels to convert sunlight into electricity. Local building materials, such as yellow southern pine and Atlantic white cedar and recycled wood, are used throughout the structure. Designed by the office of Frank Harmon Architect PA, the OCC was awarded Gold LEED certification.

Installed by Living Roofs, Inc. in 2010 over the low-slope portion of the previous Energy Star® roof, the 2,400 sf greenroof utilizes a pre-vegetated extensive system with specialized components to secure it from high coastal wind exposure. The Xero Flor system was selected due to the structural capacity of the building, availability of regionally sourced material, and the challenges associated with a windy coastal climate as it is certified to resist high wind loads and is also a FM Global accepted assembly for this building and location. Living Roofs, Inc. worked with Xero Flor America and Frank Harmon Architect PA to design the greenroof system and the irrigation which is supplied by a rainwater catchment system.

Designers/Manufacturers of Record

Architect: Frank Harmon Architect, PA
Greenroof Consultant: Living Roofs, Inc.
Greenroof System: Xero Flor XF301 Vegetated Mat Assembly with Enhanced Wind-Uplift Security Modification, Xero Flor America
Waterproofing Material: Sika Sarnafil
Construction: Curtis Construction

Additional Info

The OCC Marine Lab at the Duke University campus includes historic classrooms ideally suited for the study of marine organisms and the new state-of-the-art teaching facility: the very green Marguerite Kent Repass Ocean Conservation Center.

The center houses a teaching laboratory, a 48-seat lecture hall equipped with advanced teleconferencing and videoconferencing facilities to connect to other classrooms and research labs worldwide, and a large, glass-enclosed commons area containing art and sculpture, with views of the Rachel Carson Research Reserve, Beaufort Inlet and Shackleford Banks.

Yet even before the greenroof was installed, in 2009 the OCC Marine Lab was awarded Gold LEED status from the USGBC, partially because of the siting considerations of the sensitive maritime location.

According to the website, the OCC has the following major environmental features:

1. Site Design – The entire site is designed to take advantage of prevailing winds and sunlight.  Native plants and a constructed sand dune system are in place, mimicking the natural landscapes on the adjacent barrier islands.
2. Energy Supply – The OCC uses photovoltaic cells to convert sunlight for approximately 20% of the energy needs of the building, and passive solar for heating the water used in the building.
3. Heating and Cooling – The OCC uses a geothermal circulation system, taking advantage of the constant temperature of the groundwater below the building, for heating and cooling, supplemented by a conventional heat pump system.  All air systems re-circulate air for maximum efficiency.
4. Innovative Materials – The exterior of the laboratory portion of the OCC and the interior ceilings are a material called Windscreen, a concrete-based material that is 90% heat and light reflective and is mounted with a “breathable” interface with the supporting wall structure.  Walkways to the building are permeable concrete, allowing rain to go directly into the ground beneath the walkways.
5. Local Materials – The wood used in the building is either recycled from other buildings, or produced within 500 miles of the building site in Beaufort.
6. Non-toxic Paints and Solvents – All paints and solvents used in the OCC are “low volatile organic content (VOC)”.
7. Natural Light and Ventilation – The OCC is design for maximum use of natural sunlight and ventilation.

Situated at the point of Pivers Island on the Beaufort campus, here you can get a complete look at the site, surrounded by water – the Atlantic Ocean is just one mile away:

The OCC greenroof received its first true wind withstanding test last season when Hurricane Earl skirted the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  The roof received persistent high winds with gusts up to 90 mph, and according to designer/installer Emilio Ancaya, visiting the roof after the storm revealed no signs of growing loss, vegetation damage, or overall changes to the system.

“Hurricane Earl was just the first test for this green roof. We will be keeping a close eye during future storms and will definitely keep the green roof community updated as we learn more from this project.” ~ Emilio Ancaya, 2010

Of course, after today’s landfall of category 2 Hurricane Irene, seen below from NOAA, any wind effects or other damage and remain to be seen:

In preparation, the Marine Lab closed for business at noon on Friday, August 26, to allow time to secure the facilities.  And Student Arrival/Orientation has been delayed until Monday, after the storm has passed by and the ‘all clear’ notice has been sent.

Completed in April 2010, the Duke University Ocean Conservation Center greenroof is visible from ground level and from an adjacent 4-story faculty office and laboratory building – we hope students, faculty and the living roof have weathered this latest hurricane, and we’ll keep you posted!

Did we miss something? We’d love to hear from you! Click here to see more information about this project in The International Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database. See how you can submit yours here.

Love the Earth, Plant a Roof!

~ Linda V.

Boston GreenFest 2011 just opened at Boston City Hall at 5:00 pm!

Organized by Dr. Karen Weber and The Foundation for a Green Future, Inc., it’s the region’s largest environmental and multicultural festival.   Boston GreenFest celebrates the many ways we can create a better world by greening our lives and our communities.

Boston GreenFest 2011 HOURS:

Thursday, August 18: 5 pm – 9:30 pm:  Performers & Food - Bill McKibben will be your EcoMC!
Friday, August 19: noon – 9:30 pm:  Exhibitors/Food/Vendors/Performers
Saturday, August 20: 11 am – 8 pm:  Exhibitors/Food/Vendors/Performers

The EcoParty continues every night at the Hard Rock Café presented by Afrodesiacity!

The website says to stop by the EcoKids area for Radio Disney, TryOutToys and FIRST Lego Robots and that MassBike will run a Valet Bike Parking Service all day Friday & Saturday at the City Hall steps.

2011 HIGHLIGHTS:

- Native American Drum Ceremony
– Green Fireworks and Light Show
– Transportation Tomorrow Today!
– Over 200 Exhibitors
– 200 Live Performances
– GreenSouleStage
– Great Escape with Alexanderia!
– NOCHE LATINA
– EcoSalsa Fashion Show
– Jambalaya and Samba Dancers
– YMAA Kung Fu Demonstration
– NESA Gymnastic Presentation
– Tap Off with Boston Tap Company
– Green Entrepreneur Small Biz Forum
– EcoCafé, EcoGallery, EcoBazaar
– GreenFilmFest
– EcoFashion Pop-Up Shop
– One Gallon ChallengeTM
– EcoTimeTrail
– BPS EcoPhoto Contest
– EcoPoetry with Seitu
– Boston GreenFest Quilt
– Fun for Kids!

“The Foundation for a Green Future, Inc. is dedicated to ensuring a green future for our planet and is proud to host this event.  We must teach, support and model sustainable ways to live for ourselves and our children. Green roofs are an important part of the solution.  This festival will go beyond our roofs.  It will get to the core of  GREEN SOLUTIONS for our entire Boston Community.”

These are the EcoThemes for 2011:

• Green Roofs, Green Cities• EcoDesign and Green Buildings• Sustainable Business & Investing• College Impact• Communications• Our Food & Farms• Water• Energy• GreenTech,CleanTech• Our Community• Green Homes• Green Lifestyles• Transportation• Walk & Bike• Health & Wellness• Healthy Minds & Spirit• Fitness & Recreation• EcoFashion & Shows• International Perspectives• Green Perspectives• EcoKids

Speaking of “EcoThemes,” don’t miss one of our contributing editors, George Irwin – The Green Wall Editor –  of Green Living Technologies International (GLTi), who will be speaking about greenroofs and walls.  His lecture is part of an interactive hands on demonstration of an authentic 800 sf greenroof installed on the Boston City Hall plaza as part of the weekend display.

The set up is part of an AIA lecture series by GLTi and they are offering AIA credit hours at no cost to attendees.  Visit the GLTi booth to learn all about vegetative roofs and living walls, and to pick up a free copy of Greenroofs.com’s Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ 2011 Calendar (limited number)!

If you live in the Boston area, you’ll find lots of music, fun, and learning activities here for the whole family, and get to participate in a really clean and green environment.  Visit Boston GreenFest 2011 for more info.

~ Linda V.

Greenroofs.com Project of the Week: 8/1/11
ACROS Fukuoka
Prefectural International Hall
Fukuoka, Japan
1,049,406 sf. Greenroof

Year: 1994
Owner: Dai-Ichi Mutual Life Mitsui Real Estate
Location: Fukuoka, Japan
Building Type: Commercial
Type: Intensive
System: Single Source Provider
Size: 1,049,406 sq.ft.
Slope: 2%
Access: Accessible, Private                                      Google maps link

Project Description & Details

Architect Emilio Ambasz transposed a 100,000-square-meter park in the city center onto 15 stepped terraces of the ACROS, “Asian Crossroads Over the Sea,” Fukuoka Prefectural International Hall. The design for ACROS Fukuoka proposes a powerful new solution for a common urban problem: reconciling a developer’s desire for profitable use of a site with the public’s need for open green space. The plan for Fukuoka fulfills both needs in one structure by creating an innovative agro-urban model.

Its north face presents an elegant urban facade with a formal entrance appropriate to a building on the most prestigious street in Fukuoka’s financial district. The south side of the Hall extends an existing park through its series of terraced gardens that climb the full height of the building. Along the edge of the park, the building steps up, floor-by-floor, in a stratification of low, landscaped terraces. Each terrace floor contains an array of gardens for meditation, relaxation, and escape from the congestion of the city, while the top terrace becomes a grand belvedere, providing an incomparable view of the bay of Fukuoka and the surrounding mountains. Growing media depths range between 12″ and 24″.

Designers/Manufacturers of Record

Architect: Emilio Ambasz, Emilio Ambasz and Associates, Inc.
Associate Architect: Nihon Sekkei
Landscape Architect: Nihon Sekkei Takenaka Corporation
Engineer: Nihon Sekkei Takenaka Corporation
Engineering Consultant: Plantago Corporation
System Manufacturer: Katamura Tekko Company

Additional Info

The city-owned site was the last large undeveloped plot in central Fukuoka.  The city chose to develop the site in joint venture with private enterprise and the plan was for a commercial developer to lease the land for sixty years and construct the building. A portion of the building’s space would be devoted to public and municipal operations including a symphony hall; the remaining allowable space would be revenue-producing with various offices, shops and commercial enterprises.

At the same time, the competing developers sought to maximize income potential of the large land mass.  Yet the architect was concerned about the effect of the development on adjacent 100 meters by 250 meters Tenjin Central Park—the only green open-space left in that part of the city.  To the maximum extent possible, the architect wanted to give back to Fukuoka’s citizens all the land the building would subtract from the city.

The Google Aerial view below really puts the massive scale of the greening project into perspective:

Architect Emilio Ambasz “was awarded this commission for successfully achieving reconciliation between these two opposing desires: doubling the size of the park while providing the city of Fukuoka with a powerful symbolic structure at its center,” (Architecture News Plus).  Below is the more formal, glass-fronted street-facing facade directed at the financial district area:

Emilio Ambasz, a highly accoladed early pioneer in the field of green architecture, achieved this by planting vegetation on the all the stepped planes, in effect mitigating the negative effect of the building footprint completely.  By replacing 100% of the land that the building displaced with vegetation, ACROS  is organically integrated into the site – an example of Ambasz’s “Green Over the Grey” philosophy.

“I see my task as an architect as that of reconciling our man-made Nature with the organic one we have been given.” ~ Emilio Ambasz

I had the pleasure of meeting the indomitable (and sarcastically witty) Emilio in Singapore last November, and in his keynote address at the Skyrise Greenery Conference he explained that he has never set out to design a greenwall on a structure – they are all simply greenroofs, planted horizontally with cascading vegetation covering the vertical surfaces.  To learn a little more about him, read “The Elusive Mr. Ambasz,” a great interview of Emilio in Architect Magazine by Vernon Mays of July 31, 2009.

Photographer Hiromi Watanabe © captured some really stunning photos of the ACROS for Ambasz and Associates – this is probably his most famous below.   We featured this photo of the ACROS in the 2008 Greenroofs of the World™ Calendar:

The $380 million award-winning (Business Week / Architectural Record Award,2000; DuPont Benedictus Award, 2001; and the Japan Institute of Architects Certificate of Environmental Architecture, First Prize, 2001) ACROS is 60 meters high with 14 floors above ground and four below – and one of the largest buildings in the world whose surfaces are covered in greenery.  Due to its shape on the park-facing southern side, it’s not surprisingly also called a ”step garden.”  It consists of 13 levels with widths between 120 to 98 meters (depending on the level), a depth of six meters, and with 76 varieties of 37,000 short trees planted ranging in height from 1.7 to 1.9 meters.

As you can imagine, its monumental green beauty is just one of its many beneficial features.  In September 2000, the Takenaka Corporation, Kyushu University, and Nippon Institute of Technology jointly carried out a thermal environment measurement survey, proving that rooftop gardens are effective in alleviating the urban heat island phenomenon:

“The thermal environment measurement survey was conducted on the step garden by collecting data from longwave and shortwave radiation meters, ultrasonic three-dimensional wind speed and temperature meters and scintillometers set up on the top, tenth, sixth and fifth levels.” ~ Heat Island Phenomenon Proven to Be Alleviated by Rooftop Greening, Takenaka Corporation

The study found the following: a difference of 15°C between the surface temperatures of the concrete, coming to the obvious conclusion that the greenery and greening suppresses a rise in the surrounding air temperature.

Yet sometimes the news of obvious charms is slow coming to the rest of the world:

“…the building is a success in its native land, its terraced south facade utilized by many in the area for exercise and rest, affording views of the city and the harbor beyond.  Unfortunately it has received little press overseas, especially in the United States, a country without Japan’s starvation for usable land.”  ~ A Weekly Dose of Architecture, December, 2000 – their early photos below:

That may have been an early sentiment, but for those of us in the sustainable design field, the ACROS has always been a stunning example of sensitive site planning and integration of nature into the built environment, and remains an iconic building of green, blending and blurring the distinction of vertical and horizontal planes.  Typical of Emilio Ambasz’s projects, ACROS Fukuoka Prefectural International Hall is a very powerful synthesis of urban and park forms.

Did we miss something? We’d love to hear from you! Click here to see more information about this project in The International Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database. See how you can submit yours here.

Love the Earth, Plant a Roof!

~ Linda V.

Greenroofs.com Project of the Week: 5/23/11
Unilever Corporate Headquarters
Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA
16,000 sf. Greenroof

Year: 2009
Owner: Unilever
Location: EJ, USA
Building Type: Corporate
Type: Extensive
System: Custom
Size: 16,000 sq.ft. 
Slope: 1%
Access: Inaccessible, Private

Google Map: http://goo.gl/maps/7KkH

Project Description & Details

HDR was commissioned to assist Unilever in the relocation of approximately 400 employees to their campus at Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.  A major renovation of the facilities would be required to support the consolidation and maintain the Unilever Headquarters image. The green roof project was an outgrowth of updating the facility and promoted Unilever’s proactive stand on sustainability.

The Unilever Green Roof Project is a 16,000 SF membrane roof retrofit over a 4-story office building.  13,000 SF of the green roof resides over the 3rd floor and the remaining 3,000 SF resides between two open atriums over the 2nd floor.  Specific project challenges involved high visibility from adjacent conference and executive office space; existing railings that did not meet current building codes; existing roof leaks; minimal roof slope; concrete waffle slab structure; and existing load capacity.  A new Hydrotech monolithic membrane system with an extensive LiveRoof pre-vegetated tray system including 15 types of Sedum and one Delosperma was implemented.

Designers/Manufacturers of Record

Architect/Engineer: HDR, Inc.
Modular Greenroof System: LiveRoof
Waterproofing Manufacturer: American Hydrotech
Waterproofing Contractor: Grandview Waterproofing Inc.
Greenroof Contractor: Parker Urban Greenscapes
LiveRoof Grower/Nursery: Creek Hill Nursery
Rooftop Pavers: Hanover Architectural Products
Edge Resistant Systems: Permaloc

Additional Info

HDR, Inc.’s work included a full renovation of a 1970’s vintage office space, as well as 24,000 square feet of new construction for modern office areas.  They also created a central campus conference center and renovated the 16,000-square-foot 700 Campus cafeteria.

Special emphasis on the design was placed on developing interaction among the various business groups; “engagement areas” allow employees to come together and explore product innovations and marketing strategies; site planning also included a “vitality trail” around the campus.

See the Unilever roof below before the greenroof, during the waterproofing phase, and after.  Read HDR, Inc.’s case study here.

This is not the first commitment from Unilever to green architecture.  In fact, their European headquarters located in Hamburg, Germany’s HafenCity on the Elbe River, is considered much more than an office complex. Designed by Behnisch Architects, the vision is for it to act as an extension of a new burgeoning city core.  Envisioned like a vertical village, the huge inside atrium embraces tons of natural light, supplemented by super efficient LED interior lights.  Read more about this at Inhabitat: “Unilever’s Energy Efficient Office is One of the Greenest in Europe.”

Did we miss something?  We’d love to hear from you!  Click here to see more information about this project in The International Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database.  See how you can submit yours here.

Love the Earth, Plant a Roof!

~ Linda V.

Our daughter, Anjuli Velazquez, has been writing, filming and editing our “This Week in Review” video since August, 2010 and each week you can expect to learn What’s New here on Greenroofs.com.   She’s become quite popular, and we thought it would be a great idea to start posting her transcript, too, to make things easier to research.  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 March 18th, 2011 on GreenroofsTV.

- Project of the Week

-  Our Project of the Week is The Department Store, Stephen Marr Hair Salon Greenwall built in 2009 in Takapuna, New Zealand.  In 2010 The Department Store was named top retail concept store in the world by Monocle magazine.  One of the centerpieces of the store is the lush interior greenwall on the top floor.  The double-sided greenwall, designed and installed by Natural Habitats Landscapes, is New Zealand’s first interior greenwall.  The wall is 10 meters long by 2 meters high and boasts well over 1,000 individual plants.  It divides the upper level, promoting unique spaces that can be used for presentations like fashion shows.  The building has had skylights installed to ensure the wall is given as much natural light as possible, and so the use of supplementary man-made lighting is kept at a minimum.  This greenwall is an original and breathtaking piece of artwork, but also offers some incredible environmental benefits, like: increased thermal insulation to buildings, noise dampening, and creating cleaner and better quality air, which means healthier buildings and people.  From a commercial perspective, the greenwall increases the building’s value and has also been found to raise employee productivity.

-  To learn more about The Department Store, Stephen Marr Hair Salon Greenwall, click on our project of the week photo on our homepage.

-  “What’s New”

-  Check out Linda’s latest Sky Gardens Blog posts about the New Zealand greenwall, and the “CitiesAlive 2011 Call for Paper and Poster Abstracts.”  Green Roofs for Healthy Cities is pleased to be working with the City of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society as co-hosts for CitiesAlive, the 9th Annual Green Roof & Wall Conference to be held later this year in Philadelphia from November 29th to December 3rd.  GRHC says they’re looking for papers that display novel ideas on taking a green approach to storm water management through the use of green infrastructure, indoor greening and residential green infrastructure.  All applications are due by April 15th, and for more information you can visit this blog post and/or e-mail Luna Ghose at lghose@greenroofs.org.

-  Do you think green walls can’t survive in the cold; they don’t look good in the winter, they are only viable in the south or indoors… well, think again!  Contributing Editor George Irwin writes about Winter Interest with Green Walls in his latest column and shows some pretty interesting photos of various looks.

-  Advertiser Press Release: Irrigation Water Technologies America, Inc. recently signed an exclusive agreement with Australia-based Irrigation Water Technologies to manufacture and distribute the revolutionary water conserving KISSS product in North America.

-  Green Roof Jobs:  Joy Kuebler Landscape Architect is seeking resumes for a Landscape Architect/Designer with 5-6 years experience for their busy Buffalo, NY office, so make sure to check this job and many others in JobLinks if you’re looking to work in our industry!

-  “Upcoming Events”

-  March 18th – 27th: is the WMG Water Harvesting Certification in Phoenix, Arizona.

-  March 22nd: is the 2011 Green Roof Technology Workshop in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

-  March 23rd – 27th: is the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show in San Mateo, California.

-  March 24th – 27th: is a Green Roofs for Healthy Cities – Green Roof Boot Camp in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

-  March 25th – 26th: is the GreenScaped Buildings Spring Open House in San Diego, California.

-  March 25th – 27th: is the Better Living Show – Home, Garden & Lifestyle in Portland, Oregon.

-  And don’t forget that on Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 8:30 PM (local time, wherever you are), lights will switch off around the globe for Earth Hour and people will commit to actions that go beyond the hour.  With Earth Hour almost upon us, the organization’s thoughts, as well as ours, are with the people of Japan during this incredibly challenging and sad time for their country.

-  “In the News”

-  Kathleen E. Carey of the Delaware County Daily Times reports on “Green LEEDs to platinum: SAP America earns distinction for utilizing environmental sources for newest building.”  The Newtown Square campus of SAP America Inc. in Delaware County is holding one of the highest environmentally sustainable distinctions in the world with its new Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Platinum level construction.  Just some of the features that have led to its LEED Platinum certification are: its entry to the building – the passageway features a floor comprised of recycled materials, including seashells and pieces of crushed bottles and glass; glass panels surrounding the building with the goal of directing 90 percent of daylight to reach 75 percent of the employees; underneath the floors are tubes that transfer the natural temperature of the Earth which is generated from the 10 geothermal wells in the rear of the property to the inside of the building; and a rooftop garden that spans more than 1 acre which features lavender, rosemary, sedum and butterfly bushes.

-  Katie Kosier of Care2.com talks about “Removing Barriers to Green Building.”  With the help of Philadelphia based Re:Vision Architecture, Pennsylvania’s largest electric and natural gas utility company, PECO, installed a 45,000-square-foot vegetated green roof on its headquarters in central Philadelphia.  It’s the largest in urban Pennsylvania and the roof absorbs more than 1.5 million gallons of rainwater runoff annually, it reduces air temperature in the summer and  it also provides a beautiful habitat for wildlife.  Principle Scott Kelly of RVA, says “For us, it’s about removing barriers to green building.”  You can find more information about the PECO Greenroof in our International Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database by typing in Project ID number 851.

-  To learn more about these stories and new ones posted daily, go to our In the News or newslinks section of our website.

-  Have something you think we should know about and post on our website?  You can send us your green articles, videos and images to editor@greenroofs.com.

-  Stay up-to-date with what’s going on at greenroofs.com by subscribing to our greenroofsTV channel on YouTube, following us on Twitter, liking us on Facebook and being a member of our network on LinkedIn.

-  By the way, did you know that now you can watch YouTube videos just like this one on DirecTV?  That’s fun!

-  Still haven’t picked up one of our 2011 Greenroofs & Walls of the World 12 Month Wall Calendar yet?  Go to greenroofs.com/calendar.htm and order some today!  Thanks to George Irwin for this great photo!

-  This has been This Week in Review for March 18th, 2011 on GreenroofsTV.  I’m Anjuli Velazquez and I’ll see you next week!

*This week’s episode is sponsored by The Greenroof Directory, brought to you by Greenroofs.com.*

Did we miss something?  We’d love to hear from you!

~ Linda V.

Lovely Chicago is simply the greenest of the green cities, and there’s no doubt that Greenbuild is the greenest of the green conferences!  See this short and fun video, “Generation Green: Redefining our Future” with tons of cool photos around town.  It asks us to “Re: think Chicago” and is all about the merits of the Windy City - its 25 miles of public waterfront, for example, and how it’s “Re-evolutionizing the Building Industry” by greening everything from to parks and buildings to schools and jobs:

Thousands of building enthusiasts and professionals from across the globe participate at Greenbuild for three days of informative educational sessions, renowned speakers, green building tours, seminars, and various networking events.  Chicago’s LEED-certified McCormick Place West on Lake Shore Drive – with its 96,000 sf Green Roof Blocks™ modular system greenroof that retains about 77,812 gallons of stormwater that would otherwise flow into Lake Michigan – is the host for this exciting annual event.

Held from November 17 through November 19, 2010, retired U.S. General Colin L. Powell kicked off Greenbuild 2010 this morning at the Greenbuild Opening Plenary: 

General Powell inspired the packed room – filled with roughly 12,000 Greenbuild attendees – with messages of leadership and optimism – and a great sense of humor! ~ Greenbuild 2010

Showcasing the latest in innovative products and services, the Greenbuild International Expo is the world’s largest expo hall devoted completely to all forms of green building, including greenroofs and greenwalls!  We try and attend at least the Expo every year, but weren’t able this time because of our heavy travelling schedule (Mexico City in October and Singapore at the beginning of November), but if you’re there you can:

Support Greenroofs.com’s Advertisers by visiting them on the Trade Show floor:

Advanced Building Products, Inc. – Booth# 595
American Hydrotech, Inc. – Booth# 1345
Bison Innovative Products – Booth# 280
CETCO – Booth# 2254
Colbond Inc. – Booth# L1919
Conservation Technology – Booth# 2182
Green Innovations LTD - Booth# 1631
Green Roof Blocks – Booth# 413 – See President Kelly Luckett, also one of our Contributing Editors, The Green Roof Guy
GreenGrid / Weston Solutions, Inc. – Booth# 939
International Leak Detection (ILD) – Booth# 2222
LiveRoof, LLC – Booth# 2279
rooflite / Skyland USA, LLC – Booth# 1588
Sika Sarnafil – Booth# 930
Tecta America Corp. – Booth# 378
Tremco – Booth# 423
VAST Enterprises – Booth# 2094
Xero Flor America – Booth# 781

And Green Roofs for Healthy Cities has had a booth there for several years now, promoting the North American Green Roof Industry Association.  Make sure to visit them at Booth # T24 and pick up a Green Roof Tour Map showing all their members’ booths, and get ready to attend the 8th Annual Green Roof and Green Wall Conference – CitiesAlive! in beautiful Vancouver, B.C. on November 30 – December 3, 2010.

Of course, the International Expo is just one great component of this great green show of shows, so for more information about this wonderful city, the line up of speakers, educational programs and activities for 2010 Greenbuild, please visit: http://www.greenbuildexpo.org/

Happy Greening in Chicago! ~ Linda V.

By Dave Hilary

Roofs are turning green all around the Washington DC area.  Every year since 2005, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC), a network of public and private organizations promoting the green roof industry, has performed ranked cities by total square footage of new green roof installations for their corporate members.  And every year, Washington DC has been on the list.  In 2006 DC had 301,751 square feet of green roofs, and by 2009 it was approaching two million square feet of green roofs.  What’s behind this dramatic rise? 
 
GRHC points out that municipalities appearing near the top of the list, as Washington DC does in all but 2007, usually have governments that encourage green roofs through policies and programs.  Those governmental efforts are also closely tied to improving water quality.

According to a report by the Casey Trees Endowment Fund and Limno-Tech, Inc., DC has to vastly better manage its sewer outflows since the Anacostia, Potomac and Rock Creek Rivers currently do not meet federal water quality standards.  (Publisher’s Note: On a related note, see our 2006 Guest Feature by Gregory Long, RLA.) By an account in the Washington Post, just half-an-inch of rain washes billions of gallons of raw sewage and runoff directly into the Anacostia, mostly because of an outdated storm water system.  The fix on the drawing boards is three underground storm water storage tunnels with an estimated cost of $1.9 billion when the project was first dreamed up, but now closer to $2 billion as the city continues trying to put the funds together.

And while the media coverage for commercial and government green roof projects is robust, the residential scene appears to be a sleeping giant.  A thesis by Harriet Zipp and Britt Zimmerman found that just by installing green roofs on DC’s many traditional, flat roof, row houses the area could reduce its storm water flows by more than 12 percent.

But water quality improvement is not the only environmental issue DC is trying to address with its green roof build out.  The area lost 64 percent of its heavy tree cover between 1970 and 2000, according to an American Forests, Urban Ecosystems Analysis.  Trees and plant life help to keep the urban environment cooler and also help to clean the air, something that could go a long way toward lowering the city’s high asthma rates.  The Children’s Environmental Health Network and the DC Department of Health, put the area’s asthma rates at 6.5 percent for children and 5 percent for adults in 2004.

The federal government with its large real estate footprint in DC has been keen on green roofs from all perspectives since a series of environmentally-focused executive orders.  From the early beginnings by the United States Department of Agriculture in 2006 on its 1,200 square foot departmental administration building greenroof (plus a brand new 3,700 square foot one on their Whitten Building, below), to the Department of Transportation’s 2007 building sporting a 68,000 square foot green roof, the federal government has been setting the example.

Responsible for the natural and indoor environments in the District of Columbia, the The District Department of the Environment (DDOE) is #2 in the USA for area of green roofs (1 million square feet of installed green roofs).  In 2008 DC’s mayor called for the city to come up with its own green roof demonstration project before the end of the year.  In response, the Reeves Center now supports a 4,000 square-foot green roof and One Judiciary Square has an 8,000 square-foot green roof.
 

Private organizations and corporations are also heavily investing in green roofs in DC.  Recently, the World Wildlife Fund replaced a decrepit 24-year-old roof with a green roof that is claimed to be the third largest in the city.  The organization received a $7 per-square-foot grant through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to fund a portion of the project.  And the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) retofitted their headquarters with a green roof in 2006.

Parking lots offer their fair share of runoff to the overburdened storm water system but in at least one case the parking lot has been replaced by a building with not only a green roof, but one that retains all the storm water from the site.  The Walter E. Washington Convention Center collects and uses that storm water to irrigate the green roof and its street level plantings.

In addition to government and private sector clients, DC is also home to a growing number of community organizations that work to educate citizens about the benefits of going green.  Chief among these in the green roof field is DC Greenworks, a non-profit that works with city residents and builders to promote sustainable building and urban agriculture.  DC Greenworks also helps job seekers train for and connect with green jobs around the area.   You can also check out some of their featured projects here.

So what is it about the Washington area that makes it such a haven for green roofs and other sustainable design projects?  The most important factors seem to be a committed local green building community on the supply side, and a critical environmental need (in this case the Anacostia River runoff water crisis) combined with a healthy dose of government incentives to help stimulate the demand side.  The federal government is certainly a major player on some projects, but by no means the only game in town.

Dave Hilary is a Washington DC-based green roof enthusiast who maintains Green Roof Plan, an informational resource on green roof design, construction and maintenance.