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.

At the beginning of June I had the opportunity to tour the beautiful home at 901 Moreland Avenue, or Eden House, as it’s also known, here in Atlanta.

The invitation-only “Friends Fusion” Open House was attended by over 100 people eager to see the environmentally friendly home.  The clean lines, airy design, and careful selection of materials and textures gives this contemporary home a luxurious feel without being fussy.  And while it has many green features, the most striking is the living roof!

Designed by David Butler, LEED AP, of David Butler & Associates, Inc. and developed by Eastworks LLC, the Gold LEED for Homes certified, 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath is just one year old.  In addition to its LEED status, 901 Moreland Avenue has a number of other green credentials such as the Earthcraft® certification and HERS (Home Energy Rating System) – a program of the EPA’s Energy Star for Homes which includes being Energy Star® Indoor Air Quality Package Certified and having Energy Star® and Watersense Appliances®.  What it all boils down to is the home was built responsibly, to save energy and water and promote superior indoor air quality.

The corner site allows for great visibility for many of the exterior sustainable features:  The 1,500 extensive greenroof wraps almost completely around the four sides and draws a lot of looks from passersby.  The eight rain barrels are used as a gravity rain water harvesting and irrigation system, and two are located on the second story roof for direct irrigation of the greenroof. 

An interesting feature is that two of the rain barrels are connected by rain chains instead of the usual downspouts, which creates a lively interplay of the water as it descends.

Passive cooling is accomplished through a solar thermal canopy, which is also visible from the main street.  A convenient ramp way provides accessibility and in fact the entire first floor is wheelchair accessible.  The interior is urban chic smart, yet very cozy in a uber-hip way and Environmentally Preferable Products (EPP) were specified throughout.

For example, the bamboo flooring is stunning, they only used no or low VOC paint, and the well-designed small kitchen has reclaimed concrete countertops and a snazzy recycled glass mosaic backsplash.

And David designed the house to really take advantage of natural light and ventilation – there are several skylights and a wide breezeway connects to the separate third bedroom (or other flexible space), bathroom and garage.
 

The two bedrooms on the upper floor benefit from the cross ventilation positioning of the windows, and you can see how the living roof is visible from many angles upstairs.  The windows frame it beautifully ~ how wonderful to wake up to such greenery at eye level, but on the second floor!

The festive Open House event was well put together and although the main purpose was to showcase its many features (and offer it for sale), the organizers also celebrated the project’s recent LEED Gold certification by raising over $500 for Prevent Child Abuse Georgia with a raffle.  Some of the big prizes included a solar thermal panel and frame and a water conserving Kohler toilet.

The film by Landon Donoho, “Sky Gardens Atlanta,” (I was a producer) was premiered and guests got to see David Butler being interviewed here last October by Landon when the green-minded architect shared his experiences building this gorgeous, modern, single family dwelling.

The event was actually sponsored by many of the companies providing services and products, and they all set up shop in the bright, walkout basement.  This team of specialists reported a brisk evening sharing green building techniques and product information with the inquisitive guests.

Greenroof-related sponsors included JDR Enterprises, Inc., who supplied J-DRain drainage products; ERTH Products, who supplied the growing media; and T+E Design, Inc., who provided landscape architecture services. As usual, it was great to see Janet Faust, LEED AP, GRP of JDR and it was very nice to meet Thomas Nichols, RLA, of both ERTH Products and T+E Design, Inc.  Others present were Gutter Water, LLC, rain water recovery system; CORT, Peachtree Home Staging; Woodman Insulation; Hardwoods Incorporated; PlumbWorksInc.; and Muffley & Associates, real estate solutions.

It’s wonderful to see architects and developers are taking (calculated) risks by taking on green construction, and I highly commend David Butler and Eastworks LLC for their innovation, commitment, and leadership with Eden House’s lovely architecture and healthy living environment!  Hopefully we’ll see more sustainable development projects from this company soon.  For more info, please contact Nicholas Brown of Muffley & Associates at: 404.848.0996 or David Butler at: 404.589.0800.

Read more about the project in The Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database here, and if you’re in the market for a sleek 1,986 sf home in a bustling Atlanta location, want dramatically lower utility bills, less maintenance, better use of the sun, a healthier living environment and fewer adverse impacts on the environment, this could be your new home!

Happy greening,

~ Linda V.

After a long 16 months, the first episode of our WebTV series Sky Gardens ~ Greenroofs of the World will be up and ready to see on Sunday, November 8, 2009.  You can watch Episode 1: Rock Mill Park on the Greenroofs.TV Channel on Greenroofs.com and YouTube.   Download our Press Release here.

The Sky Gardens ~ Greenroofs of the World video series grew naturally out of my previous column “Sky Gardens ~Travels in Landscape Architecture” which ran from June, 2003 through April, 2006 here on Greenroofs.com.  With that column I was combining my various fields of expertise, and the description read:

“What do you get when you cross a landscape in the sky with an ecological designer, greenroof website publisher, and an international flight attendant?  Why, a column entitled “Sky Gardens ~ Travels in Landscape Architecture” of course!  Welcome to the ramblings of my unique bird’s eye perspective of the world, as I continue to visit new cities and noteworthy landscape architecture projects ~ both at ground and greenroof level.”

My hectic schedule proved too much for such an indepth column, and it evolved into this Sky Gardens ~ where cool green meets lofty blue Blog.  But I still wanted to pursue the thought of examining greenroof projects in-depth: the who, where, what, why and how’s of the entire planning and design process.  Our oldest son, Joey, is a screenwriter with film experience and so with the help of his film production company, Red Hand Productions, last year I decided to channel this vision into a more visual medium – video.

We selected one of my own designs here in Alpharetta for the first episode, and it’s been a true labor of love.  I’ve been involved with the Rock Mill Park project since 1999 when I interned as a student of landscape architecture with the City of Alpharetta.  I was thrilled when my design for “Celebrating Ecological Design in a Native Landscape” became a reality with construction of The Greenroof Pavilion and Trial Gardens of Rock Mill Park in 2007.  So many talented and generous people contributed to this endeavor, and being able to film and share this project built on such an environmentally sensitive and culturally important former Cherokee-owned site was an honor for me.  See 2008’s Love the Earth: Plant a Roof! and What I Did on My Summer Vacation… for a little more background info.

 

I think you’ll enjoy our first episode, where we interviewed many people involved in the project and filmed on site at Rock Mill Park; Alpharetta City Hall at Mayor Arthur Lechtas’ office; the City of Alpharetta Engineering/Public Works Department; the historic Log Cabin at the former site of Milton High School; Saul Nurseries “Swamp” location; and the former Cherokee capital, New Echota in Calhoun, GA, now a Historic Site.

We’ve had some trials and tribulations along the way, but that just makes it more special now that it’s done!  On November 8 you can see Episode 1: Rock Mill Park in four 10-minute installments on our home page and the Greenroofs.TV page on our website, where they will be added to the Greenroofs.com playlist on the greenroofstv channel on YouTube, found at http://www.youtube.com/greenroofstv.  All four videos will be lined up in order for easy viewing.

Look for our second Sky Gardens ~ Greenroofs of the World episode which highlights the gorgeous Cook+Fox Architects LLP corporate headquarters in Manhattan, NY, and details some of the greening initiatives that New York City is spearheading, coming soon to GreenroofsTV!

~ Linda V.

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

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

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

Tuesday, June 2, 2009:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday, June 6, 2009:

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

~ Linda V.