Greenroofs.com Project of the Week: 12/12/11
Orchard Central Mall Greenwalls
Singapore
2,207 sf. of Greenwalls

Year: 2009
Owner: Far East Organization
Location: Singapore
Building Type: Commercial
Type: Green Façade
System: Single Source Provider
Size: 2,207 sq. ft.
Slope: 100%
Access: Accessible, Open to Public

Project Description & Details

Orchard Central Mall is Singapore’s tallest and first vertical pure-retail mall with 11 storeys above ground and two basement levels. Orchard Central boasts multiple outdoor viewing areas with a commanding view of Orchard Road, including three outdoor “green” balconies appealing to alfresco food & beverage outlets. The air-conditioned shopping street discovery walk and the rooftop garden are both accessible to the public 24 hours a day.

The Singapore Institute of Architects and National Parks Board award-winning project features three large living walls and balcony rail on the 11th floor and 2 lower green walls on the 12th floor roof terrace. Elmich Green Wall’s Vertical Greening Modules (VGM) provide the modular system comprising a geotextile bag filled with soil-less lightweight planting media, pre-planted in a nursery environment to allow for plant establishment. The VGMs are encased in metal support frames on-site and mounted onto anchoring pilasters; an automated drip irrigation and fertilization system was also installed. The planted walls complement and create the atmosphere for alfresco dining as well as serve to substantially cool the areas immediately adjacent to the walls.

Designers/Manufacturers of Record

Developer: Far East Organization

Additional Info

A city-state of high rise buildings, Singapore is becoming reknown for its ”skyrise greenery” and continuous efforts in making it a “City in a Garden.”

Here, and known throughout Southeast Asia, Orchard Road is the fashion, retail and entertainment hub with shopping centers (more than 40), dining and pubs galore.  Orchard Road got its name from the nutmeg, pepper and fruit orchards or the plantations that the road led to in the mid-1800s.  Commercial development of the area began in the twentieth century, with a surge in the 1970s (read more in Wikipedia).

Located at the heart of Orchard Road, the new high-end Orchard Central Mall replaced Specialists Shopping Centre and had a soft opening in July, 2009.  The mall boasts 160m frontage along this shopping belt of Singapore.

The 12-floor Orchard Central Mall features ‘cluster-concept’ shopping (8 clusters separated by categories) with a wide variety of specialty shops that are not available elsewhere.  Hard to imagine, but the mall is served by a total of 52 escalators (including 6 super escalators) and 12 glass elevators -6 express lifts move between 500 and 2,000 ft/min!  The super escalator at the front of the entrance, left below, enables shoppers to step off from the street and go straight up into the mall:

In the background of the photo above right you can see one of the flourishing greenwalls on the property.  Yet it also showcases a 24-hour public garden at the roof top, complete with tropical landscaping on the ground and various vertical greenery offerings.

In 2009, the Orchard Central Mall won 1st Prize in the Completed Projects category in the Skyrise Greenery Awards for outdoor green balconies and extensive greenery, inside and out.  The award aims to promote skyrise greenery in Singapore and to recognize the greening efforts in high rise developments by owners/developers, architects, landscape architects/designers, and landscape contract managers.

“As Orchard Road’s first new mall in four years Orchard Central brings a breath of fresh air with urban green verandas, a 140-metre Discovery Walk on the first storey, and the lusciously landscaped sky gardens on the 11th and 12th storeys.

An extensive green wall up to 13 metres high stretches from the 11th to 12th storeys to create a ‘green blanket’ that is highly visible from Orchard Road.

The biological pond on the 12th storey creates the atmosphere of a water garden and offers an unforgettable experience while dining in the sky gardens’ restaurants.” ~ Skyrise Greenery Awards 2009 Completed Projects 1st Prize

Adjacent to the restaurant, this sky garden is both beautiful and an inviting green space for patrons and visitors, although locals say there are not enough seats for relaxing.

“Amidst this blanketed green roof, art also thrives. At the foot of the vertical wall is Yayoi Kusama’s colourful Let’s Go to a Paradise of Glorious Tulips (2009), adorned with her trademark polka dots.  This sculpture acts as a stark contrast to the grey backdrop of the peaking buildings — a perspective that creates a heightened awareness of visitors’ location.” ~POSKOD.SG by Amanda Fay Tan

Elmich systems are found throughout the multiple levels – Elmich VGM units on the walls with VersiCell in planter boxes and Elmich Landscape Roof gor the greenroof system.

For irrigating the walls, an equal amount of water is injected to the root zone via a Netafim drip system and the greenroofs are irrigated using Netafim UniTechline AS.

Along with tons of other spots, I’m sorry we didn’t get to see the Orchard Central Mall greenroof and greenwalls when we visited Singapore in November, 2010 (when I spoke at the International Skyrise Greenery Conference) but it will be on our list the next time we do!

See the Orchard Central Mall Greenroofs project profile in the Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database here.

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, 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.  Here’s the transcript for April 1, 2011 - 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 April 1st, 2011 on GreenroofsTV.

- Project of the Week

-  Our projects of the week are the Cheyenne I and III (251 & 253 Medical Center Blvd.), greenroofs built in 2007 and 2009 in Webster, Texas.  Developer and General Contractor, Jacob White Construction Company, wanted the buildings to stand apart from all other commercial buildings in the Houston area.  And they did just that when 251 East became the first LEED Gold certified building that side of Austin and 253 West gained LEED-CS Platinum certification in 2009.  The most impressive and ambitious part of these projects are the greenroofs complete with gardens, walking paths, and a lush landscaped area.  On September 13, 2008 Hurricane Ike went across the site as a strong Category 2 hurricane with 120+ mph winds and 11 inches of rain, yet there was no impact on the green roof nor the building.  In both cases, Webb Architects designed a custom system using EnkaRetain & Drain from Colbond with a locally designed growing media mix – the material cost savings alone was in the neighborhood of $250,000 each.  Approximately 73% of all rain water is retained, while the excess is transported to the roof drains that direct it to underground cisterns for storage and that reclaimed water is used for everything from irrigating the grounds to flushing the toilets.

-  To learn more about the Cheyenne I and Cheyenne III greenroofs, click on our project of the week links on our homepage.

-  “What’s New”

-  Advertiser Press Release:  Metro Green Visions introduces MGV GroRoof Hybrid Green Roof System. MGV GroRoof, a new modular green roof system, is poised to make a strong impact in the marketplace, offering the best of both worlds, it installs like a modular tray system but functions and appears like a monolithic extensive green roof.

-  The American Horticultural Society is pleased to announce that Ed Snodgrass is the 2011 recipient of the G.B. Gunlogson Award.  The award is one of 12 Great American Gardeners Awards that the AHS presents annually to individuals, organizations, and businesses that represent the best in American gardening.  Congrats to Ed, co-owner of Emory Knoll Farms and our very own contributing editor of the “Ask Ed” Plant Column here on Greenroofs.com!

- Green Roofs for Healthy Cities is pleased to announce the results of its 2011 Annual Industry Survey of Corporate Members which found that the greenroof industry grew by 28.5% over the course of 2010, which was up significantly from the 16% growth recorded in 2009!  The City of Chicago was #1, with Washington D.C. #2 in the Annual Top Ten U.S. Cities List.

-  Read our latest guest feature contributing editor blog post on Sky Gardens by Christine Thuring, “EcoBuild London (March 2011).”  Christine talks about the world’s largest sustainable construction fair, the biggest EcoBuild yet with over 50,000 visitors, over 1,300 suppliers and more than 130 free seminar sessions feazturing over 600 speakers.

-  (Check out Linda’s latest Sky Gardens Blog post about the “GPW: Cheyenne I and III (251 & 253 Medical Center Blvd.)” which has info on research data for the buildings.

-  Joblinks Update:  ZinCo USA is looking for two Regional Account Managers for Architectural/Contractor Green Roof Sales. One is located in Boston, MA and the other on in Philadelphia, PA.  Go to greenroofs.com/joblinks.htm to apply to these jobs and check out our other Green Roof Jobs postings.  Go to greenroofs.com/joblinks.htm to apply to these jobs and check out our other Green Roof Jobs postings.

-  Industry News: New “Design Guidelines and Maintenance Manual for Green Roofs in the Semi-Arid and Arid West” are released.  The guidelines are a collaboration of the University of Colorado Denver, City and County of Denver, Green Print Denver and the Urban Drainage and Flood Control District.

-  “Upcoming Events”

-  April 4th & 5th: is the Rooftop Rainforest TV programme featuring Dusty Gedge, which will be broadcast on Sky 1 HD in the UK.

- April 5th: is a Green Infrastructure Ontario Coalition: One Day Training Workshop in Thunder Bay, Ontario Canada.

- April 6th – 7th: is Water & Environment 2011, CIWEM’s Annual Conference in London, United Kingdom.

- April 7th & 12th: is Designing with Nature – Compost BMP Design Webinar for Green Infrastructure and LID.

- April 7th – 12th: is RCI – 26th International Convention and Trade Show in Reno, Nevada.

- And on April 8th – 9th: is Green Build Cornwall in Cornwall, United Kingdom.

-  “In the News”

-  Ross Dulmaine of IBTimes reports on “Green roof uberwork: Bjarke Ingels’ M2 House.”  He says “from a distance the M2 house looks like just another little rolling hill.  Approach more closely and you find a modern, subtly camouflaged residence whose roof is covered in beautiful, easy to maintain sedum.”  Located in Denmark, the home was designed to blend into its rural surroundings and one side features huge, light-infusing glass sections which provide plenty of natural light to the living and kitchen areas.  Check out the article on IBTimes for some more beautiful photos.

-  Sandy Hingston of Philly Mag’s The Philly Post invites you to “Build A Green-Roof Birdhouse.”  In Longwood Gardens, she took a birdhouse-making class with the most cutting-edge architectural design: a green roof.  Longwood has been experimenting with bluebird houses in its fields for years hoping to attract more but with local summers heating up, eggs were reaching boiling points inside these birdhouses.  Green roofs create a heat differential that aids airflow and reduces interior temperatures.  The sedums used were specially grown at Ed Snodgrass’ Emory Knoll Farms in Street, Maryland where he focuses on perennial green-roof plants that can stay outdoors year-round.

-  Jeffrey Tomich of stltoday.com asks “Five Questions with green roofer Kelly Luckett.”  He talks about how Kelly Luckett, president of Green Roof Blocks, is taking back one rooftop at a time in St. Louis.  Kelly explains that there are many benefits to green roofs: they soak up about half of the storm water that would otherwise run off into gutters, they keep rooftops cooler, saving energy in the buildings underneath and they provide a habitat for bees, butterflies and birds.  Be sure to visit this article to read Kelly’s answers to questions like how he got into the green roof business, how green roofs are priced and what’s next for Greenroofs.com’s “Green Roof Guy.”

-  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.

-  Coming Soon: Stayed tuned for our latest Sky Gardens – Greenroofs of the World episode, The Cook+Fox Architects Office in Manhattan, New York!

-  This has been This Week in Review for April 1st, 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.

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.

In celebration of greening the Earth through organic architecture, Greenroofs.com founder and publisher/editor Linda Velazquez enters the blogosphere and kicks off Sky Gardens ~ where cool green meets lofty blue, a blog about greenroofs, the living roofs community, and awesome sustainable design in general.

“Cool green?” Cool green architecture, cool green people, cool green environments, etc.
“Lofty blue?” As in sky high spaces, places, ideals, and ideas ~ you get the picture.

Hello Greenroof World,

Part informal commentary, discovery, reflection, imagination, and – if we’re lucky – sometimes even inspiration, with the Sky Gardens Blog we’ll be talking about the experiential nature of space, eco-aesthetics, eco-style and eco-responsibility, or maybe just share a rant or two about something going on in the greenroof world.  And how about eco-responsibility in terms of spiritual sustainability?  True spirituality is about respect.  Here’s a new favorite quote of mine:

“If we unbalance Nature, human kind will suffer. Furthermore, we must consider future generations: a clean environment is a human right like any other. It is therefore part of our responsibility towards others to ensure that the world we pass on is as healthy as, if not healthier than we found it.” -His Holiness the Dalai Lama (Beliefnet Buddhist Wisdom, 2008, From “The Pocket Dalai Lama,” edited by Mary Craig, 2002)

It’s our individual social responsibility to pursue an environmentally friendly and energy-conscious ecology, and healthy environmental design is one way for all of us to collectively tread lighter on the shared resources that is our Earth.  And greenroofs, sky gardens, and green walls are fast becoming green staples of chic sustainability in mainstream architecture and high performance building.

A little background history: The first incarnation of Greenroofs.com inaugurated in 1999, the current format in May 2003, and my Sky Gardens ~ Travels in Landscape Architecture column promptly followed a month later in June 2003.  The rigor and research of first a monthly column, then a bi-monthly quickly turned into the “occassional” column for me!  We welcomed our first contributing editor, Ed Snodgrass (AKA “Ask Ed”) in August 2004 and over the years have added seven more contributing editors, all of whom now write their own occassional columns as time permits.  And so the lure of the Sky Gardens Blog was conceived.

Sky Gardens ~ where cool green meets lofty blue comes on the heels of the enormous interest in greenroofs and our contributors, who are some of the industry’s leading professionals in their respective fields – and who can now blog away without the grind of a full article (but still look for their in-depth columns, too)!  Not to mention it allows us a quicker and more interactive opportunity for sharing fascinating roofscapes, thought provoking dialogue, and just engaging in good old social networking.

We’ll explore vibrant old & new projects through our real and virtual travels across the globe – and we are a globetrotting bunch!   We’ll also throw in all the cool new innovative stuff we stumble upon everyday from news media, our own practices & businesses, and readers like you.   Look for posts about and interviews with people near and far – those who design inviting spaces with living architecture, contribute important research, develop new technologies, and influence the marketplace – plus those green thinkers or trendsetters who open new doors in one way or another.

Learn more about all of us on the Blog Team here.  To wrap up my inaugural Sky Gardens Blog post, our ultimate goal is just like Greenroofs.com’s overall mission, but with a personal twist: to share news, project info, and experiences that are relevant and fun, while continuing to promote the earth friendly technology of organic greenroof architecture!

You can always visit Forums to talk amongst yourselves, and you’re now invited to celebrate Earth with us here for regular, and sometimes irregular, commentary and musings on the poetry that is our world of green and blue.  As always, we welcome your ideas and comments and the infinite promise of stoking two-way dialogue.  Enjoy!

Happy Greening & Safe Travels ~

Linda S. Velazquez
Greenroofs.com Publisher & Editor
Sky Gardens Design Principal