As I’m sure you know, this year the CitiesAlive: The 9th Annual Green Roof & Wall Conference will be held in Philadelphia on November 30-Dec 2, 2011. And the Awards are a great opportunity for peer recognition of the entire design team.
“The Awards of Excellence continue to draw attention to the tremendous integrated design work being achieved in the green roof and wall profession, and the awards ceremony is a highlight of our annual conference.” Jeffrey L. Bruce, Chair, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities
The Awards are selected by a seven-member, multi-disciplinary judging team which includes architects, landscape architects, engineers and horticulturists. Submissions are evaluated according to a broad range of weighted criteria including aesthetic, economic, functional and ecological components.
There are seven design award categories, three for extensive green roofs, three for intensive green roofs, and one for green walls:
* The Design Awards acknowledge excellence in innovative and integrative green roof and wall design and raise awareness of the multiple benefits that green infrastructure can provide clients and the general public.
* The Research Award honors individuals or groups who have made outstanding contributions to the green roof industry in research.
* The Civic Award honors individuals or groups who have made outstanding contributions to the green roof industry in policy development.
The winner for GRHC’s 2010 Extensive Institutional Green Roof was the stunning Vancouver Convention Centre, above. The Award recipient was PWL Partnership Landscape Architects Inc.
Aramis and I were excited to attend and exhibit at CitiesAlive!, the 8th Annual Green Roof and Wall Conference on November 30 through December 4, 2010 in this beautiful harbor city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, co-hosted by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC) and the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). Neither of us had been here, and we really had been looking forward to seeing this naturally gorgeous city surrounded by majestic snow covered mountain peaks, and we weren’t disappointed!
Celebrating its 125th Anniversary on April 6 of this year, Vancouver, B.C. is “Canada’s Cultural capital.” Originally inhabited by the Coast Salish people – the ancestors of the Squamish, Burrard, Tsleil-Waututh, Musqueam (Xw’muthk’i'um), Tsawwassen, Coquitlam (Kwayhquitlam), Katzie andSemiahmoo Indian bands, Spanish explorers first “discovered” Canada’s west coast in the early 1590’s. Captain George Vancouver arrived 200 years later, and fur trading, gold mining, and tree logging soon followed by the mid 1800’s. Vancouver’s cultural diversity is reflected everywhere – you have a huge selection of shopping, restaurants, bars, pubs, and nightclubs in various locales throughout the city.
Vancouver also has professed a steadfast commitment to sustainability – their long term goal is to lead the world in green building design and construction, and it promises to be “the greenest city in the world” by 2020. Vancouver’s targets include requiring all buildings constructed from 2020 onward to be carbon neutral in operations and reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in existing buildings by 20% over 2007 levels. Reportedly, Vancouver has the greenest building code for new homes in North America, but they don’t plan to stop here - they believe the technology already exists to support a more ambitious new construction requirement: net zero or carbon neutral new buildings. Read the “GC 2020 Draft Green Building Action Plan” here.
“These green building innovations will create thousands of new jobs, create a significant economic stimulus, increase the value of buildings, reduce property owners’ operating costs, help Vancouver become more resilient to climate change and energy price fluctuations, and position Vancouver as a global leader in green building technologies and expertise.” ~ Talk Green Vancouver/ City of Vancouver
As you may know, Corporate Knights, Canada’s magazine for clean capitalism, recently ranked Victoria and Vancouver, B.C. at the top of the list of Canada’s most sustainable cities – see the 2.9.11 Press Release.
Our hotel and venue were both beautiful and green. The luxurious Pan Pacific Vancouver Hotel is situated atop a pier at the magnificent Canada Place complex on Vancouver’s dramatic waterfront. And its iconic white sails have made it a prominent landmark for the city (currently being renovated).
Part of the Green key ECO – rating program (rated 4) itself, the Pan Pacific is conveniently located just a short walk above or below ground to the multiple award-winning venue, the LEED® Platinum certified for New Construction Vancouver Convention Centre. This expansion project is also known as the Vancouver Convention Centre West, and last year it served as the international broadcast and media center for the XXI Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games. (Haven and I included it in 2007’s Top 10 List under the #2 category, Bigger is Better – Mega Greenroofs.)
In addition to its massive 261,360 sf living roof – the largest in Canada - seawater heating and cooling, on-site water treatment and fish habitat are built into the foundation of the Convention Centre’s West Building, making the expansion project one of the greenest convention centers in the world. Located both on land and in the water, the views were breathtaking and spectacular! The floor-to-ceiling glass allow for maximum viewing pleasure of the North Shore mountains and the harbor, its boats, and even sea planes landing at will.
Planted with more than 400,000 indigenous plants and grasses from the Gulf Islands, the roof provides a beautiful flowering natural habitat to birds, insects and small mammals. Many people worked on this project- see this gorgeous video taken by David Buge with Bruce Hemstock of PWL Partnership Landscape Architects narrating on top of the Vancouver Convention Centre:
Although the greenroof is inaccessible to the public, the designers cleverly have allowed glimpses of the various angles and vegetated planes on two separate levels for visitors to enjoy, see below:
And the interior is just as cool andeco-friendly as the massive six-acre native plant greenroof overhead. For example, a phenomenal mosaic of cedar and hemlock pieces covering the interior walls creates a warm glow and adds multi-dimension to the expansive space.
Kudos to GRHC and BCIT for securing this fabulous, uber-sustainably designed venue!
Back to the CitiesAlive! Conference and Trade Show: We arrived on Tuesday, November 30 to make sure we were on time for the following day’s pre-conference activities (this was also the first day of tours, but we were too late to make it).
On Wednesday, GRHC offered five half-day education classes and one anticipated new one, the Introduction to Rooftop Agriculture – a topic that is really hot right now. Additionally, they had four 1.5 hour education sessions which all sounded interesting! But since I had to choose, I attended the 4-hour “Integrated Water Management for Buildings & Sites” seminar presented by Jeffrey Bruce, FASLA, GRP, President of Jeffrey L. Bruce & Company (and Chair of GRHC), while Aramis set up our exhibitor booth and attended the Corporate Members Committee Meeting.
I had heard mixed reviews about the course from its initial launch in Washington, D.C. last year, that it was certainly informative but a bit dry. But as someone with a degree in landscape architecture and a fairly good background in stormwater management, I enjoyed it. It wasn’t particularly dry, just quite technical and very in-depth in terms of definitions, policies, and procedures – although it said it was an introductory class, I would say it was definitely not for beginners! Developed by GRHC and the Association of Irrigation Consultants (ASIC), with leads Jeff Bruce and Lynda Wightman of Hunter, it embraces new approaches to design for Net Zero Water consumption.
The course covered water types and sources, and how we may manage water and energy resources more effectively including application and recapture methods. Jeff is a very good instructor – patient and extremely knowledgeable (his company also developed the course) -and the class was very interactive. We had some lively discussions from a really multi-disciplinary group of professionals from across Canada and the U.S., both from private practice and government at various levels. And the 98-page “Integrated Water Management for Buildings & Sites” Participant’s Manual is a veritable Bible of Integrated Water Management information.
Greenroofs.com was proud, once again, to be a Media Sponsor for the 8th year. The CitiesAlive! Opening Plenary on Wednesday night, sponsored by Architek.ca, was extremely interesting as we were greeted with a lovely traditional Coast Salish welcome from Elder Rose Point of the Musqueam First Nation and welcome song from Gerry Oleman, photo above from BCIT.
GRHC President Steven Peck was the Master of Ceremonies and he spoke about the many efforts and accomplishments of the industry association in the past year, including many firsts. We also heard from City of Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, who proclaimed his city would be the greenest in world, and from Rod Goy, the Acting Dean of the School of Construction and the Environment at BCIT, who spoke about their commitment to greening the built environment.
The always popular Paul Kephart of Rana Creek Living Architecture was the eloquent keynote speaker and shared his vision as a restoration ecologist and designer of living architectural systems. He also spoke about several of his collaborations with unique and large scale projects including the Gap Headquarters, Transbay Terminal Bay, the California Academy of Sciences, and the Croton Water Treatment Plant (Mosholu Golf Course) in New York which, when completed, will be the largest continuous greenroof in North America at nine acres.
Afterwards the Trade Show opened, the socializing started and didn’t stop until late. Thursday dawned overcast but the sessions started bright and early at 8:30 am. As usual, there was a huge number of expert international speakers in every track, with four tracks in all – Policy, Design, Research, and Expert Discussion Panels. In my opinion, it’s almost too massive a program, since it’s impossible to experience even a fraction of all the excellent presentations. What most people did was jump from session speaker to another to ensure they could hear their favorites. I think the ideal would be to send four people from each company or organization to attend each and then get together and debrief, but, really, who could afford that.
I found that I ended up splitting the next two days worth of sessions between the Design Track and the Expert Discussions. I started off the first day, Thursday, December 2nd, with the Barriers and Opportunities to Advance Collaborative Design Practices panel and heard from Paul Kephart, landscape architect David Yocca of Conservation Design Forum, and environmental engineer Greg Allen from Sustainable Edge. Jeff Bruce moderated, and these four highly seasoned professionals provided an intense interplay of personal opinion and practical experience, with plenty of audience interaction adding to the pot of working with disparate professionals.
The Temperate Green Roofs session followed and we learned about The Ted & Lois Hole Green Roof Healing Garden in Edmonton, Alberta. Designed by the wonderful Kerry Ross, Project Architect with IBI Group Architects and Ernie Webster, Landscape Architect with IBI/Landplan, this 22,500 sf hybrid extensive/intensive green roof is located at a new facility for holistic healing, the Royal Alexandra Hospital. Designed to commemorate Lois Hole, the former Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, and her husband Ted, it serves as a passive healing garden and visual amenity. The trees, shrubs, tall grasses and flowers were selected to represent the natural flora of Alberta, and were supplied by the family nursery. Some of the beautiful features include lots of seating areas, a water fall and reflecting pool, colorful glass screens, and places for art.
I hopped over to Expert Discussions – Standards Development for Green Roofs and Walls – Future Directions, Challenges and Needs with Mike Curry of Midwest Trading, Dr. Robert Berghage of Penn State, Kelly Luckett of Green Roof Blocks, and Blair Bennett of Soprema. Moderated by Zachary Williams of CarlisleSynTec, it was pretty interesting. There was a lot of candid sentiment about the process and practical issues from from what appeared to be an audience of mostly engineers, architects, city planners and the likes. Everyone wanted to know how their product or system might fare and how to get involved, and maintenance issues and ensuring maintenance contracts were included in deliverables were also a hot topic.
But I hopped back after about 20 minutes because I didn’t want to miss Nate Griswold from American Hydrotech and his presentation about the Lincoln Center for the Performing Artsand some of their unusual challenges with this project shaped like a hyperbolic paraboloid. Problems arose with the varying slopes as well as the high amount foot traffic and as a result, a new steep slope product and assembly for this type of greenroof was developed.
Unfortunately, I missed out on most of The Hugh Garner Green Roof Project – an integrated process, presented by Monica Kuhn of Monica E. Kuhn Architect, Inc. and Carolyn Moss of Moss Sund Architects, Inc., but I learned more about it when we featured this great multi-unit residential Housing Co-operative in downtown Toronto as our first Greenroof Project of the Week for 2011:
The GRHC 2010 Awards of Excellence Luncheon followed and twelve awards were given this year – eight for awesome buildings withgreenroofs andgreenwalls, including local favorite, the Vancouver Convention Centre Expansion Project. Below is Peter MacDonagh, one of the principals of The Kestrel Design Group, who received a Special Recognition Award of Excellence for their work withThe City of Minneapolis Target Center Arena, which we featured in our 2010 Hot Trends Top 10 List in the #9 category, “Green Sporting Venues.”
There were some other really cool projects, see them all here, as well as four deserving individuals honored within our industry.
One of these was Kelly Luckett, above, AKA The Green Roof Guy, who won a Civic Award of Excellence for his hard work on the RP-14 Wind Design Guideline (read his Green Roofs, a Civic Award of Excellence, and a Lifetime of Memories article). Talk about someone who really should have been recognized! He has put in years of his life (not to mention probably tens of thousands of dollars from his own pocket) to further this important issue for our industry. And he was really excited and humbled about receiving it, too. I can only say how humble and proud I felt when he acknowledged me for giving him a platform to write. Way to go, Kelly!
The Lifetime Achievement Awardsceremony was truly poignant and inspiring as a special tribute was held for two legends of the roof garden/greenroofing industry. Author of “Roof Gardens, History, Design and Construction,” W.W. Norton, 1999, the late Theodore Osmundson, FASLA, was honored. Theodore Osmundson became a Fellow of the ASLA in 1963 and was ASLA president from 1967-1969. We heard about his lifelong passion for landscape architecture, and roof gardens in particular, from his son, Gordon.
Inspired by the Rockefeller Center Roof Gardens in New York City, industrialist Henry Kaiser hired Osmundson in 1958 to design the beautiful 3 and a half acre public park, the Kaiser Center Roof Gardenin Oakland, CA, which became Osmundson’s best known work. Gordon Osmundson, also a successful landscape architect, has taken on the task of working on a second edition of his dad’s highly successful “Roof Gardens” book.
Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, OC, FASLA, FCSLA, LMBCSLA then graced the stage and spoke about “Reflections of six decades designing natural sites.” Educated at Harvard University, she expressed her love and gratitude for landscape architecture where she has shone brilliantly as a leader in garden roofs, and spoke about her early work while raising a family. She shared the visions of some of her numerous important projects, including the stunning Visitor Centre Green Roof at the VanDusen Botanical Gardens.
Designed by Busby Perkins + Willand Cornelia, the center is slated to meet the Living Building Challenge 2.0 (as per the Cascadia Green Building Council) as well as LEED Platinum standards. To receive its Living Building certification, the center will have to operate for 12 months with net zero energy while providing all of its own water.
Thursday afternoon was spent in and out of our Exhibit Booth on the Trade Show Floor, popping into a variety of sessions, and simply catching up with lots of people!
The Trade Show floor had a good turnout, and most exhibitors we spoke to were pleased with the quality of visitors to their booths (meaning designers and specifiers). I have to say our Greenroofs.com booth was hopping most of the time, and we had tons of visitors – thanks to all of you who came by to say hello!
This may have been due to our lively and lovely in-house booth mates, Contributing Editors Patrick Carey (and GRHC Trainer), Haven Kiers (also a GRHC Trainer), andCaroline Menetre, above, who camped out here off and on. We had some interesting booth neighbors, including the vivacious Kathy of BusyBee Gardening across from us, seen below, as well as neighbors Craig of MYKE® Pro Premier Tech Biotechnology andGenevièveNöel of Mubi Regenerative Consulting, below her:
Dr. Clayton Rugh of Xero Flor America, above, andXero Flor Canada were also close by and I have to say Thank you! to Joy Schmidt for giving me a copy of the lovely book “Vancouver 2010.” All about the 17 Olympic and 10 Paralympic Games days, it features stunning photos of Vancouver and their Xero Flor greenroof technology that covers approximately 56,000 sf of the Millennium Water Project - Vancouver’s Olympic Village. Here are more Trade Show pics:
That evening, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities put on a really nice, invitation-only GRP Reception for the first year’s class (2009-2010) of graduating Green Roof Professionals. It was casually elegant and beautifully set up - the beverage and food selection was wonderful and the service was excellent. Aramis and I saw a lot of our friends and colleagues here, and met quite a few new ones, too.
We heard Sara Loveland and Ashleigh Uiska (with Dusty Gedge) threw an awesome afterparty, but we had our own much smaller version with our band of Contributing Editors and colleagues. By the way, Sara won our free yearly Premium Listing in The Greenroof Directory.
The Friday sessions were just as bustling and varied. I sat through (and thoroughly enjoyed) Green Wall Case Studies II, starting withInterior Living Wall Biofilter Projects – Lessons Learned from Pioneering Experience from Dr. Alan Darlington of Nedlaw Living Walls and Birgit Siber of Diamond andSchmitt Architects. They shared stories of years of research and project monitoring, and how living walls have the capacity to break down hundreds of different kinds of contaminants found in indoor air; they demonstrated how a biofilter can substantially reduce the need to bring in fresh air by generating its own clean air indoors.
One of my favorite presentations was next, Innovative and Cost Effective Biofilters for Residential Applications from Robert Cameron and Dr. Robert Berghage from Penn State University. They have an experimental site on campus as well as the one Rob Cameron built at his home using a combination of materials on site, some donated, and some leftover from experiments from other Penn State projects. They conducted studies showing that living systems do not need to be highly sophisticated to work beautifully.
Rob Cameron asks, How can we take wasterwater and make it a resource? Using plants, from food crops to ornamentals, he showed us how the living wall with “Living Columns” – basically vertical plastic corrugated tubes – act like a constructed wetland and can filter out pollutants from an entire household. At his own residence he integrated these living columns with a greenroof for downspouts and rain water harvesting, and combined a living wall with an extensive greenroof to provide a vertical garden for tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and other veggies.
By the way, George Irwin of Green Living Technologies (GLT) was scheduled to speak during this session, and was deemed a no-show. Since he’s a Contributing Editor here, Caroline texted him to see where he was – he answered that he had indeed let GRHC know early in the week that something major had come up and would not be able to make it.
That morning I also sat in on a couple of sessions from Local Interest – From Barn Raisings to Green Roof Raisings: Community-Built Green Roof was presented by Bryce Gauthier, Director of the Projects In Place Society. What a great story! Projects In Place has taken the concept from the old community-based barn raisings and applied it to building sustainable projects. Using almost 100 volunteers including BCIT students, this small non-profit installed a 500 sf greenroof in two days on top of a business on the edge of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Projects In Place Society posted their CitiesAlive PowerPoint on their website, make sure to see it.
I skipped Retrofitting Existing Buildings With Green Roofs by Dr. Karen Liu of Xero Flor International because I had already seen and loved her similar (I hope) presentation at 2009’s CitiesAlive! in Toronto. Instead, I listened in on the Expert Discussion- How Green IS Your Green Roof: Devising a LEED Style Credit System for Green Roofs – Challenges and Opportunities with Steven Peck, Kerry Ross, Dr. Robert Berghage and Chuck Friedrich of Carolina Stalite.
Talk about a charged subject! Some argued that we should not create yet another rating system, but should rally to make the highly universally accepted (yet sometimes controversial) U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)’s LEEDprogram work better for our industry in terms of rating greenroofs. Others argued that GRHC knows our subject best and that starting new made the most sense rather than trying to fix another existing product. Having both my LEED AP andGRP designations, I have opinions, but will share them in another post.
So even though I was extremely interested in this subject, I returned to the Design Track andLocal Interest to hear about The Visitor Centre Green Roof at the VanDusen Botanical Gardens from Ken Larsson of Sharp & Diamond Landscape Architecture and the lovely Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, which was a treat, indeed!
Cornelia is a force to be reckoned with, and her exuberance shone through the entire presentation. It is a fascinating project – 3/4 of the 20,000 sf roof is greened, while 1/4 is “blue;” the undulating roof is based upon the shape of a native orchid – this project would have fit nicely in our Top 10 List as an example of the #3 position,“Biomimicry as Eco-literacy and Holistic Design.” Maybe for 2011. Lunch on the Trade Show Floor followed, along with the Poster Sessions.
Next up was Haven’s and my session where we were right in the middle of The Big Picture View, and we were very pleased at the turnout. Kerry Ross started with her extremely informative Nordic Adventures: a field study of green roofs in Norway. She highlighted cold climate greenroofs from a recent Scandinavian trip; through her research and documentation of projects has been able to better promote greenroof design and maintenance within Canada.
We followed with our Top 10 List presentation, and it was jam packed! This was the first time we had co-presented together, and Virginia (Jennie) Russell from the University of Cincinnati, our moderator extraordinaire, kept us in-line with methodical announcements for us to pick up the pace. So, it was a bit rushed, but fun (see our PowerPoint here). So many great projects to show, so little time!
We were honored to be in the same session as Cornelia Oberlander, who followed us and presented along with Ross Dixon of Phillips FarevaagSmallenberg. They shared their experiences with the Rooftoptop Renewal – The Redevelopment of Robson Square – An Intensive Green Roof in Downtown Vancouver.
This iconic rooftop civic center courthouse complex and public plaza was originally completed in 1983 by Arthur Erickson Architects and landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander; replacement of the original waterproofing membrane and restoration of the plantings is currently underway, and is expected to be completed sometime within this year. Refurbishments included surveying to see which tree specimens would be saved and evaluating the best methods for removal, safe keeping during construction, and then replanting.
The Closing Plenary opened with its own lively Top 10 List invitation to join GRHC at the 9th Annual CitiesAlive 2011 in Philadelphia by members of the Philadelphia Local Host Committee. Co-hosted by the City of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the next Green Roof and Wall Conference will be held in the City of Brotherly Love from November 29 to December 3.
The Panel Discussion Peak Oil, Urban Farming and the Roofs and Walls of Our Cities: Creating a Future We Desire wrapped up the Conference. Delivered by visionary yet practical Keynote Speaker Greg Allen, PE, LEEP AP, of Sustainable Edge, the presentation was forward thinking but set in a very grim reality – we must release our bonds with oil and embrace sustainable energy strategies as well as develop local urban farming on our rooftops and walls to ensure food security – basically we need to explore alternative food options more intelligently.
Panelists included Thomas Mueller of the Canadian Green Building Council, Vancouver Councilor Andrea Reimer, KeithAgoada of Sky Vegetables and Jeff Bruce, and a lot of people raised their own concerns about food supply and quality control, organics, and infrastructure for urban agriculture in the sky. Greenroofs.com was definitely in sync, as Haven Kiers and I had Tower Oases as Skyrise Urban Ag in the 2010 #1 category for our Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof and Greenwall Design.
We enjoyed our Habitat Havens Tour the next day on Saturday, and especially our tour guide, the lively and informative Tyrel Sutton from Flynn Canada. We had a beautiful, clear day to roam around four rooftops (really three, more on that later) that were selected because they were designed to either replicate a specific ecosystem or to provide food for birds, butterflies, or bees. We were lucky because the tours on Tuesday were rainy – in fact, at least one was cancelled.
There are quite a few publically accessible projects around Vancouver, and the Local Host Committee put together a 9-stop Self-Guided Green Roof and Wall Tour list that was included in the program. We didn’t see much, but Caroline did – this is her photo of the ING Green Wall, left, designed by CitiesAlive exhibitor Green over Grey – Living Walls and Design Inc.
I would say there were maybe 700 people at CitiesAlive. With the exception of a few hiccups – spotty snacks, flimsy conference program, tour time changes - overall, I felt that Steven Peck and Green Roofs for Healthy Cities did a fantastic job of planning and executing this first “international” conference. Kind of funny since they’re Canadian, but this was the first time the conference was held outside of the U.S. Plus it was the first time under its new name – CitiesAlive. (As you’ll recall, the previous seven incarnations were titled “Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities.”)
And the Vancouver Local Host Committee (Rod Goy, Marita Luk, Andrea Martinello, Blair Bennett, Nicholas Rousseau, Dr. Katherine Dunster, Helen Goodland, Andrea Linsky, Andrea Kausel and Lyn Ross) should be commended, too, for their outstanding accomplishments and participation in this successful conference! Visit Green Roofs for Healthy Cities’ Acknowledgements page, where I borrowed this photo below:
In general, people were very happy with everything, with minor grumblings about not enough food at the Opening Plenary and dessert on the Trade Show floor after the Awards of Excellence Luncheon. Also, for the first time, CD’s of the conference proceedings were not available, but you can purchase video recordings of the over 60 speakers that go along with each’s PowerPoint presentation (“Full Compilation Streaming Media – Audio Synched to PPT”) from GRHC for $120.
In reflection, we should be happy the conference agenda is so big – I’m sure Greenbuild had similiar growing pains, talk about a massive, multi-day, multi-track program! Or ASLA, or AIA, for that matter. It simply, very clearly, illustrates the tremendous growth of our greenroof and greenwall industry, and acceptance of building integrated greenery into mainstream design. It is impossible to attend each presentation, so it’s great that GRHC developed the Living Architecture Academy – an online learning center with technical papers from all the past conferences and proceedings. Having such a resource at our fingertips is inmeasurable.
Regarding the Trade Show, we’ve all noticed a trend of some past exhibitors not exhibiting lately, sometimes due to the challenging economy, scheduling conflicts, or feeling resources could be better used elsewhere. So, I would also just like to add that all of us who are members of GRHC should pay a big thanks to all of the companies who have exhibited in the past, and who faithfully continue to do so. Being international for many of us, for Vancouver it was more cumbersome and expensive to ship everything, but conferences couldn’t be held without the support of exhibitors and sponsors. I would encourage everyone doing business within our industry to exhibit and work together to make our committment and exposure even better. Here are a few more Trade Show pics:
One of the very best things about all these conferences is the chance to meet new colleagues and see old friends from across the world and catch up on each other’s lives and happenings – we were happy to do this with the always effervescent Dusty Gedge of Livingroofs.org, Kerry Ross and her husband Bob, Chuck Friedrich and Ernie Higgins of ItSaul Natural – Mr. Natural (also from Atlanta), Contributing Editor Dr. Bill Retzlaff of SIUe, and too many other folks to mention! Many of our “usual” German colleagues were missing (Manfred Köhler and Roland Appl, among others), probably due to the numerous previous international congresses where we saw them, but it was great seeing several folks from the City of Portland’s Beaurau of Environmental Services and lots of international students, too.
I wish I had had more time with a bunch of people – the always wonderful Maureen Connelly from BCIT, Jennie Russell, and Andrea Martinello of N.A.T.S., for example, but there will be other conferences!
I’m sorry I couldn’t attend Maureen’s panel session of Expert Discussion: Taking Green Roofs and Walls to the Next Level in British Columbia – A Pathway to the Future! because it conflicted with our Top 10 presentation session. It included the fanstastic Deputy City Manager of the City of Vancouver, Sadhu Johnston – previously Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley’s Chief Environmental Officer and Deputy Chief of Staff, where he headed up much of their greenroof program.
In my opinion, Maureen Connelly is the true greenroof champion in Vancouver with her many years of dedication and research at British Columbia Institute of Technology’s Centre for the Advancement of Green Roof Technology, and should be commended for an outstanding job – keep up the great work, and thanks BCIT for all that you do! (See their project profile in The Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database here.) Their Mission Statement:
“The mission of the BCIT Centre for Architectural Ecology – Collaborations in Green Roofs and Living Walls is to conduct world-class, innovative research on green roof and living wall systems and to provide research-based education across disciplines, to students and practitioners.”
The BCIT Centre is evaluating the function and performance of extensive greenroofs and living walls in the rainforest climate of coastal B.C. Through collaborations with industry, government and academic partners, their vision is to help advance the widespread adoption of these technologies in this region. It would have been great to have visited the research facility, but, just like any working trip, there simply wasn’t enough time. Make sure to read BCIT’s “750 attend BCIT-co-hosted green roof conference” of December 13, 2010, where you can also see a huge gallery of photos.
We were here five nights and every day was devoted to conference events – although we didn’t get out to see the city and surroundings, many of our friends did (like Caroline and Janet Faust of JDR Enterprises). Caroline was fortunate enough to go up on a seaplane and took this wonderful aerial photo of Vancouver, above. Like most people, she also visited Whistler Mountain, one of North America’s top ski and snowboard resorts (and snapped this fun snow picture left).
The two greenroofed places I really wanted to visit but didn’t was the awesome Vancouver Public Library (also known as Library Square Building) with its pioneering rooftop built in 1995, and the fantastic 2010 Olympic andParalympic Winter Games Olympic Village, also known as Southeast False Creek and Millennium Water with about 287,000 sf total of greenroofs.
Read my 2.17.10 Sky Gardens post about it here. We featured Millennium Water in 2007’s Top 10 List in the #1 category – Visionary Proposed Projects since the City of Vancouver mandated that at least 50% of the buildings should be covered in green. Next time!
Not content to leave things alone, upon leaving the Vancouver International Airport (YVR), I had to take a bunch of photos of the 17-meter high YVR Canada Line Station 4 Living Wall, designed by the talented Randy Sharp of Sharp & Diamond Landscape Architecture. As you may know, the Canada Line is Vancouver’s new rapid transit rail link connecting YVR to downtown Vancouver, and visitors are greeted by this beautiful green wall of green and silver euonymus, mondo grass, and licorice fern. Read my 3.26.10 Sky Gardens post about it here.
We will defintely return to Vancouver, B.C. as a vacation destination, where we can take in all the sights and locations of this gorgeous city at our leisure! That’s it for now.
If you haven’t already, make sure to read our December, 2010 Guest Feature Article by Janet Faust of JDR Enterprises, “CitiesAlive! 2010,” where she did a great job in describing her reflections of this eighth yearly conference. Her account of compares the experience to a fine wine and Janet comments how these Green Roofs for Healthy Cities’ conferences have gotten better with age! If you’d like to present at the 9th Annual CitiesAlive! Green Roof and Wall Conference in Philadelphia, the Call for Paper Abstracts will be released in a few weeks.
Next up will be a series of posts about individual tour sites from each of these unique cities we had the pleaure of visiting last year: Mexico City, Singapore, and the lovely Vancouver, B.C., Canada.
Aramis and I had a great time in Toronto last week for the inaugural 2009 CitiesAlive! World Green Roof Infrastructure Congress~ what a wonderful city! It’s clean, green, and at the moment has the most progressive greenroof policy in North America. From the airport we rode along the waterfront and were impressed on how green the city really is – we enjoyed the many beautifully landscaped parks with an abundance of trees in full autumn color, swaying grasses and flowering perennials. Tons of people were out enjoying the cool, crisp fall day with strollers, jogging, or just relaxing and taking in the views of Lake Ontario. The prominent Toronto Hydro/WindShare wind turbine, ”North America’s first urban wind turbine,” was truly an impressive sight to see at Toronto’s Exhibition Place, a showcase for sustainability. And the many architectural styles and hustle and bustle of downtown Toronto were a pleasure.
At the Congress we encountered many of the “usual greenroof suspects” we know from Canada, Germany, the U.K., and the U.S. and met some very interesting new people, too, from South Korea and Spain (to name a couple) in the various speaker sessions, on the Toronto Sustainable Bus Tour sponsored by Tremco and Bioroof, and at the CitiesAlive! Closing Gala at the Toronto Botanical Garden where we all enjoyed a lively and tasty Mexican Fiesta celebration.
The theme of the Congress was “Green Roof Infrastructure: A Global Solution to Climate Change” and began on Monday, October 19 with a selection of tours and training sessions and the Canadian launch of the GRP exam, followed by the CitiesAlive! Opening Reception at Toronto City Hall, which we unfortunately missed due to a late flight. Sponsored by The City of Toronto, attendees gathered on the City Hall Rotunda and were treated to a ’sneak peek preview tour’ of the new Toronto City Hall Green Roof, and heard from Mayor of Toronto David Miller, Manfred Köhler, President of the co-host World Green Roof Infrastructure Network (WGRIN), and Steven Peck, Executive Director of co-host Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC). The new greenroof is more expansive than the previous incarnation of the 3,200 sf Toronto City Hall Green Roof Demonstration Project, which was dismantled and replaced with this larger living roof. I’ll update the profile on The Greenroof Projects Database as soon as I get more info.
Tuesday morning, October 20 started bright and early with the CitiesAlive! Opening Plenary, where Steven welcomed everyone and stressed the importance of the bigger picture and how green infrastructure options can secure a more sustainable and prosperous future for us all. He talked about two main themes: Cities can and are leading on major environmental issues such as global warming and how the best solutions are those that are good for the environment and good for the economy. The City of Toronto is leading by example in many areas; for example, it now has a 40% reduction of greenhouse emissions based on 1990 levels and the #1 hybrid electric bus fleet in Canada, which is #2 in North America behind New York City, saving significant operations costs. And through partnering with local businesses and residents, Live Green Toronto has issued grants in excess of $10 million to Torontonians.
Mayor Miller presented the Opening Address “Towards a Green Toronto” spoke about Living Green here with projects such as their ”Transit City” program, whose transit expansion into underserved, poorer areas really equals social justice as light rail encouragesbetter development and will better the lives of many. New programs like Live Green Toronto and city-wide initiatives like Mayor’s Tower Renewal will revitalize communities. For example, plans to add thermal over cladding and insulation (plus greenroofs and other eco- friendly building features) to the numerous city concrete slab highrises will not only reduce energy but will cut citywide gas emissions by 3-5%. These efforts will help create local employment and result in an environmental success story for Toronto. The City’s overall goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050.
Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone spoke about the evolution of the Toronto’s Eco-Roof Incentive Program (formerly the Green Roof Pilot Program). For example, in 2006, 16 projects were funded, 30 in 2007, and 34 projects have been approved in 2009. Approved by City Council in November 2008, the Eco-Roof Incentive Program is based on the successful Green Roof Pilot Program of 2006 and 2007 and includes both cool and eco-roofs. In May, 2009 Toronto became the first City in North America to adopt a bylaw to require and govern the construction of greenroofs on new development. The bylaw will apply to all new building permit applications made after January 31, 2010 (residential, commercial and institutional) and January 31, 2011 for all new industrial development, with a few exceptions. The new bylaw will be required on all new development above 2,000 m² (about 21,530 sf) of Gross Floor Area and have a graduated coverage requirement ranging from 20-60%. (See more details at the City of Toronto website.)
Then the first round of speakers started from each of the four concurrent tracks, which I felt was rather ambitious all in just one day - I think we missed out on a lot of really pertinent info, and there was no conference CD like usual for later reference. I remained for Track 2: Innovative Projects and Design from Around the World, and Aramis headed over to Track 3: Policies and Programmes Supporting Green Infrastructure Development with our Student Editor, Christine Thüring (who should be adding some commentary of her own soon).
Track 2: Don Delaney from Flynn Canada started with details of the “Vancouver Convention Centre: 7 Acres of Green Roof in Downtown Vancouver” and went into detail about the trials and tribulations of Canada’s largest greenroof to date, including solutions to stabilize the growing media on slopes up to 40° and planting the 400,000 indigenous plants and grasses. Innovative features include decorative runnels with perforations on the high side to retain water and runoff collection used for irrigation and in a blackwater system. International Leak Detention was brought on board to test the integrity of the waterproofing membrane before and after the installation of the overburden with their Electric Field Vector Mapping (EFVM®) system. We were all very happy to have Andrea from N.A.T.S. Nursery in the audience to answer a lot of growing media and plant questions! This project will be a highlight to our trip to Vancouver, B.C. next year for the 8th installement of the Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities Conference. The Vancouver Convention Centre will be home of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games media and broadcast centre.
Prof. Dr. Eun-Heui Lee from Women’s University in Seoul, South Korea impressed us with ”Green Roof Policy and Projects to Expand Green Space in Seoul” with some key figures: From 2002 through 2008, 218 greenroofs equalling 104,403 m² were constructed and in 2009 so far, 104 greenroofs totalling 41,000 m² have been built or on the boards! And perhaps more importantly, the Seoul Metro Government plans 600 new roofs to be greened by 2012.
Francois LaSalle of ADIVET in France addressed “Development of Green Roofs and Green Facades in France, and presented a history of greenroofs and walls in France. Starting in the 1970’s, about 1 m² of roofs have been greened here, mostly intensive roof gardens, through the 1980’s. By the end of the 1990’s, about 10 greenroof companies had emerged from the extensive market, and in 1994 Patrick Blanc unveiled his first green wall (Mur Vegetal) at the Garden Festival in Chaumont Sur Loire (although probably most famous for his Musée du quai Branly vegetated wall in Paris, 2006). Francois concluded with various French policies, subsidies, and bills to promote, and believe it not, prohibit opposition to planted roofs. Currently, vegetated façades are in their infancy, but greenroofs have a firm hold in the marketplace.
Ignacio Espoz Babul from LatinGreen in Santiago, Chile, presented “Living Walls for Better Indoor Climate in Subways,” an experimental green wall research program currently being implemented at two underground Metro stations in Santiago. Ignacio believes that indoor air pollutant abatement with an improvement in air quality due to reductions of metals and volatile chemicals is possible along with noise reduction due to plant foliage and the associated natural processes – as long as there is sufficient light, air, and water.
The sessions ran a bit late, and the Networking Break on the Trade Show was only supposed to last 30 minutes, but we stayed through lunch because we kept running into people we just had to talk to! So we skipped the next round of speakers in between (sorry I missed Paul Kephart, Andrew Bowerbank, Dr. Nigel Dunnett, Jeff Bruce, and James Sable!). The Networking Break on the Trade Show was very lively, and packed with people – I hope not too many missed those speakers, either. Lunch was held on the Trade Show Floor, which is always a good thing for the exhibitors, who help foot the bill and provide us with so many varieties of products and services. Here are a few:
Bill Corrigan from Tremco Canada told us about some of their company’s 1 million sf of greenroofs in Canada.
International Leak Detection performs non-destructive integrity tests of waterproofing membranes utilizing their patented Electric Field Vector Mapping technology. Membrane defects are located with pin point accuracy.
Lots of people visited the LiveRoof booth to learn about the modular manufacturer’s Soil Elevator™ and Moisture Portal™ technology.
Marie-Anne Boivin and fellow Soprema colleague told us about their many years of greenroof experience in the harsh Canadian climates.
The Trade Show was a good size and was heavily trafficked by all, especially since the refreshment break and newtworking lunch and cocktail were set here. Other Greenroofs.com exhibitor friends included Xero Flor America and Xero Flor Canada, Motherplants, Hydrotech, Sika Sarnafil, and Nilex, where Janet Faust of JDR Enterprises was present.
After lunch, the next round of speakers in Track 2 included Peter Lowitt from Devens Enterprise Commission who spoke about “Green Infrastructure & Eco-Industrial Parks: Lessons Learned From Devens, Massachusetts,” a former military barracks now a 40-acre eco- industrial park with an International Audubon Certified Sustainable Golf Course. He spoke how green infrastructure must take a holistic approach and asked how can we make these projects sustainable? By promoting social and environmental equity.
João Manuel Linck Feijó of the Associação de Telhados Verdes do Brazil presented “Innovative Projects & Green Roof Progress in Brazil” - introducing us to the relatively new greenroof market in Brazil and explaining a potential tax break for large cities and various state proposals for living roofs. He showed some beautiful greenroof projects throughout Brazil using a modular greenroof system from Ecotelhado.
Dr. Karen Liu of Xero Flor Canada addressed “Special Green Roof Projects in B.C.” Dr. Liu highlighted a couple of projects which presented opportunities for greenroof design and engineering creativity. The Butchart Gardens Carousel Pavilion in Victoria, B.C. has slopes ranging from 14-44% and utilized a 2-ply modified bitumen, standing seam copper roof and the architects needed to capture 36 liters of rainwater. Dr. Liu explained the steel grid system to retain the growing media and cautionary items to consider as well. The second project focused on Canada’s first LEED Gold Community, the 2010 Olympic Village where all of the roofs will be either extensive or intensive greenroofs! The extensive greenroofs will feature Xero Flor roofs with vegetated sports figures. These athletic figures will be planted with red flowering annuals and set in red lava rock.
Michael Krause of Kandiyohi Development talked about “Urban Forests and Energy in Minnesota,” a different and very interesting topic. Biomass energy is included in current U.S. energy legislation, and a biomass fuel energy strategy can be used as a small, community-based local climate change solution. Fallen trees are viewed as a carbon sink and vast supplies of excess biomass are available – Michael believes that biomass can be used as an interim strategy for the next 30 years orso, and sees this as a way to democratize energy and bring energy to the community level, since there would be no importing fossil fuels from afar.
Toby Lennox from the Greater Toronto Airports Authority finished with “Industrial Ecology: Partners in Project Green,” Canada’s largest eco-business zone at 4,000 acres. Toronto Pearson Airport manages one half of Canada’s commercial air traffic and 65,000 trips are made to the airport each day. Project Green is bringing together common strategies in a new eco-model of development in a growing community of businesses working together to green facilities and the bottom line.
Afterwards we all convened for the Cocktail Reception, once again on the Trade Show Floor, with spirits and snacks and an opportunity to unwind a bit, followed by the “Transforming the Face of Buildings” Student Design Challenge Awards, Poster Presentations and Networking Event at the Steam Whistle Brewing Roundhouse, a very funky locale and local brewery. The quality of the student entries was superb and I’m sure that the judges had a hard time selecting the winners. Congratulations to everyone who participated, and especially the First Place winner, “Cliffside Village” from students Dov Feinmesser, Yekaterina Mityuryayeva, Tommy Tso, and Aaron Hendershott form Ryerson University, Architectural Science!
We ended the evening with a spirited dinner compliments of George Irwin, our Green Wall Editor, and Diane DiGregorio of Green Living Technologies. Christine took us to an artsy part of town that’s being refurbished where we had awesome appetizers and organic pizza, incredible wine, and great conversation.
I believe that the 2009 CitiesAlive! has indeed sown future seeds of success as WGRIN continues to bring together the international greenroof community of non-profit organizations to highlight current and planned green infrastructure research, policy and projects. Their first congress had some growing pains but I believe that overall it was important, fruitful, and promising with quite an international flair – set in a perfect international city with a very promising future of its own.
Next up I’ll wrap up our time in Toronto with some photos of our day on the Toronto Sustainable Bus Tour and evening at the lovely Toronto Botanical Garden.
In reflection, we should be happy the conference agenda is so big – I’m sure 
I’m sorry I couldn’t attend Maureen’s panel session of Expert Discussion: Taking Green Roofs and Walls to the Next Level in British Columbia – A Pathway to the Future! because it conflicted with our Top 10 presentation session. It
Not content to leave things alone, upon leaving the Vancouver International Airport (YVR), I had to take a bunch of photos of the 17-meter high 
Then the first round of speakers started from each of the four concurrent tracks, which I felt was rather ambitious all in just one day - I think we missed out on a lot of really pertinent info, and there was no conference CD like usual for later reference. I remained for Track 2: Innovative Projects and Design from Around the World, and Aramis headed over to Track 3: Policies and Programmes Supporting Green Infrastructure Development with our 
