New Bedford?s first green roof was installed on the new addition to the city?s Hastings Keith federal office building, Social Security Administration in October, 2004. The 4,000 ft2 green roof is designed to help reduce pollution and to provide protection for the new EPDM roof membrane. In addition, the plantings provide an aesthetic benefit to the building occupants with offices above the roof.”The SSA?s need for additional ground floor space encompassed the surrounding lawn so a green roof was designed to mitigate stormwater runoff. The insulating value of the green roof and the building envelope, including high-efficiency glazing resulted in a zero net gain for major HVAC equipment in spite of doubling the square footage and occupancy,” (GSA website, see below).

The extensive green roof was designed by Oak Point Associates and features alternating curvi-linear bands of five plant species. These included: Achillea x ?Moonshine,? Festuca amethystine ?Superba,? Sedum spurium ?Bronze Carpet,? Sedum spectabile ?Autumn Joy,? and Festuca glauca ?Elijah Blue.?