Green Roofs

[Chicago Shawn]

Originally Posted by ChicagoChicago

They actually get tax breaks from the city. Calling that thing a green roof is generous. From that angle it is green, but from above, it's nothing but weeds.

A weed is defined as any plant deemed unwanted. This would include native prairie grasses on non-native turf lawn. The plant mix on green roofs is specifically chosen based on soil depth, climate and properties of the species to minimize maintenece and maximize the benefits of the green roof system.

[crazyjoeda]

The roof of the Vancouver public library


pic by SFU Vancouver
The new Vancouver international broadcast centre/convention centre.

[Coldrsx]

^interesting, i guess i never noticed that one. Amazing building, love the fact it has a green roof.

[NetMapel]

Would be nice if we could have more green roofs ala Hanging Garden style So much wasted roof-top space !

[LMich]

The world's largest green roof is said to be the 10+ acre sedum roof atop Ford Rouge Truck Detroit in Dearborn:



This was an aerial. I can't seem to find any good views of the completed project.

[munda]

Souce: Wikipedia

Chicago City Hall

[Pizzuti]

I love the green roof idea, but what I really want to see is cities utilize roofs as outdoor spaces. Cities represent a mazimization of land usage so I'd like to see every opportunity taken advantage of. Where land is in demand, why not use the extra space for parks and patios?

I envision restaraunts and coffee shops located on top of roofs, particularly low-rise buildings that serve as Downtown shopping malls. Then out on the patio you can have a bunch of planters and low-lying ornamental flowers. Shallow basins full of water can make ponds with aquatic plants and fish. I guess I'm imagining something like a Japanese garden that serves as a dining area as well.

I'd love to see more vines growing over urban buildings sprouting from planters on the ground, walls or roofs. They can be really charming, especially when they cover buildings with plain or boring facades.

Cities are focal points for human activity, and I love the idea that they can be focal points for plant and animal life as well.

[Imperar]

Originally Posted by Pizzuti

I love the green roof idea, but what I really want to see is cities utilize roofs as outdoor spaces. Cities represent a mazimization of land usage so I'd like to see every opportunity taken advantage of. Where land is in demand, why not use the extra space for parks and patios?

I envision restaraunts and coffee shops located on top of roofs, particularly low-rise buildings that serve as Downtown shopping malls. Then out on the patio you can have a bunch of planters and low-lying ornamental flowers. Shallow basins full of water can make ponds with aquatic plants and fish. I guess I'm imagining something like a Japanese garden that serves as a dining area as well.

I'd love to see more vines growing over urban buildings sprouting from planters on the ground, walls or roofs. They can be really charming, especially when they cover buildings with plain or boring facades.

Cities are focal points for human activity, and I love the idea that they can be focal points for plant and animal life as well.

I totally agree!! Especially with the vines crawling around buildings.

What I'd also like happen is for green roofs to be able to support lots of huge trees, and maybe create a forest farm garden, so the buildings can feed themselves! Permaculture could work really great there. It's not hard to imagine beans, tomatoes and other plants growing from the roofs and down the sides of buildings and people can just pick the fruits from the lower levels to eat

[Blue Water]

Originally Posted by America 117

How green roofs work
this is from:http://www.lid-stormwater.net/greenroofs_home.htm

wow, it looks so complicated. and i bet its a hell lot expensive.

[M II A II R II K]

Nice gallery here



http://www.thehighline.org/design/designslideshow.htm

[SFUVancouver]

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Athletes' Village feature's Canada's densest concentration of green roofs. The 17-building, 1.4 million square foot village is built to the LEED Gold standard and the community centre is LEED Platinum. One building, which will be a senior's home after the Olympics, even exceeds LEED Platinum. Every building in the Athletes' Village has a green roof and many have been designed to allow residents the opportunity to grow their own food or harvest fruit from small roof-top orchards.

Originally Posted by Delirium

here's some nice aerial shots taken sept.23. you can see some rooftop solar panels have been installed...














all photos from www.globalairphotos.com

[The North One]

http://www.roumazeilles.net/news/en/...t-pornography/

This one is just amazing.

[KevinFromTexas]

^I love it. I can't believe more buildings aren't designed like that in heavily urban environments. It's not just a green roof being energy efficient, it can double as a public park and help reduce the heat island effect. Not to mention it's totally badass.

[M II A II R II K]

Five Standout Species For Extensive Green Roofs


Jan 20, 2011



Read More: http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/...Roofs_999.html

Used throughout the world to lessen the environmental impact of urbanization, green roofs can offer a wide range of ecological and aesthetic benefits. A new study from researchers at Colorado State University's Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture published in HortScience evaluated six plant species to determine the plants' ability to thrive on extensive green roofs in Colorado.

Five plants that survived the 2-year experiment are recommended for use in semiarid regions. Extensive green roofs are characterized by shallow-depth (typically less than 15 than centimeters deep) growing media. Previous research on species that can survive and thrive on extensive green roofs has shown that succulents outperform most non-succulents.

Jennifer Bousselot, who led the Colorado study, noted that other green roof studies conducted elsewhere in the United States evaluated nonsucculents that were "typically native to areas with high annual precipitation and relatively deep soil profiles."

The CSU researchers postulated that plants native to the Rocky Mountain region, especially those that inhabit areas with shallow, rocky, well-drained soils, may be better suited for use in extensive green roof systems. According to Bousselot, until this study extensive green roofs have not been scientifically evaluated in the high-elevation, semiarid climate of Colorado.

Though visual assessment and visual ratings have traditionally been used for measuring plant success on green roofs, these methods are usually subjective and not quantitative.

To obtain more accurate data, the Colorado State University scientists compared digital image analysis data (DIA)-a process that incorporates periodic photographing of plants and digital analysis of the images-with manually collected converted two-dimensional data (C2D).

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This is a view of a green roof module planted with blue grama grass in the first season of the trials. Credit: Photo by Jennifer Bousselot

[M II A II R II K]

Keeping Stormwater Out of the Sewer System: Green Roofs


http://www.sustainablecitiesnet.com/...m-green-roofs/

Green roofs like the one atop a Con Edison building in Long Island City, Queens can be a cost-effective way to keep water from running into sewer systems and causing overflows, Columbia University researchers have found. The Con Edison Green Roof, which is home to 21,000 plants on a quarter acre of The Learning Center, retains 30 percent of the rainwater that falls on it.

If New York City’s 1 billion square feet of roofs were transformed into green roofs, it would be possible to keep more than 10 billion gallons of water a year out of the city sewer system, according to the study led by Stuart Gaffin, research scientist at Columbia’s Center for Climate Systems Research. New York City, like other older urban centers, has a combined sewer system that carries storm water and wastewater. The system often reaches capacity during rains and must discharge a mix of storm water and sewage into New York Harbor, the Hudson River, the East River and other waterways.

Con Edison built the green roof and formed its research partnership with Columbia in 2008. The partners saw the green roof and an adjoining white roof as an outdoor laboratory for environmental research. Gaffin’s team found last year that the green roof and white roof save energy and reduce urban air temperatures. Under its “cool roofs” program, Con Edison has turned many roofs on company facilities white to save energy and protect the environment.

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[M II A II R II K]

Green Roofs Bring New Life to Beirut


March 6, 2012

By Itir Sonuparlak

Read More: http://thecityfix.com/blog/green-roo...ife-to-beirut/

The architectural firm StudioInvisible is drawing inspiration from the hanging gardens of Babylon to reimagine Beirut as a giant green park when viewed from a bird’s eye view. The project, Wonder Beirut Forest, covers the top of every building with plants and trees, giving new life to a city whose local greenery have been destroyed due to a tumultuous history of bombings. Architects began to campaign on Facebook with the possibility of approving a law that would provide for the installation of a garden on the roof of each building. As an incentive, the city would offer tax breaks for the condominiums to care for a roof garden, and gardening companies would offer discounts for maintenance.

Beirut’s high levels of air pollution and ash inspired the project. Currently, the Lebanese capital relies only on a large wooded area—Sanayeh Park—for clean air. Today, Beirut only has 0.8 square meters of green space per person, well below the internationally recommended 12 square meters per person. ”If only one tree is planted on each building, there would be 18,500 more trees in the city. That would be the equivalent of Central Park in New York,” said Wassim Melki of StudioInvisible. In addition to improving air quality, the large roof garden proposed by the architectural firm would provide shade and safe public community spaces. The gardens would also reduce energy consumption in buildings during the increasingly hot and arid summer climate. In addition, green roofs can shelter plants that grow well in the region, such as olives, pepper plants and vegetables that tend to evolve into a kind of urban agriculture, and thus would add to the local economy.

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