New Intensive Roof
Working on a new intensive (i.e. heavier, more elaborate) residential greenroof in Southwest Austin. It’s a limestone patio and we’re in the process of selecting native plants and flowers to fill it, using about 11 inches of soil. The drainage products will be from Green Roof Solutions. Tricky elements include the fact that this roof is on the third floor of a remodeling project— HOWEVER the weather has been merciful, so all is well. The aeomeba-shaped thing is where the tables and chairs will be, and we’ll be filling in the plants and living stuff in about a month. More pictures as we plant!
High Line, NYC
Best Recycling Project On Earth! Basically, New York City just recycled an abandoned, elevated railway into a roof-height aerial park space that runs through Manhattan’s lower west side. Beginning in the Meatpacking district (cool graffiti, supermodels, and designer boutiques made out of slaughterhouses, etc.), the line goes through Chelsea until 30th St.
It rules for many reasons. First, it’s exploding the neighborhood with new and innovative growth—once the high line was established, more than 30 development projects were planned in the neighborhood nearby, including some srsly cutting edge architects. Also crime around the neighborhood dropped, because the high line is so visible from surrounding buildings that one can’t really do anything secretive. Secondly, it’s a great example of integrated design, synergistically melding architecture and plants. The high line really epitomizes the direction of new green architecture, embracing green roofs, recycling, and innovative low-impact building. Utilizing 210 species, the plants look like the naturally seeded landscape of rugged meadow plants and clump grasses, and the architecture’s clean minimalist design makes the plants the main attraction. Thirdly, it was seriously the easiest thing ever. Developers calculated that it would actually cost way less to renovate the rail line than to tear it down. Giving it plants, a walkway, and some designer benches not only saved major demolition equipment from tearing through a neighborhood, but made it a huge and very clever attraction.
Austin is basically a city of outdoor attractions. With a little research and a little money, we could take any derelict old structure and make it something cool and filled with native plants.
So, we planted the first plants of the new green roof! Again timed perfectly because there was apparently some rain this weekend (seriously I BLINKED and missed it, but whatever). Casey checked the soil this morning and said it was saturated, which means the combination of rain and irrigation is looking pretty freakin’ promising for plants that were planted in the middle of July (18 month drought anyone?). Here are some pics:
Detail of engineered pavers (red stuff), gravel, perforated edging (silver), geotextile fabric (grey stuff), soil, irrigation, plants.
Irrigation (so pretty, right?)
Casey figuring watering system out (“work with me”):
Mulch!
Burying irrigation with mulch:
One bed before mulch, one after:
Watering!
Yeah, we’re crossing our fingers that the plants make it through the summer. So far so good! The rest of the planting will take place in September… so stay tuned…
Holler,
Lilly
So, turns out UT totally loves green roofs!!! We heard through the green roof grapevine about a garden just built on the roof of the Hackerman building (houses the experimental sciences — cool stuff) so went to check it out. Here is what we discovered….
That last photo is the room inside that overlooks the garden (with super striking neon furniture). We also noticed the roof uses reclaimed water! Apparently purple sprinkler heads/valve boxes indicate that. Right on!
We heard that ANOTHER green roof was built on the New UT Student Activity Center (affectionately known as “the nutsac”— yes really). So that one will be fun to check out, too. Interestingly, there’s a subtle difference between the Hackerman’s green roof and traditional green roofs: the planter set up makes it more of a “roof garden” where a “green roof” usually means soil is covering most of the area. That’s a small caveat, but pretty interesting. Both provide most of the same benefits and technically, both are green roofs.
Good times finding out about these green roofs! When it comes to sustainable design, UT means srs bsns!!!
Lilly
A lot has been going on here this summer. In fact we’re putting up a green roof right now! The roof is for a residence in south-west Austin, and I’ll be posting photos as it comes to life. On Tuesday we uplifted the dirt with a massive crane and many shovels… each bag of soil weighed over 1,700 lbs. We put a geo-textile (the grey stuff in the photos) down along the edges of the garden beds to protect the waterproof membrane from soil debris.
The extremely great news was that it rained that day. Which means that in addition to there being a glorious cloud cover, the soil was compacted and stayed in its place (note grey clouds providing excellent shade in the photos). Total, there’s going to be 6-7 inches of soil in the beds, which is enough for a pretty diverse selection of plants. Now that the soil has been uploaded, we’ll be putting in the first plants next week.
Irrigation! After the soil was uploaded, a drip irrigation system was installed the next day. Drip irrigation is a super-efficient way to minimize water loss during hydration, which happens a lot with traditional sprinklers.
More info about the roof: the waterproofing and architectural details of this project were done by AD Willis, a company with at least a few green roof membrane projects to its name. The plants are going to be a variety of adapted and native species that will go with the aesthetic of the house and match the demands of a green roof. I’ll post some pictures of those next week!
Cool!
Lilly
My name is Lilly. I will be your guest blogger for the next few weeks! I’m interning at Casey Boyter Gardens and Green Roofs this summer and checkin’ out this incredible industry of green roofs and sustainable infrastructure. Currently, I study environmental science at the University of Chicago. I’m already learning so much about green roofing since being here, and I’ll share what I’ve learned!
In other news, here’s a picture of me.
Keep checking the blog to read about what’s going on!
Holler,
Lilly
This post is a tad late but I was perusing my old emails and Kevin Christ from Intrinsic Landscaping in Chicago sent this from our ventures at the Green Roof Conference in Vancvouver a few months ago. This was the view from everyones hotel room, looking out on the Vancouver Convention Center’s massive green roof. Pretty breath taking! and a city that all of us here down south should be emulating in terms of green infrastructure!
Good friend and fellow landscape designer, Patrick Kirwin is the focus of this weeks Central Texas Gardener show. We are shown a beautiful example of a successful green roof here in Austin, TX designed and built by Kirwin. Enjoy the watch!
