Audubon Living
Up on the (Green) Roof
Rooftops across the country are coming alive, as landscape architects replace tar and shingles with thriving grasses and wildflowers.
By Susan Tweit
 |
| A view of downtown Denver from the green roof of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 8 office. |
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency |
Itching to see a green roof in all its living glory? Here are a few worth visiting:
Multnomah County building
501 SE Hawthorne Boulevard
Portland, Oregon 97214
Phone: 503-823-4000
Hours: 8 a.m.-5 p.m., M-F
Starbucks
9600 Escarpment Boulevard
Austin, TX 79749
Phone: 512-288-2309
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Research Center
University of Texas at Austin
4801 La Crosse Avenue
Austin, TX 78739
Phone: 512-292-4200
American Society of Landscape Architects headquarters
636 Eye Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: 202-898-2444 (Call for public tours)
Friends Committee on National Legislation building
245 Second Street NE
Washington, DC 20002
Phone: 202-547-6000/800-630-1330 (toll free)
For a view from the roof camera, click here.
Environmental Protection Agency building
1595 Wynkoop Street (Wynkoop & 16th Streets)
Denver, CO 80202
Phone: 303-819-7654 (by appointment)
Sustainable South Bronx
890 Garrison Avenue, 4th Floor
Bronx, NY 10474
Phone: 718-617-4668 (by appointment)
To learn more about green roofs, check out these resources:
Books
Planting Green Roofs and Living Walls
By Nigel Dunnett and Noël Kingsbury
Timber Press, 256 pages
Green Roofs, Ecological Design and Construction
By Earth Pledge Foundation, Leslie Hoffman, and William McDonough
Schiffer Publishing, 158 pages
Websites
Green Roofs for Healthy Cities offers a “greensave” calculator, which determines the costs and benefits of installing a green roof.
Sustainable South Bronx reveals the benefits of green roofs through charts and illustrations.
The Green Roofs Database provides an extensive list of green roof projects throughout the continent.
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Read related story: "Raising the Roof" |
