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Greenroofs.com’s “This Week in Review” on GreenroofsTV: November 4, 2011

on November 8, 2011 at 10:41 pm under

Each week you can expect to learn What’s New here on Greenroofs.com through our “This Week in Review” video.  Here’s the transcript from November 4th, 2011 from our daughter,  Anjuli – click on the photo below to see the video, or  here.  Enjoy!

– Hello, I’m Anjuli Velazquez and welcome to This Week in Review for November 4th on  GreenroofsTV.

–  Project of the Week

– Our project of the week is the  Cuartel de Ballajá Greenroof built in 2011 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Ballajá Infantry Barracks Building was constructed by the Spanish army between 1854 and 1864 and is one of the most impressive structures made by Spain in the New World. Used until 1898 as infantry barracks and permanent housing for approximately a thousand soldiers, it consisted of rooms for officers, solders and their families, storage, kitchens, dining rooms, jail cells and stables for horses. Today, the Ballajá Barracks houses several educational and cultural organizations, namely the Museo de Las Américas, on the second floor of the building since 1992.

The extensive  rooflite ® green roof was part of several “green intervention” projects done to the barracks, including a 151.2 KW PV system with 720 solar panels. Completed less than a month ago, the new 24,000 sf green roof was designed by the architect Edmundo Colon with the help of GRP David Aponte. The green roof also has greenwalls and an artificial wetland built to manage higher roof storm water amounts, which is used on a needed basis as the supplemental irrigation system.

– To learn more about the Cuartel de Ballajá, click on our project of the week photo on our  homepage.

What’s New“

– Over at Sky Gardens, read Linda’s latest posts, “CITYGREEN’s Latest Issue is Available: Parks – Enhancing Liveability in Cities“ and our GPW.

Advertiser Press Releases:

–  Innovations to GreenGrid Green Roof Take Stormwater Retention to a New Level.

Guernsey Residents Enjoy Alumasc’s ZinCo Green Roof.

Sika Sarnafil Roof Recycling Program Recognized by Society of Plastics Engineer.

Nathan Phillips Square Wins 2011 Award of Excellence – LiveRoof ® Hybrid Green Roof System Supports Transformation in Front of Toronto’s City Hall.

Industry News Update

EPA announced a commitment to using an integrated planning process to help local governments.

– “Upcoming Events“

–  November 5th: is the Fall Garden and Home Festival in El Cajon, California.

– November 8th-9th: is the 3rd Annual Retrofitting & Planning Sustainable Suburbs Summit in Toronto, Canada.

– November 9th-12th: is the Greening Cities Conference in Sydney, Australia.

– Also November 9th-12th: is GREEN CITIES at National League of Cities’ Congress of Cities & Exposition in Phoenix, Arizona.

– And on November 11th: is Green Roofs for Healthy Cities Green Infrastructure: Policies, Performance and Projects in New York, New York.

–  Check out our homepage for more Upcoming Events!

– “In the News“

– Joe Eaton of theSF Gate  says “California Academy of Sciences’ roof is thriving.” The academy’s roof is planted with beach strawberry, bush monkeyflower, and many other species of herbs, shrubs, annuals, perennials, grasses, succulents, and ferns. One “success story” was self-heal, prunella, a purple-flowered mint herb, Frank Almeda, California Academy of Science’s senior curator, said “bumblebees just love it.” Also loving the roof are butterflies, they are really happy with the tall yellow-blossomed Hooker’s evening primrose.

Part of the roof’s message is that a plant and animal partnership is very important. Almeda said, “it’s important to learn that plants don’t just make it on their own…they have a long evolutionary partnership with pollinators.” The roof attracts insects and other creatures like bumblebees and honeybees, white and West Coast lady butterflies, and even a red-tailed hawk. Human visitors love the roof, too – and you can learn more when you take a tour.

– Emma Dutton and Bethany Leggett of Medill Reports: Chicago, report on “Indoor harvest of fresh produce part of new green arrivals at O’Hare.” They say “the latest modernization at O’Hare International Airport includes an aeroponic vegetable, herb and edible flower garden.” Some of the restaurants are using lettuce, cilantro and basil grown from the 26 vertical columns inside the airport.

Tim Blank, founder and president of Orlando-based Future Growing, designed the aeroponic garden for O’Hare and said, “in this particular case, we’re growing all this food crop right here from farm to table. So we’re bypassing the transportation and the chilling and all those components that create a huge carbon footprint to the plant. Water is one of the number one issues that we’re dealing with in this country. There is a water crisis, especially out West where most of this food is grown.” The indoor garden is one of the latest green initiatives by the Chicago Department of Aviation to increase the sustainability of Chicago airports, showcased at the fourth annual Airports Going Green Conference.

By the way, the O’Hare Aeroponic Garden is featured in the Greenroofs.com 2011 Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof & Greenwall Design.  If you missed our inaugural Virtual Summit, the next time you can see Linda and Haven’s Top 10 presentation will be next month in Philadelphia for the 9th annual Cities Alive Green Roof & Wall Conference!

To learn more about these stories and new ones posted daily, go  to our  In the News or  newslinks section of our website.

–   Send us your green articles, videos and images to  editor@greenroofs.com and share your greenroof or green wall info with the world!

– Make sure to keep up with everything  Greenroofs.com by following us on  Twitter, liking us on  Facebook,  being a member of our network on  LinkedIn, and  subscribing to our  greenroofsTV channel on YouTube!

– This has been This Week in Review for November 4th, 2011 on GreenroofsTV.  I’m Anjuli Velazquez and I’ll see you next week!

*This week’s episode is sponsored by  The Greenroof Directory, brought to you by  Greenroofs.com.*

Did we miss something?  We’d love to hear from you!

~ Linda V.

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2 replies to "Greenroofs.com’s “This Week in Review” on GreenroofsTV: November 4, 2011"

  • […] Over at Sky Gardens, check out Linda’s latest posts: “Greenroofs.com’s ‘This Week in Review’ on GreenroofsTV: November 4, 2011,” “This Week in Review” for October 28th, 2011 and our […]

  • […] Over at Sky Gardens, check out Linda’s latest posts: “Greenroofs.com’s ‘This Week in Review’ on GreenroofsTV: November 4, 2011,” “This Week in Review” for October 28th, 2011 and our […]

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