Milstein Hall is the new 25,000 square foot flexible studio space at Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP) in upstate New York and is home to a number of sustainable design features. The LEED Gold certified building utilized sophisticated mechanical systems and a host of recycled building materials. In 2011 the renowned architect Rem Koolhaas of OMA Architecture provided the design for the new building of the university, at which he himself had studied in the early 70s.

The new building is based on a steel-glass-structure and its main purpose is to connect the two buildings which accommodate the architecture department. Numerous skylights provide the rooms below the roof with sufficient light, and roof was planted with two different species of Sedum, as specified by the architect. After the laying of the drainage elements on the entire roof surface, the growing media providing the base for the plants was applied.

The conceptual signature of the building was the ZinCo USA “Sedum Carpet” System with Floradrain® FD 25-E that was installed among an intricate diamond shaped pattern of the rooftop skylights. The green roof system has 2.5” (63.5 mm) of Zincoblend extensive growing media to support the more than 90,000 native plug plants that were used to vegetate the system. The TPO waterproofing membrane had root resistant qualities that allowed the ZinCo Protection Mat SSM 45 to lay directly on top of the membrane. Because Ithaca, NY was a borderline hardiness zone for sedum vitality, a drip line irrigation system was installed to counterbalance the extreme high and low weather patterns inherent to central NY state.