As of April, 2006, the Children?s Museum of Pittsburgh is the largest museum in the nation to receive Silver LEED certification, and one of the features is the non-irrigated landscaping and a greenroof. ?The vision and dedication of our staff, board and the expansion?s architect Koning Eizenberg Architecture in preserving and achieving the concept of a green museum, despite design changes and impediments, was critical to the success of our project,? says Children?s Museum Executive Director Jane Werner. ?Like nurturing children, building with green principles is an investment in the future that creates a tangible example of how to best serve our environment and the community.? The Children?s Museum Pittsburgh received an addition to the many sustainable building strategies on display there. Green Roof Blocks got the nod for a 60 square foot green roof display located just outside an impressive arched window in the administrator?s office. Project manager Chris Siefert said, ?We were looking at options to spruce up this rooftop when we found Green Roof Blocks on the internet. This system offers everything we were looking for, the plants and growth media are included, it has the pads on the bottom to protect the roofing, and installation was really simple. They showed up this morning at 8:30 and by 10:30 we were putting the ladder away.?The museum complex includes the renovated Old Post Office and The Planetarium buildings connected by a newly constructed sustainable building. Among the green building strategies on display are energy efficient lighting, extensive use of natural lighting, and solar panels with reverse metering that allows the facility to feed excess generated electricity back into the city system.

The 15 Green Roof Blocks are filled with 4 inches of growth media consisting of blended expanded clay and composted pine bark. Each is propagated with five Sedum kamtshaticum floriferum (weihenstephaner gold). This species was chosen for its yellow summer blooms and its significant winter interest.Green Roof Block president Kelly Luckett said, ?We have weihenstephaner gold on our green roof pavilion for the Missouri Botanical Garden. The open nature of the pavilion exposes the green roof plants to super cooling that really test their cold temperature tolerance. The weihenstephaner gold remained fully robust and green all winter in spite of significant snow fall and temperatures below 10 degrees. For green roofs over heated spaces, like this project, heat rising through the roof helps to increase the winter greening of the plants.?Green Roof Blocks plant supplier Vic Jost of Jost Greenhouse received the plant stock for this species from Ed Snodgrass of Emory Knoll Farms. Jost Greenhouse continues to work with Emory Knoll Farms to expand the plant selection options for Green Roof Blocks