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Each week you can expect to learn What’s New here on Greenroofs.com through our “This Week in Review” video. Here is the transcript from May 18, 2012 from our daughter, Anjuli – click on the photo below to see the video, or here. Enjoy!
– Hello, I’m Anjuli Velázquez and welcome to “This Week in Review” for May 18th, 2012 on GreenroofsTV.
– Our project of the week is the Drew School Sam Cuddleback III Assembly Wing Vertical Garden, built in 2011 in San Francisco, California. The Drew School was founded in 1908 by the respected Bay Area educator John Sheehan Drew and has grown from a one student “coaching school” to a fully accredited co-educational college preparatory school enrolling 250 high school students. The new $15 million Drew School Sam Cuddleback III Assembly Wing, performing arts space, and classroom building will be among the first high school buildings in the Bay Area to attain LEED Gold Certification™ for New Construction and for School Pilot.
Green features include: an external 1,720 sf living wall/vertical garden by Patrick Blanc, a 2,630 sf living roof by Rana Creek, recycled and sustainable USGBC-certified materials, and environmental sensors. The vertical garden is made up of about 4,579 native Californian plants and approximately 64 of the 105 species are from the San Francisco Bay area. The hydroponic system delivers water supplemented with a low concentration of nutrients to the roots automatically from the top, four to five times a day. Students study the plants on the wall as a living lab for many subjects, like botany, chemistry, and physics; one example was studying native plant uses by American Indians.
– Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2011 Video
– Watch our Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2011 Episode 23: “Naturalism: Large-Scale Applications,” by Paul Kephart.
And find the rest of the videos in this series on our GreenroofsTV page and/or our greenroofsTV YouTube channel.
– Joblinks
– An International Manufacturer of Roofing Products is looking for an Area Technical Sales Manager in South London, UK.
– Over at Sky Gardens, check out Linda’s latest posts: “Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2011 Episode 23: Naturalism: Large-Scale Applications of Living Architecture,” “Greenroofs.com’s “˜This Week in Review’ on GreenroofsTV: May 11, 2012,” and “Vanessa Keitges of Columbia Green in Forbes!”
– “Upcoming Events“
– May 22nd-26th: is the RHS Chelsea Flower Show at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, in Chelsea, London.
– May 23rd: is a Green Roofs (Toitures Vegetalisees) Meeting, in La Rochelle, France.
– May 23rd-24th: is the EMC West Coast Energy Management Congress, in Seattle, Washington.
– And May 25th-27th: is ROOF INDIA 2012, in Chennai, India (@RoofIndiaExpo)
– “In the News“
– Ralph Gardener Jr. of the Wall Street Journal, reports on “Open-Air Status Symbols.” He says there are all kinds of envy in New York, and one that gets overlooked, is “roof envy” – the jealous feelings that are aroused towards “those who own, or at least have access to, outdoor spaces where they can sunbathe, barbecue or simply enjoy vistas larger than those framing their neighbors’ apartments.”
If you’re curious to see the green roofs of New York, then check out photojournalist Alex MacLean’s new book, “Up On the Roof.” Last week, I mentioned a newslink that showcased some of MacLean’s amazing photos, and this newslink features an interview with him. Gardener and MacLean talk about how the idea of his book came to be, how wealth and growing environmental consciousness attributes the the rise of green roofs in New York, and how green roofs, like the one at the Cook+Fox Architects building, were planted to help reduce the heat island effect and stormwater run off in New York City.
– Green Building Press talks about “Cities Must Adapt To Climate Change Now – Reports Says.” “Urban adaption to climate change in Europe,” the report from the European Environment Agency (EEA), says “Europe should seize the opportunity of improving quality of life while adapting to climate change in cities,” and it “also warns that delaying adaptation will be much more costly in the long-term.” Most of Europe’s wealth is generated in cities, and urban areas are particularly at risk due to climate change; temperature is increasing, precipitation is changing and the sea level is rising. Adaptation should work with nature, not against it and many adaptation measures can make cities more pleasant places to live.
Malmö in Sweden manages rainwater flows with a new open storm-water-system. Greenroofs and open water channels lead rainwater into collection points that form a temporary reservoir. Following water shortages in the 1990s, the City of Zaragoza in Spain managed to create a “water saving culture.” Within 15 years this successful campaign aimed at citizens and businesses helped the city cut water consumption by almost 30%, despite a 12% population increase. The recently launched European Climate Adaptation Platform Climate-ADAPT provides a comprehensive web resource aimed at policy makers and “practitioners” – engineers, planners and administrators – who can obtain adaptation knowledge in Europe and learn from the experience of others facing similar challenges already carrying out adaptation actions elsewhere.
– 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 greenwall 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 May 18th, 2012 on GreenroofsTV. I’m Anjuli Velázquez 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.
