Greenroofs.comConnecting the Planet + Living Architecture
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 June 29, 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 June 29th, 2012 on GreenroofsTV.
– Our project of the week is the Banyan Street Manor Rooftop Farm & Vertical Gardens built in 2012 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Located in the Kalihi section of Honolulu, Banyan Street Manor debuted the first USDA Certified Organic rooftop farm on top of an affordable housing project along with three vertical gardens. A variety of Asian herbs and more than 20 types of produce including tomatoes, lettuce, eggplant, and green beans will be grown on the roof. 40% of the produce will be grown free of charge to building residence and the remaining produce will be sold to Whole Foods Market and other local grocery stores.
Distributors of Green Living Technologies International, 1st Look Exteriors, will manage and maintain the 790 sf of Green Living Walls and the 2,000 square foot roof top organic garden. A cooling feature of Banyan Street Manor is a white roof, and photovoltaic panels generate electricity to power the common areas and offset overall operating costs. It will also feature the largest living wall in the state.
– Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2011 Video
– Watch our Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2011 Episode 29: “Closing Keynote Address – Gardens By the Bay, Singapore” by Andrew Grant.
And find the rest of the videos in this series on our GreenroofsTV page and/or our greenroofsTV YouTube channel.
– Read our Guest Feature Article, “Copenhagen, the Green City for the Third World Green Roof Congress,” by Dusty Gedge.
– The Greenroofs.com eNewsletter
– Our June 2012 eNewsletter is out! Check your inboxes for what’s been going on here all month long and if you’re not subscribed, click on the mail icon on our homepage and enter your e-mail address! (Or Subscribe now.)
– “˜Living Wall’ Is Part of Fashion Valley Makeover Plans installed by GreenScaped Buildings.
– EPA has released a series of six fact sheets on incorporating green infrastructure measures into National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) wet weather programs. The series builds upon existing EPA authority, guidance, and agreements to describe how EPA and state permitting and enforcement professionals can work with permittees to include green infrastructure measures as part of control programs.
– Over at Sky Gardens, check out Linda’s latest posts: “Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2011 Episode 29: Closing Keynote Address – Gardens by the Bay, Singapore” and “Greenroofs.com’s “˜This Week in Review’ on GreenroofsTV: June 22, 2012.”
– “Upcoming Events“
– June 30th: is the Early Bird Registration deadline for the World Green Roof Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.
– July 6th-8th: is the 2012 Perennial Plant Symposium, in Boston, MA.
– “In the News“
– Melissa Harris, of the Chicago Tribune reports on “Living green wall planned for InterContinental Chicago.” The chief executive of Strategic Hotels & Resorts, Laurence Geller, plans to add life to the InterContinental Chicago hotel on North Michigan Avenue with a 9,800-square-foot green wall. If approved by the City Council, this will be the largest wall of its kind in North America. Chicago is known for its greenroofs but has few green walls, experts say, due to the cost and climate.
The new Rivers Casino in Des Plaines has a small indoor one, and the Chicago Botanic Garden’s new children’s garden has four outdoor walls that cover about a total of 670 square feet. The team is working with Green Living Technologies International, which has great experience and built the walls at the botanic garden. The plants will be grown indoors and slowly, over several months, be rotated to a 90-degree angle before being planted on the wall.
– Kevin Ma of the St. Albert Gazette, talks about “Garden experiment takes over Enjoy Centre roof.” He says, “rooftop gardens bring efficiency and exotic tomatoes,” and that “city residents could get to eat Boxcar Willie in about a month if all goes well at an experimental rooftop garden at the Hole’s greenhouse.” Volunteers gathered to help plant four rooftop gardens at the Enjoy Centre last week. The gardens are part of an experiment by the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) to test the effects of plants on Alberta roofs. The test modules on the four roofs contain custom-made dirt, that has specific nutrient and water-retention levels, sensors and plants.
The team will track heat, moisture, photosynthesis and carbon storage rates in the modules over the next five years. They are also conducting an experiment with 61 tomato plants on the roof to see if they can grow local food. These are black, purple, and striped tomatoes with names like Boxcar Willie and Amish Paste. The team is growing 28 varieties, about 80% of which are heritage tomatoes; and if all goes well, the vegetables should be ready for the Prairie Bistro restaurant downstairs by August.
– 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 June 29th, 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.
