Native Child and Family Services of Toronto
Toronto, Canada
5,716 sf greenroof

Note: The video Land in the Sky: The Rooftop Garden at Native Child and Family Services of Toronto by Kelsey Carriere is playing at the 2017 Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit through December.

Greenroofs.com Project of the Week: December 11, 2017

Mini Description & Details

Designed by LGA Architectural Partners (formerly Levitt Goodman Architects) and located in the heart of downtown Toronto, the Native Child and Family Services of Toronto (NCFST) offers social and culture-based services for aboriginal children and families with a strong sense of environmental stewardship. NCFST decided to install a green roof, rather than a conventional one, to facilitate traditional Aboriginal culture in their urban setting and received $26,550 in funding from the City of Toronto’s Eco-Roof Incentive Program.

Designed by Scott Torrance Landscape Architect, its living roof has a healing lodge and fire circle, surrounded by a lush roof garden of varied native perennials, shrubs, and trees. Bioroof Systems provided the materials and expertise to create a plant palette that would be instantly recognizable to the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) who lived on the land that would become Toronto five centuries later.

The plant palette includes the traditional Anishinaabe (also known as Ojibwe and Algonquin) medicines: cedar, sweet grass, sacred tobacco and sage, which are harvested regularly for ceremony. At the core of the plantings is a garden of corn, beans and squash known as “The Three Sisters.”

The gardens are not just symbolic, they provide an opportunity for the city children and youth visiting the centre to learn firsthand about traditional horticulture and life ways. As well as an open air classroom, the roof is also a meeting place for the community. The accessible areas have been built with soft surface play areas, natural log seating, a fire pit, and green “teaching hills.”

More

The heart of the roof is the Healing Lodge, a structure influenced by the traditional Anishinaabe Sweat Lodge. These special spaces are used both formally and informally for public assemblies and ceremonies, drumming and circle sessions and for counseling, meetings and playtime. Today, four stories above the streets of Canada’s largest city, the Native Child and Family Services Centre’s green roof is forging a living link with a country’s history and a people’s traditions.

Year: 2010
Owner: Native Child and Family Services of Toronto
Location: Toronto, Canada
Building Type: Non-Profit
Type: Semi-Intensive
System: Single Source Provider
Size: 5716 sq.ft.
Slope: 1%
Access: Accessible, By Appointment

Designers/Manufacturers of Record:

Architect: LGA Architectural Partners (formerly Levitt Goodman Architects)
Landscape Architect: Scott Torrance Landscape Architect Inc.
Green Roof System & Manufacturer: Bioroof Systems
General Contractor: Boszko and Verity
Green Roof Installation: Living Architectural Contracting Inc.
Water Retention Panel: GR32 Green Roof System, Green Innovations
Growing Media: Landsource Organix Ltd.

All the Info:

View the Native Child and Family Services of Toronto to see ALL of the Photos and Additional Information about this particular project in The International Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database.

Project of the Week Video Feature

Watch the Native Child and Family Services of Toronto Project of the Week Video below or see it on our GreenroofsTV channel on YouTube:

Greenroofs.com Project of the Week 12/11/17 video photo credits: Photography by Ben Rahn, courtesy of LGA Architectural Partners and FORREC Ltd.; Bioroof Systems; and Kelsie Carriere.

Did we miss your contribution? Please let us know to add you to the profile.

Would you like one of your projects to be featured on Greenroofs.com? We have to have a profile first! Submit Your Project Profile.

Love the Earth, Plant a Roof (or Wall)!

By Linda S. Velazquez, ASLA, LEED AP, GRP
Greenroofs.com Publisher & Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit Host

Join us for Round #2 plus our original videos from Round #1!  Register now for the 50% off discounted rate of only $25 and watch 40 awesome speakers online at our 2017 Virtual Summit through December, 2017.