Monroe County Parking Garage
Bloomington, IN, USA
240 sf Greenwalls

Greenroofs.com Project of the Week: April 16, 2018

The ubiquitous above-ground parking garage building typology is not usually known for design innovation.  Imagine brightening up their monotonous facades with living plant material.

Instead of seeing the usual boring type of parking structure, the citizens of Bloomington, Indiana are greeted daily with bright and cheerful annuals in a vertical row of five window openings!  In this case, colorful greenwalls give the appearance of large window boxes, and the city commissioners receive tons of compliments.  And the fact that the modular system components are high-impact, UV-resistant and that the county can replant very easily makes for a great design option.

Read the April 15, 2018 guest feature Living Wall Blooms on Bloomington Parking Garage by Amber Ponce and David Aquilina for more info on this project.

Mini Description & Details

Designed by Axis Architecture + Interiors, the new 240-parking space Monroe County Parking Garage in Bloomington, Indiana provides parking for county employees and the general public to relieve parking congestion.  But rather than appearing bland or austere, a LiveWall greenwall installation adds a living element of green design to the six-story brick and concrete building.

The low maintenance living wall system fills five of the parking structure’s window openings with a variety of plants that bloom in shades of yellow, red, pink, purple, and green.  The architects said the idea was to break up the otherwise stark exterior of parking structure with an interesting and visually appealing element.

Because the system for this application was not mounted on a solid wall surface, the parking garage living wall had to be installed across window openings within the structure’s wall.  ProCLAD designed and installed a framework within the 8 feet long by 6 feet tall window openings with 4-inch by 4-inch by 1/4-inch tube steel.

They bolted the LiveWall system’s horizontal aluminum rails to the tube steel frames.  Each of the five sections of green wall has six rows of LiveWall modular planter boxes, which slide into the rails.  Its structural design lent itself to a secure installation within the garage windows in a way that allows for easy access from behind the green wall on the inside the garage.

The greenwall has a total of 180 plants in a variety of seven annuals including yellow, red and purple coleus, plus Silver Falls, red and pink begonias, and sweet potato vines.

More

In effect, installing LiveWall put window boxes into the windows of the parking garage.  The LiveWall installation stands out as a beautiful, lively, and distinctive design element on the Monroe County Parking Garage in Bloomington, Indiana.

Year: 2017
Owner: Monroe County
Location: Bloomington, IN, USA
Building Type: Above-Ground Parking Garage
Type: Living Wall
System: Single Source Provider
Size: 240 sq.ft.
Slope: 100%
Access: Accessible, Open to Public

Designers/Manufacturers of Record:

Architect: Axis Architecture + Interiors
General Contractor: Hagerman Construction Corporation
Green Wall Installation Contractor: ProCLAD, Inc.
Green Wall Manufacturer:  LiveWall
Green Wall Design and Installation Consultants: LiveWall
Green Wall Plant Supplier: LiveWall
Developer: GM Development
Concrete Supplier: Irving Materials, Inc.

All the Info:

View the Monroe County Parking Garage project profile 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 Monroe County Parking Garage Project of the Week Video below or see it on our GreenroofsTV channel on YouTube:

Greenroofs.com Project of the Week 4/16/18 video photo credits: Courtesy of LiveWall and Tony Frederick of CS Kern, via Hagerman Construction Corporation.

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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 Summits Host