Established in 1972,the Community Health Center (CHC) of Middletown serves residents of the city of Middletown and surrounding towns of Middlesex County, Connecticut. It is the hub for an extensive network of CHC services, including four comprehensive school based health services, homeless shelter clinics, domestic violence shelter, community based case management services, and family wellness and support services.

Mark Masselli, who started the community health clinic in Middletown over 40 years ago, envisioned a rooftop garden designed to absorb storm water runoff, cool the building and promote educational opportunities for students and visitors. During its inauguration in May 2012, the building was dedicated to former Senator Christopher J. Dodd to honor his lifelong commitment to improving healthcare. Designed by Robert Olson + Associates Architects and installed by Apex Green Roofs, this facility reflects four decades of research, innovation, hard work, and the desire to provide the best care for patients.

The specifics of the Community Health Center of Middletown green roof lie in its sustainability, the biodiversity, the calming water feature in front of the green wall, and the great view. The result is the epitome of a highly technical green roof project executed to perfection from design to implementation.

The project incorporated ZinCo green roof systems that integrate hardscapes with softscapes, allowing uninterrupted drainage toward the roof drains from all points of the roof. Applied on top of a roof construction with root resistant waterproofing, the ZinCo “Perennial Garden” with Floradrain® FD 40-E System Build-up was used on the project along with Zincoblend Growing Media, Filter Sheet SF, and Protection Mat SSM 45.

Poured in place concrete curbs with integrated fixed line irrigation were technical complexities that required hundreds of hours of proper system design. The varied plant palette on the project involved several isolated planter boxes constructed on top of the green roof system.

From the conference room the whole city of Middletown can be seen. Students from surrounding schools as well as garden associations take care of the many fruits and vegetables in the planting beds. Even the planters are equipped with a system build-up based on the drainage element Floradrain® FD 40-E.