The Rockford Construction Headquarters Building green roof project was part of renovations by Rockford Construction to create a LEED certified building for its new office at 601 First Street—once the Miller Products building that has sat vacant for many years. Rockford Construction wanted to be as environmentally conscious as possible for its new office and provide team members a comfortable, aesthetically pleasing space in which to work. A courtyard with green space and a deck, along with a rooftop patio, are two of the buildings features. Choosing to create a green roof was a natural fit, not only as a sustainable LEED feature but also to provide natural space within a traditionally urban landscape.

The roof was designed by Advanced Green Roof, which used a range of soil depths from 3″ – 6″ to allow a variety of Sedum plants, perennials and ornamental grasses to be incorporated into the planting design. The design was chosen by Rockford Construction because it matched the architecture of the new building, with many straight and angular lines, and was aesthetically pleasing by creating varying levels of landscape structure.

“This project highlights great things being done in Grand Rapids and we want to continue to be a part of those projects that improve the quality of life for residents and business here,” said Advanced Green Architecture and Advanced Green Roof co-founder Erik Cronk. “Rockford Construction has been great to work with because of their commitment to creating a high-performance green roof that will be a showcase of the entire project. The design selected will provide more in terms of aesthetics and biodiversity than other green roof systems which typically use only a mix of Sedum.”

The Rockford Construction Headquarters Building project was constructed using the Advanced Green Roof™ system with its built-in-place installation option. Advanced Green Roof™ growth media was blown onto the 2nd story roof in varying depths from 3″ – 6″ deep. In the shallow growth media areas (3″), pre-grown Sedum sod with 7 different varieties was installed. In the deeper growth media areas (6″), pre-grown perennials such as Carex, Autumn Moor Grass, Liriope, Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ and Allium were installed. The project was constructed over a 3 day period and provided an immediate impact the day the crew walked off the job.