THE SOLAIRE GREEN ROOFS
Battery Park City (LEED™ Gold), Top Ten Award, the AIA, 2004, Award of Excellence, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities


Two green roofs contribute to the Solaire’s LEED Gold certification, achieved through a design collaboration with the architecture firm Cesar Pelli & Associates and the building systems consultants, Steven Winter Associates. The 17th floor intensive green roof is an amenity for tenants and is comprised of multiple thicknesses of growing media (6”, 12” and 18”) to accommodate a rich palette of trees shrubs, flowers and grasses. The upper level extensive roof is an elaborate tapestry of low growing sedums installed on a 3” thick layer of growing media.

THE LIVING ROOF & SUSTAINABLE SITE DESIGN
ST. GEORGE INTERMODAL TRANSPORTATION CENTER
Staten Island, NY


The St. George Intermodal Terminal is a $134 m. renovation and addition of a ferry, train and bus terminal pioneering sustainable strategies in the site and building. One of the project’s most notable features is the 16,000 s.f. green roof designed to attract and nourish the monarch butterfly on its annual migration to Mexico.

The green roof planting plan introduces a landscape patch that connects to the greater Staten Island landscape. It is intensely planted with Asclepias tuberosa, an important food and habitat source for the Monarch butterfly. The high visibility of the garden sets the stage for observations and celebrations of the butterfly’s annual migration.

Originally conceived as a conventional building project, the design team embraced a LEED goal mid-way through the design process, earning the distinction of registering it as the first LEED project in New York State.

SMART ROOF DEMONSTRATION PROJECT FOR
SUSTAINABLE SOUTH BRONX
Bronx, NY


The Smart Roof Project is a demonstration of cool and green roof techniques and include:

• advocacy for urban heat island reduction and storm water best practices
• training for green collar jobs
• model for environmental justice and sustainable city policy
• advocacy for ecologically important native species

The green roof system is comprised of modules of varying depths. laid over a cool roof surface. Several modules were left unplanted to observe which plant species would opportunistically populate and thrive.

Through its plantings, the garden is a demonstration of regeneration using a comparison of two very different plant communities, one comprised of widely available commercial varieties and one comprised of ecologically important native species. The plants in Commercial side have been bred for their ornamental qualities with little regard for their role in a greater ecosystem and they are often very successful in replacing and out competing our native species and ecosystems. These plants do not themselves offer a rich genetic variation and miss an opportunity to create new connections to ecosystems which will lead to a healthier, more resilient environment.

We are challenging the Commercial garden with our Bio Rich garden which is designed to evolve into a dynamic and self-organizing ecological patch. The plants selected for the Bio Rich garden are more difficult to find – we ran into a number of obstacles – but they contain much more organic intelligence and have the potential for evolving into a complex mesh of interdependence, taking advantage of the natural integrities that exist in highly diverse communities.