Even the phone booth in the Hoh Rainforest on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State is dripping with green.

The Bastille restaurant in the Ballard district of Seattle, Washington not only serves fantastic French-inspired cuisine but it’s as fresh as fresh can get. They are so committed to this concept that they grow their own produce on their roof.

One of the things that I found particularly interesting was the chef’s comment regarding new kitchen staff and students. He said that many aspiring chefs don’t fully understand or appreciate where food comes from and how precious it really is. Then he said that after a day of pulling weeds and picking produce for that evening’s dinner menu, they have a new-found respect for food and they are even more careful during preparation and they try harder not to waste anything because suddenly they have a full understanding of all the hard work involved in getting it there to their counter, ready to be prepared for a gormet dish.

Like most restaurants that pursue rooftop gardening, it started out small and there was a lot of trial and error but now they’ve pretty well figured out what works and what doesn’t.
In fact, one of their lessons learned is that something like the picture above with the nicely built, expensive wooden planter with removable doors, irrigation and even heating coils was just not necessary to have good plant growth. As pretty as they are, they work just as well as the images below.

This container is really just a kiddie pool filled with rock and topped with another kiddie pool with drainage holes in it then covered in a sort of black plastic (which they learned was necessary to keep the kiddie pools from breaking down in the sun) and filled with the appropriate growing media. Extras include irrigation and a removeable wall and lid that can open and close. And this much cheaper and easier to build than the more sophisticated wooden planters yet functioned just as well.

Just as simple as the kiddie pools are the buckets for the tomatoes.

The Bastille also has bee hives integrated with the roof for both pollination and a portion of the honey for their restaurant. The bees are provided by Ballard Bee Company as a pollination service for the restaurant and honey for the owners.

Ultimately, with all the success they’ve had from their current rooftop, their looking to expand further and take over the neighboring rooftop!

While enjoying some time in the San Juan Islands a few weeks ago, I snapped a few shots of a small green roof in the village of Eastsound on Oras Island. The two plots of vegetation are part of the roof of a stage called “Stage at the Green” at the Village Green park area in the middle of town. It is not easily seen though unless you walk all the way around to the back. The stage is used for community music events especially accompanying fairs, festivals and the Saturday Farmer’s Markets.

The stage and it’s accompanying green roof were built in 2007 with the local sedum-based vegetation covering 150 s.f. of the roof and incorporating a photovoltaic solar array. The stage and it’s green roof are the product of collaborative design within the local community of architects, artists, engineers, craftsmens and mostly built with donated labor and materials.

I was going through some photo albums and realized I have tons of project photos that I have yet to post. The first, the ecoroof atop the Ladd apartment tower, a LEED certified Gold building in downtown Portland. The tower offers residents an amenity level which includes an outdoor roof deck with patio seating, raised planting beds and 6,650 square feet of native plantings, including an eco roof. The Ladd has eco roofs on the 4th, 5th and the 24th floor.

The 2,500+ plants used to cover the eco roof itself is an mix of six different sedums: Sedum sexangulare, Sedum spurium “Summer Glory”, Sedum spurium “Roseum”, Sedum oreganum, Sedum album. The plants are planted in one big random mixture, mat style, in a minimum of 4 inches of soil and 8 inches on center. The entire eco roof assembly is from American Hydrotech.

Contrary to popular belief that the Pacific Northwest is continuously raining, Portland actually gets pretty extensive dry summers. This means an irrigation system is a must to get the plants safely through this yearly drought. The typical American Hydrotech “egg crate” drainage mat helps to capture rain for continued use by the vegetation but when there’s no rain to capture and hold onto, the permanent drip-line irrigation system kicks in and waters according to the weather during these extreme dry periods.

Last Friday was a fabulous day for a green roof tour in Seattle with blue skies and warm weather during our trek around the downtown core and over to Seattle Center for a total of 6 roofs. This first post will provide a bit of an overview of the tour with future posts delving further into few of the roofs to include details, lessons learned and more photographs.

The tour, sponsored by Seattle Public Utilities and the Department of Planning and Development, started at the Justice Center Green Roof with the additional ability to look down on the City Hall Green Roof below. As some of the older roofs in the City, the Justice Center Green Roof was completed in October 2002 and the City Hall completed in July of 2003. Since recently moving to Seattle, I joined SvR Design who was actually in charge of the Justice Center Green Roof and after the tour, I wrote a blog entry on the SvR website showing pictures of the roof as it looks 8 years post-installation. Here’s some text from that post about the roof with additional photos below:

The support system is from American Hydrotech and consists of a 6″ profile including insulation, an “egg crate” style drainage/moisture retention layer and a custom soil mix over a multi-layered waterproofing membrane. The planting design by SvR was guided by an image of sunlight reflected in a shallow streambed, much like that of the water feature connecting the Justice Center with the City Hall. The pattern shows through in wavy swaths of greens, blues, and grays.

The City Hall Green Roof, pictured below, was completed in July 2003 by Gustafson Guthrie Nichol using an American Hydrotech sytem and primarily planted with a mix of sedums. The roof was not originally outfitted with irrigation which had to be installed afterward due to Seattle’s summer being mostly without rain, something places like Germany or Chicago don’t experience and unfortunately are the areas putting out most of the research and design/maintenance guidelines in the areas of green roofs. With each roof and each year, we learn more and more about how green roofs function specifically for the northwest, which is why tours like this are so important.

Since planting, the vegetation has since been almost 100% taken over by weeds and according to Peter Jeu, who was luckily on the tour and has provided the maintenance for the Justice Center and City Halls roofs since the very beginning, the roof is now mostly grasses that have blow in and even grow so tall that he has to mow it. They are in process of trying to replant more sedums on the roof but due to the low wall and high winds coming up from the Puget Sound, it’s going to be an ongoing battle.

Next stop, 5th & Madison. This roof is an interesting one because due to the steep slopes of downtown Seattle, this roof actually meets the sidewalk on the uphill side which allows the public to freely meander in and out. A cascading water feature catches the attention of passersby and draws them in and through the site. The roof was designed by Canadian firm Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg.

The roof sits right near the Koolhaas-designed Seattle Public Library and provides a dramatic view of the large glass structure.

Next stop, the green roof at the top of the M Street Apartments that provides an amenity for the tenants. The building and green roof were designed by local firm GGLO.

Below are some views of the pedestrian area with grasses and a wood decking that runs around the perimeter to make the space feel less like a roof and more like a nice outdoor space.

Another interesting addition to the roof atop M Street Apartments is the dog run space and the raised planters for the tenant’s community gardening space.

And just below the M Street Apartments roof, the little green roof on the building next door could be seen.

The next stop on the tour headed over to the two extensive rooftops at the Olive8 building that houses a hotel at street level with condos above. The two roofs, designed by the Berger Partnership, look similar but used two different technologies. The lower used a tray system while the upper one used a rollout sod style, all contain a mixture of sedums. Both were grown offsite and therefore looked nearly mature once installed. For the tray system, the designers decided to fill the trays with a lot of plants in order to allow the plants to grow over the edges. Then the trays were laid out in a running pattern instead of stacked so that there was never an instance where 4 corners came together causing a more visible seam.

After the roof was installed, the restaurant within the building decided they wanted to try to grow herbs on the roof and set a tray with herbs on top of one of the mechanical units as a trial run. If it goes well, they may try to grow more on top of other units.

After a ride on the monorail over to the Seattle Center and up the Space Needle, we hit the last stop looking over at the 5th Avenue N garage roof, the covered parking area next to the future Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation campus. The massive 60,000 sf green roof was designed by Gustafson Guthrie Nichol and was entirely planted in sedums over an American Hydrotech system. Unfortunately, the view from the space needle wasn’t perfect but helps to judge the scale of the massive roof.

all images (c) Lisa Town

With the long winter months of the post holiday season setting in I can’t help but have thoughts of how lovely it would be to get away and lounge in a hot steaming thermal bath in the mountains of Switzerland, in particular, a certain masterpiece hidden in the mountains of the southeastern state of Graubünden designed by Swiss architect and 2009 Pritzker Prize winner, Peter Zumthor.

The Therme Vals is a hotel and spa built over natural thermal springs and partially embedded into the mountainside, surrounding by gorgeous views of snowcapped mountains in the winter and lush green and colorfull hillsides during the warmer months. The structure itself is build from the exquisite layering of Valser Quarzite slabs from a nearby local quarry. From ArchDaily, “The idea was to create a form of cave or quarry like structure. Working with the natural surroundings the bath rooms lay below a grass roof structure half buried into the hillside. This stone became the driving inspiration for the design, and is used with great dignity and respect.”

“This space was designed for visitors to luxuriate and rediscover the ancient benefits of bathing. The combinations of light and shade, open and enclosed spaces and linear elements make for a highly sensuous and restorative experience. The underlying informal layout of the internal space is a carefully modelled path of circulation which leads bathers to certain predetermined points but lets them explore other areas for themselves. The perspective is always controlled. It either ensures or denies a view.”

From Pete Zumthor, via Arch Daily, “The meander, as we call it, is a designed negative space between the blocks, a space that connects everything as it flows throughout the entire building, creating a peacefully pulsating rhythm. Moving around this space means making discoveries. You are walking as if in the woods. Everyone there is looking for a path of their own.”

The thermal spa sits as part of the mountain, an extension of the landscape. The roof of the structure looks as though the ground plane has been lifted up with the same vegetation as the surrounding landscape that even blooms with the same springtime color.

Below is a tour through a virtual model of the Therme Vals…

images via newtonxl, numstead, AtelierFLIR, archdaily

The people of Osaka, Japan apparently prefer a bit of green space over watching a live game of baseball. Due to poor ticket sales, the stadium that once inhabitated Osaka proved unprofitable and in 2003 shut it’s doors forever. The image above shows the interesting, organic mix of shopping center, office complex, park and garden spaces that became the next generation of the baseball stadium after being converted into what they now call Namba Parks. The design is by Jon Jerde of Jerde Partnership Architects.

images via Jerde

According to the designer, “Given the location [near the railway station], owner Nankai Electric Railway asked Jerde to create a gateway that would redefine Osaka’s identity. So Jerde conceived Namba Parks as a large park, a natural intervention in Osaka’s dense and harsh urban condition. Alongside a 30-story tower, the project features a lifestyle commercial center crowned with a rooftop park that crosses multiple blocks while gradually ascending eight levels.”

imaga via milosch1029

“In addition to providing a highly visible green component in a city where nature is sparse, the sloping park connects to the street, welcoming passers-by to enjoy its groves of trees, clusters of rocks, cliffs, lawn, streams, waterfalls, ponds and outdoor terraces. Beneath the park, a canyon carves an experiential path through specialty retail, entertainment and dining venues. Namba Parks creates a new natural experience for Osaka that celebrates the interaction of people, culture and recreation.”

image via anthonygrimely

I thought this picture of the Namba Parks entry was pretty amusing. The fact that they require dogs to go in carry bags just gives you an idea of the average size of a typical Japanese dog.

image via mrlederhosen

For the World Expo in Shanghai, China 2010 the theme is “Better City, Better Life” and the various country’s pavilions will be reflecting of this theme with a focus on sustainable urban environments of the future. Recently unveiled as the winners of the 6,000 square foot French Pavilion design, Jacques Ferrier Architects have created ‘The Sensual City’ featuring a building sitting in a pool of water for the illusion of floating, covered in a mesh-like skin and solar panels on the roof along with a courtyard with vegetation inspired by the traditional french gardening style but with a modern twist as the garden moves up the walls and over the roof.

The clipped style is a little rigid and maintenance instensive for my taste but definitely reminds me of the gardens I saw in many parts of France. No doubt, they like to clip everything from hedges to trees. But the shapes that move down the interior walls of the courtyard look strangely like those of Zaha Hadid’s Stone Towers. Nevertheless, it maintains an interesting look with the green shapes trailing over and down into the building. I love designs that connect horizontal and vertical planes of vegetation. This gives me some interesting ideas that doesn’t involve continuous clipping…

images via archdaily

Peninsula College sits in the foothills of the Olympic Mountains in Port Angeles, Washington and has served the entire Olympic Peninsula since 1965 and occupies over 75 acres. The campus began as small buildings nestled in the woods with covered walkways puncuated by light wells and connected with trails that wound through native rhododendrons, sword ferns, maples and douglas firs.

Now, the campus is undergoing a completion transformation from the quaint little village in the woods to the high-tech, sustainable campus with a few larger buildings set within the natural environment. They are well on their way with several areas showing a whole new pedestrian circulation and new buildings like the one I will be discussing here, the Science and Technology Building by LMN Architects out of Seattle with landscape architects Walker Macy out of Portland.

A secondary entrance has been introduced to the campus which terminates at the brand new and shiny Science and Technology Building which is in the site of the old dormitory building in the southwest corner of campus. The two-story building is oriented to maximize views of the Straight of Juan de Fuca to the north and the Olympic Mountains in the south as well as natural light. Features within the open and airy building include state of the art laboratories for the Chemistry, Physics, Earth Sciences, Biology, and Fisheries programs.

The site itself has a slight slope from the surrounding existing campus buildings and this new one. The grassy area was given an curving amphitheater treatment with inset concrete walls containing lighting and with a shape that slowly splayed outward starting from the straight edge of the building and working its way uphill. A path skirts the edge of the amphitheater, gradually stepping down one level at a time until reaching an entrance door amidst native vegetation. The path then continues out the other side into the courtyard which the building wraps around. Chunky wooden benches decorate the courtyard with a unique twist on the anti-skate detail.

But the most interesting part of this new building is the green roof. The main building itself is a simple U-shape around a courtyard but then there is a smaller building that has completely different materials from the rest of the building and literally looks like it crashed in through the middle of the U, sticking out into the courtyard and slightly diving down at a shallow angle. This is extremely trippy to look at in person. So in the first photo below, where it looks like the building is reflecting in the glass…it’s not, it really is going “through” the glass.

The little building is the one that has the green roof which means that, yes, the green roof goes in through the building as well, visible from the second floor. And while this sounds super cool in theory, the reality of it poses some challenges because the indoor and outdoor environments are quite different. The possibility then of having this completely seamless transition between the two plant communities goes out the window. So to speak.

images via Lisa Town

The outdoor portion of the green roof looks to be doing fairly well, taking on a native wildflower meadow-type look while the indoor portion is severely lacking in vegetation with only a few small plants. It looked to have an added irrigation system but perhaps added a bit too late. I am not sure what happened but it definitely could use some attention. Perhaps it shouldn’t be looked at as being a one unit but rather two totally separate plant communities and really playing that up…the brown vs. the green, the highly cared for “window box” versus the more naturalistic roofscape.

A big question that is always on my mind has nothing to do with future technology but rather how we make things work in a more susatainable way for the way things are now. No one is going to go around tearing down skyscrapers to build all new ones, so while we are continually working towards healthier cities and sustainable technologies….what do we do with what we already have?

Living roofs and walls are perfect for retrofitting buildings in a way that doesn’t have to make any changes to the structure and Australia-based 1:1 Architects have come up with a solution for skyscrapers in Melbourne. From Arch Daily: “’Our green roof concept is a flexible modular system, designed to adapt to varying scale rooftops and respond to differing site conditions and functional requirements,’ explained the architects. The roof provides a new atmosphere for the existing buildings where a variety of activities, such as an informal meeting or a simple lunch break, can be held.”

“The green roof is a completely separate entity from the existing structure. The structural timber frame, which sit upon the ‘Versijack’ footing system, provides a platform for users to access the planting crates. These crates create a shelving system that displays different plants. The packing crates, comprised of a CHEP recycled material and usually filled with indigenous Australian grasses that can tolerate high temperatures, vary in depth depending on the plant density and type. The plants help filter the airborne particles that pass over the area, creating a space with cleaner air for its occupants.”

images via Arch Daily

It seems no matter how many or how little plants people put in an area, they always like to point out that they will make the air cleaner. But by looking at the images, there isn’t a huge amount of vegetation in relation to the roof and the cleanliness of the air is not likely to be all that different. However, it’s nice to see retrofitting efforts and this one looks like a good possibility for some rooftop community gardening in how they have the crates setup, even though they don’t discuss this. With such a high demand these days all around the world for urban garden spaces, the rooftop as a possibility for community gardening makes sense. Then maybe people can use their fire escapes for something else, like escaping fires perhaps.