Friday, July 10, 2009

GREEN ROOF IN LAKE WORTH

Hurrah! A successful, inexpensive Green Roof example exists in Lake Worth. The EcoCentre designed by John Szerdi, Living Designs has a variety of applications that work with the “Living Machine” concept that is the basis of the building design.

Planters are constructed of recycled plastic lumber and pond liner. They are placed directly on the flat roof. The planting media is LECA, an acronym for light expanded clay material. It is a light tan color. The media depth is about 10-12”. Some of the planters are unirrigated, some are irrigated by gray water collected from the building, condensate water or storm water collected in a cistern. Originally the planters were to be planted with sedges recommended to the architect by colleagues through past experiences in Virginia. Fortunately, the planting was changed to grasses native to Florida that we suggested while touring the building when it was under construction.

The planters have been in for about 6 months, both the irrigated and unirrigated planters are doing well.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's about time! What a great example of a wise use of untapped space and much needed heat island effect reduction in Florida!! I am excited to see that landscape architects are leading the way in finding innovative and beautiful ways to cool our environment. Way to go Connie!

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