Green Roof Reno: January 2008
February 2008 »
January 22, 2008
Oh . . . the Possibilities!
When we dream . . . we dream green. Lately it as though we wake up and imagine weekend mornings with [iced] coffee and the Times on the roof deck surrounded by greenery and the city and the sky. We definitely want to be eco-conscious in this project but we also want it to be affordable and comfortable . . .Hopefully, these ideas go hand in hand.
We realize, of course, that green roofs have been done before. In fact, Europe and especially Germany can be considered leaders in the field with 35 to 40 years of tested green roof installations. Projects in the States can be found burgeoning in every major city. We hope to be one small piece of the puzzle; contributing our part to the greater ecological challenge we face as a country.
Approaching the Co-Op
Right now, we are in the process of putting together a package to present to our co-op board. We’re definitely anxious about getting over this hurdle as things seem to always be tricky when dealing with co-op boards. . .
We’ll present this project for what it is; a private space for us, but also a benefit to the long term health of the building. Green roofs have lots of benefits, from savings on heating and cooling costs to increasing the life of your current roofing system by two to three times. Other positives of installing green roof systems include the city-wide effects of stormwater retention and the mitigation of the urban heat island effect. The new New York City PlaNYC [www.nyc.gov/2030] from Bloomberg proposes a 35 percent tax benefits for green roof construction costs. We hope to figure out how to take advantage of this!
To clarify, we own the roof rights to the space directly above our apartment (essentially half the roof space). We will pay for the installation of the roof deck and green roof on the portion of the roof we own. As part of our package for the Co-op we might include options like offering to green our neighbors’ roof space at the same time per their expense or the co-op’s . . . That would of course be an ideal situation because it would unify the design of the project while providing a maximum benefit for our investment. We will also present a proposal for a structural analysis that will determine whether an extensive green roof and deck is even possible. With steel or without, we are confident we will be able to create something beautiful.
Green Roof Images
These images inspire us – we’re thinking architectural, sleek, with defined edges . . . plantings in masses that change in color throughout the seasons.
Green Roof Plants
You can get green roof plants from a ton of places and we’re going to explore a bunch of them, ordering samples and giving reviews. The plant options for a green roof are literally through the roof – there are zillions of choices and the hard part is choosing the right plant for the right climate and site. The manner in which they are delivered is also varied; being offered by companies as mats, blocks, carpets, tiles, grids, modules, and paks. We’ll have a lot of choices to make to make in the next few months . . .
Mr. and Mrs. Green Roof
January 13, 2008
Going Green
An Introduction
Hello! We are Mr. and Mrs. Green Roof looking forward to bringing you the play by play from our foray into the world of green roof design and construction. We recently bought a one bedroom apartment with roof rights in a four story, eight family co-op building in Park Slope. The roof has tremendous potential to be an outdoor extension of our interior living space while at the same time doing something positive for the environment, so we thought we’d share the process of transforming it with you.
Our Project
To research, design and implement a 750 sq ft green roof in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Because of the panoramic views--which include the Manhattan skyline and glimpses of the harbor and passing ships, New Jersey, and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge--this space would especially benefit from a deck and some greenery. We see this as an opportunity to not only increase our quality of life but also bring value to our home. The goal is to create a wooden deck with potted plants, comfortable furniture and some kind of shade structure like a wooden trellis on about one-third of the roof. The remaining two-thirds would be covered with an ecological or extensive green roof.
Although the roof is technically shared (split in half between us and our fourth floor neighbors) and the staircase is shared by the interior hallway of the co-op, when you get up the roof itself, it feels fairly empty and quiet and really peaceful. Disconnected from the street by the height of building and a five-foot high parapet (a low wall at the edge of a house-top) on street side, you can hear the rustling of the leaves on nearby trees and the unusually strong winds howling in your ears.
Green Roof
Typically there are two types of green roof systems, extensive and intensive. An extensive green roof has low, desert-like plantings designed to provide maximum green coverage while requiring only two to four inches of soil. Intensive green roof systems are more of a typical roof garden with trees and other large plantings which require several feet of soil depth and a steel frame.
We think implementing an extensive green roof is a cost-effective and ecologically sensitive way to bring mass greenery to our roof. We hope that by using plantings like sedum and using lightweight soil we will be able to have close to 500 sq ft of green space on the roof. We hope to get the okays from our co-op board and a structural engineer to install the green roof system directly on top of the existing roofing membrane. Throughout the process we’ll be researching different products and books and sharing our reviews.
Deck
A deck will provide us with a great outdoor hang-out, dining and work space. We hope to make it simple and beautiful and do most of the work ourselves.
Because the roof has a parapet on three sides (two ft high on the north and south sides, and five and a half feet high on the east side), the view, right now, is restricted while seated. Therefore we plan to raise the elevation of the deck two feet above the current roof, increasing views, and meeting many of our major aesthetic goals for the project.
Why We’re Documenting
We are really passionate about doing this. With all the constant green this and green that, in a world where green has become a marketable commodity; we hope that people see our project and want to do their own roof garden. Brooklyn is a pretty dynamic place and we wouldn’t be surprised if it became a leader in realizing green neighborhoods and helping New York to become an eco-city. Bloomberg supports this vision and we definitely recommend checking out his PLANYC report on sustainability. In any case, we are excited and anxious about the possibilities and pitfalls. We’ll do our best to post nice photos and a detailed look at the process. Happy reading!
Mr. and Mrs. Green Roof