Bill Gates' Green Roof

For many, Bill Gates is a man they love to hate. Yet the Microsoft founder, and yes, philanthropist, has put an enormous green roof on the garage of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation HQ.

Its not just any green roof. In the style befitting the world's richest man, it is the biggest green roof in all of Seattle. It covers 60,000 sq ft.

According to earthfirst.com, which is the primary source for this article, both the garage and headquarters building are seeking LEED gold certification.

In a press release from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the green roof, once fully established, will sustain itself via rain water. Additionally, the foundation campus will use rain water and other non-potable water for irrigation and other purposes. Discover Top Rated Mighty Leaf Herbal Tea. Tea lovers love our delicious herbal tea blends. You will too. Save 25% on your first order!

The structure was designed by NBBJ, and the campus will be built by Sellen Construction.

Canada's Largest Green Roof is in Vancouver

World Architecture News reports:

...Vancouver Convention Centre West, ... with 6 acres of green roof it boasts the largest in Canada, and the largest non-industrial green roof in North America. This combined with many other eco-measures is set to help the project achieve LEED Canada Gold certification.

The green roof itself is a thing of great beauty and purpose. According to the article, there are "...400,000 indigenous plants and grasses,..." Additionally, a roof this size helps to control heating and cooling costs, as well as reducing air pollution. Discover Top Rated Mighty Leaf Herbal Tea. Tea lovers love our delicious herbal tea blends. You will too. Save 25% on your first order!

This is not a beautiful project, but also allows Vancouver's green roof credentials to take root. While the city boasts the Centre for Architectural Ecology - Collaborations in Green Roofs and Living Walls, the Convention Center will also create habitat for marine life, as well as improve the shoreline.

While the green roof is the most obvious "green" feature of the structure, it also uses the most advanced in green technologies. There is a significant waste water recycling. Heating and cooling is aided by using a heat pump system, "...that takes advantage of the constant temperature of adjacent seawater,..." and uses window placement for lighting. Water Barrels and Storage The Convention Centre's expansion was designed to be "...used as a hub to support 7,000 media during the XXI Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games."

The design and architectural work was done by Architects LMN and Vancouver-based Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership as well as DA Architects & Planners.

This beautiful new addition will also serve to provide Vancouver with the opportunity to compete with Toronto for the World Green Roof Congress in the years to come. Mountain House Freeze-Dried Food

The UK's Greenest Hospital

World Architecture News reports:

Construction has begun on the first phase of the new, £300m Mittal Children’s Medical Centre at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust (GOSH), which is on target to become the UK’s ‘greenest’ medical building to date.

GOSH sought to have the building be a leader in sustainable development and includes many green components. Mountain House Freeze-Dried Food

Working with the architectural firm of Llewelyn Davies Yeang (LDY), GOSH is estimated to reduce about 20,000 tons of CO² annually. This reduction is also part of "...GOSH’s targets of a 120% carbon reduction and 60+ per cent renewable energy contribution by 2016, when Phase 2 of the project is due to complete."

LDY is noted as being a "deep green" design firm, with projects in over 15 countries. Not only do they design building with green components but also develop "eco design strategies" for their clients.

The building will include glazed glass panels to bring in a significant amount of natural, while also deflecting the heat from the increased amount of light. The building will also include significant amounts of natural ventilation, reducing the HVAC loads typical in buildings of this size (30,000 sq m). While the picture appears to show a green roof, I haven't been able to find supporting documentation. However, it would be consistent with LDY to have a green roof, as they have included them on many of their projects. Further, a green roof on a hospital would provide a peaceful respite from the stress of medical care, as well as further reducing HVAC costs. Cheap? No. 100% Free. Trade stocks for free on Zecco.com. The Free Trading Community.

The growth and renovation of this hospital is due in part to a generous donation of £15 million donation from the Aditya and Megha Mittal family.

Manhattan's Green Roofs Grow

New York City, and Manhattan in particular, has a great collection of buildings with green roofs. Now, the city can add another series of green roofs found in Clinton Park.

Ten Arquitectos and Enrique Norten have designed a unique mixed-use structure that not only puts housing units on a diagonal, but also puts a green roof on top of each floor. Mountain House Freeze-Dried Food

World Architecture News.com writes,

Each floor steps up from the one below, allowing for unobstructed views to the park and Hudson River and providing private roof terraces with green roofs on every floor.

As one can see from the picture, the amount of green roofs would appear to cover the entire footprint of the building. A green roof of this size will improve storm water runoff management, as well reduce fine particulate matter air pollution. Water Barrels and Storage

The building itself, as mentioned above is mixed-use. Again, from WAN,

...the building fills a void in the urban fabric by integrating multiple commercial uses... providing 900 housing units in the 27 floors above. The base include(s) a 50,000 sq-ft auto showroom with 250,000 sq ft of service floors below grade, a 30,000 sq-ft horse stable for the NYPD Mounted Police, a 7,500 square-foot market, a 30,000 square-foot health club, and 200 parking spaces.

The diagonal layout allows not only for multiple green roofs over a single footprint, the design also reduces the urban heat island effect by moving mass away from its neighboring buildings. This building will not only architectural interest to city, but provide much needed environmental benefits as well.

Zurich's Green Roofs

Ah, the Swiss. Known for their precision, understated elegance, and natural beauty, it is only fitting that two of their public use facilities have green roofs. Built in 2002, both the Zurich Airport and the Zurich main rail station have green roofs. $20 Off AeroGardens

According to Greenroofs.com,:

One of the largest green roof building sites in Switzerland, the new dispatch building at Kloten International Airport is Dock E, ... Sporting an extensive green roof measuring 4,000 m2 (43,056 sf), ... Completed in November 2002..., the planning group decided to install ZinCo green roof systems.

As for the train station:

During the preparation... a problem surfaced... The whole area was mapped as a ...living space for different endangered insects and reptiles whose natural environment consisted of desert-like spaces...these animals used the space between the tracks as their living space. Swiss law prohibits the destruction of such biotopes without replacement. In the search for a solution the idea of using the rooftop as a replacement was suggested and accepted...

In both cases, the Swiss were able to incorporate green roofs to reduce heating and cooling costs, improve storm water runoff, and also to create habitat. The next time you are Zurich, keep your eyes open for these green roofs. As they were completed in 2002, they should be beautifully grown in by now. Discover Top Rated Mighty Leaf Herbal Tea. Tea lovers love our delicious herbal tea blends. You will too. Save 25% on your first order!

A Green Roof for Istanbul

Istanbul's Shopping Square Meydan has a very large, extensive green roof. The 54,000 square meter roof, "...is designed to provide much-needed breathing space for the city’s 14,000,000-strong population." according to Flatroof Design Technology (FDT).

The center was designed by Foreign Office Architects, of London. The center includes other very significant green features, specifically, air conditioning provided by a geothermal plant and skylights to provide natural lighting to the concourse walkways and retail stores. Cheap? No. 100% Free. Trade stocks for free on Zecco.com. The Free Trading Community. www.zecco.com

The green roof provides efficiencies in heating and cooling as well as helping to reduce air pollution. Further, the green roof helps to manage storm water runoff. Finally, the green roof also offers some of its space as a walkable park.

Green roofs for retail is not a new concept, as it is seen in Lima, Peru in the LarcoMar shopping center. Large shopping areas offer great opportunities for green roofs. In both examples, Meydan and LarcoMar offer both aesthetic beauty for the cities, as well as increased green space, and a welcoming environment for social gathering. Mountain House Freeze-Dried Food

Sao Paulo Green Roof - The Enkyo Project

As green roofs grow in popularity for their ability to reduce heating and cool costs, as well as reduce storm water runoff, they are becoming more popular in tropical climates.

The Enkyo Medical and Social Center in Sao Paulo, Brazil is one such building. Recently recognized with a Holcim Award for sustainable building in 2008, this building combines extensive passive features, such as a green roof, to reduce energy costs by approximately 80% of traditional buildings.

The building will be located in the Asian Quarter, known as Liberdade, and be half medical center and half social center. This locality will support both the Brazilians of Japanese origin and not. Further, the social center is designed to bring older, non-Portuguese speaking Brazilians in closer contact with their Portuguese speaking neighbors.

The building is also unique for its use of ground water in the cooling system which otherwise would have been pumped away. Additionally, the use of perforated metal screens on the building allow maximum sunlight with minimum glare, reducing the electricity costs for lighting. The architectural firm who designed the building, Shieh Arquitetos Associados, hopes these passive elements will be replicated throughout Brazil.