April 4, 2005

ASLA to Install Green Roof on Headquarters
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Conservation Design Forum to collaborate on design, installation, and monitoring.

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) is replacing the roof on its downtown Washington, D.C., headquarters building with a green roof. Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc., will lead the design process, collaborating with Conservation Design Forum to develop the design and specifications for the approximately 3,300-square-foot roof surface. Gensler will provide architectural services relating to the roof access.

"Landscape architects are leading many green roof projects across the United States and abroad, so it's only fitting that ASLA provide a demonstration project on this sustainable technology that can cure so many urban ills," says Nancy Somerville, executive vice president of ASLA. "We hope to provide a catalyst for more green roof development in Washington and beyond."

A green roof is a roof substantially covered with vegetation. Since the 1970s, green roofs have increasingly become part of the European landscape, where there are over 100 million square feet of planted roofs today. Faced with soaring and unpredictable energy costs and the desire for higher performance buildings, more U.S. building owners are opting for green roof technology.

Studies show that green roofs provide incredible economic, environmental, and aesthetic benefits. Green roofs:

• last up to twice as long as conventional roofs and require less maintenance;
• save significantly on heating and cooling costs: HVAC equipment on new or retrofitted buildings can be reduced in size, and the amount of standard insulation can be decreased;
• insulate for sound;
• significantly reduce stormwater runoff and provide water filtration;
• improve air quality;
• reduce the urban heat-island effect;
• provide aesthetic amenities for tenants and neighbors;
• restore biohabitat in urban areas; and
• provide many other benefits.

“With new technology, green roofs can be put on new or old buildings,” says Drew Becher, Washington, D.C.’s associate director of Parks and Recreation. Becher, the former chief of staff of the Chicago Park District who is credited with the “greening” and beautification of much of Chicago’s public realm, also says, "Chicago, Portland, Seattle, and Boston have issued green roof guidelines, which shows that the technology is becoming more popular and mainstream. Many cities are realizing that instead of investing in expensive sewer infrastructure underground, they can require new developments to have green roofs, whose beneficial water retention systems help reduce storm runoff, cutting down on sewer overflow into rivers and streams.”

ASLA received a number of very strong submissions in response to its request for qualifications. “We were amazed by the tremendous experience demonstrated by these firms,” says J. Kipp Shrack, FASLA, chair of ASLA’s Green Roof Task Force. “This green roof demonstration project is a great way to share this expertise among the profession and with the public.”

“Our firm is very excited in taking the lead for ASLA to have a green roof on their headquarters,” says Michael Van Valkenburgh, FASLA. “It is an important symbolic step for the organization to affirm our Society’s commitment to the green movement and environmentalism, but also to see a way that the issues of design and habitation can be folded into the investigation. It would be a wonderful thing for ASLA to have one of the first green roofs in the neighborhood, and we think it could potentially contribute very positively to the image of the Society, as well as the reading of the building in the city fabric.”

“The project is intended to be a highly visible demonstration of the practical benefits of vegetated green roofs and to highlight the critical role of landscape architects in the greening of buildings in urban and suburban environments,” says David Yocca, ASLA, of Conservation Design Forum.

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