By: Deborah Johnson Wood
A proposed two-level green roof on Grand Rapids Community College’s Applied Technology Center (ATC) will serve both as a tool for studying environmental sustainability and as an outdoor dining area for The Heritage Restaurant, the college’s culinary arts school.
Some 13,000 square feet of live roof on top of the ATC’s third floor will be accessible via an outside observation deck and walkways meandering through different types of colorful sedum and natural grasses. Special windows will create an observation area from inside the building, and graphics will show a cross section of the roof, illustrating its construction.
On a lower level, a 1,000-square-foot green roof featuring outdoor dining space for The Heritage will enable guests to experience a life roof firsthand. The culinary school plans to plant fresh herbs to use in menu items, and signage will identify the plants and invite visitors to the upper level to experience the larger live roof.
“It's all concrete down here and this will add esthetics and green space within an urban area,” says Tom Smith, GRCC spokesperson. “We’re combining sustainability with education, and giving the students and the public an opportunity to see a green roof up close.”
Smith looks forward to the school being able to cash in on the green roof’s promise of reduced energy consumption, reduction of the urban ‘heat island’ effect, enhanced sound insulation, and less environmentally damaging storm water runoff.
Plans for the $650,000 roof have been underway for about three years. Partial funding for the roof comes from a grant from the Steelcase Foundation.
Source: Tom Smith, Grand Rapids Community College
Deborah Johnson Wood is the development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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