Vegetative Green Roof at Testa Produce a Site to Behold

July 5th, 2011 by Glenn Meyers

Photo: Roofmeadow

Those looking for true green roofing options should pay a visit to Testa Produce on the outskirts of Chicago and to Roofmeadow, the designer and builder of this innovative roofing system.

This 45,650 square-foot barrel roof features vegetative plant material and minimal irrigation requirements. The barrel roof has been designed to collect rainwater and prevent runoff of excess water.

According to Testa Produce, once the water soaks into the roof, it is filtered into our internal water cistern. From there the water is stored until it is needed. All of the water collected from the roof is reused for non-potable purposes throughout the building such as flushing toilets.

“It is designed to require minimal irrigation which is an integral part of our water efficiency system,” this green produce leader writes, listing these benefits to this roofing system:

- Increases water conservation by preventing rainwater run-off

- Releases Oxygen resulting in cleaner air

- Insulates our building and decreases heat waste emissions

- Lengthens the replacement time of the roof

The roof system is a product that was designed and installed by Philadelphia-based Roofmeadow.

Roofmeadow says the 4.00-inch thick profile on the barrel roof has a maximum pitch of 43 degrees. The media on the barrel roof is stabilized with a cellular confinement system. The cellular confinement web is in turn supported by the weight of the adjacent flat extensive green roof, without the aid of any fixed anchors to the building structure. The mass of the media supported in this way is over 90 tons. Custom pre-grown reinforced sedum mats have been used to plant the barrel portion of the green roof. The roof was completed in 2010.

The Roofmeadow blog http://roofmeadow.wordpress.com/ provides information bout other interesting projects it has developed in the United States. One of its recent projects was a bus shelter roof in Philadelphia.

The green stewardship of companies like Testa Produce and Roofmeadow is very much worth following and sharing with others.

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Tags: Barrel roof, Chicago, Philadelphia, Pre-grown sedum mats, Roofmeadow, Testa Produce, water management and storage

About the Author

Glenn Meyers is a writer, producer, and director. Meyers was editor and site director of Green Building Elements, a contributing writer for CleanTechnica, and is founder of Green Streets MediaTrain, a communications connection and eLearning hub. As an independent producer, he's been involved in the development, production and distribution of television and distance learning programs for both the education industry and corporate sector. He also is an avid gardener and loves sustainable innovation.