OK it is time for a little guerilla blogging. I have two projects that I am supposed to be working on but its Friday and I still have not found that magical bathroom in the building. I should post a picture of my building. Ok here it is. 
http://www.hamiltonpartners.com/location_overview.php?region=UT&type=office&id=68
Now that you have seen where I work, I can talk about what I really want to talk about and that is our site visit last Wednesday. We were able to visit the LDS Conference Center’s Rooftop Garden. We were also graced by the presence of Eldon the Head Gardener and Steve the Head Maintenance guy who both offered wonderful onsite insight to the really cool gardens. I tell you, the garden was so cool that I was giddy during the whole 2 hour tour.
To start off Eldon told us that National Geographic recently photographed the garden for an rooftop garden article that will published sometime next year. National Geographic will visit many of the world’s best rooftop gardens so keep your eyes peeled. Then Eldon explained that while the rooftop garden was the focus of the tour he wanted to stress that the entire site is technically a rooftop garden. The ground floor plaza is actually built on top of a parking complex, therefore all the street level planters and trees had to be built on a roof. Eldon then told us that the planters are filled with expanded shale which is light weight but structural strong enough to support trees. This expanded shale has organic matter mixed in but due to the deadline of the project many trees were planted without any organic material. These trees are easily noticed because they are all yellowy, chlorotic? Steve then pointed out a couple of trees that were also suffering because the architect had selected trees not suitable to Utah’s basic soils. After that we went up to the top of the Conference Center and got to visit the gardens.
Wow, I have to admit that when I think of greenroofs I often think of a tundra landscape. Mosses and low growing grasses dotted with red and brown lichen. This roof top garden has 30+ foot trees growing on it. The overall design of the garden is a representation of when the Mormon Pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley.
The northeast corner is planted with pine trees, broadleaf evergreens, aspens, elderberries, and an impressive range of forest flowers, representing the Rocky Mountains. The southwest is planted with a mixture of grasses, flowers, bristlecone pines, and shrubs to make it look like the valley did when the pioneers came down from the mountains. Also to the east is a fountain which symbolizes the mountain streams. This waters source turns into a series of rivulets that lead to the very edge of the building and pour down a multitier waterfall to the street level below.
At this time I need to thank KSU for teaching me to appreciate a prairie ecosystem, because the meadow part of the roof was beautiful. Utah has ahad a wet cold spring and so the normally mustard yellow summer meadow was alive with purples, and blues, pinks and yellow and all sorts of urban birds flying around and eating stuff. It looked really cool. Yet, iot took a lot of hard work to maintain. Steve said that the meadow was especially difficult to maintain because it needed frequent weeding. Invasive and noxious weeds are regularly deposited due to birds, and wind. The birds pose another problem too. Around the perimeter of the rooftop there is a planter known as the eyebrow. Think of the hanging gardens. The planter hangs out from the wall and forms a ledge where the cascading plants grow. During the springtime this planter is full of juniper berries and other avian delicacies, so what happens when birds eat? They poop, all over the sidewalks below. I guess every design has some flaws and offers us something to think about.
The last treat of the tour was that we got to go inside and see some paintings that were done by one of our LA’s father. They were three beautiful portraits of the Apostles. All in all, the site visit was wonderful and today I learned that there is a rooftop garden of note on top of the new city Library. I guess I have to go visit that too. Now, I did not take a working camera and so I do not have a lot of images.
http://www.hamiltonpartners.com/location_overview.php?region=UT&type=office&id=68
Now that you have seen where I work, I can talk about what I really want to talk about and that is our site visit last Wednesday. We were able to visit the LDS Conference Center’s Rooftop Garden. We were also graced by the presence of Eldon the Head Gardener and Steve the Head Maintenance guy who both offered wonderful onsite insight to the really cool gardens. I tell you, the garden was so cool that I was giddy during the whole 2 hour tour.
To start off Eldon told us that National Geographic recently photographed the garden for an rooftop garden article that will published sometime next year. National Geographic will visit many of the world’s best rooftop gardens so keep your eyes peeled. Then Eldon explained that while the rooftop garden was the focus of the tour he wanted to stress that the entire site is technically a rooftop garden. The ground floor plaza is actually built on top of a parking complex, therefore all the street level planters and trees had to be built on a roof. Eldon then told us that the planters are filled with expanded shale which is light weight but structural strong enough to support trees. This expanded shale has organic matter mixed in but due to the deadline of the project many trees were planted without any organic material. These trees are easily noticed because they are all yellowy, chlorotic? Steve then pointed out a couple of trees that were also suffering because the architect had selected trees not suitable to Utah’s basic soils. After that we went up to the top of the Conference Center and got to visit the gardens.
Wow, I have to admit that when I think of greenroofs I often think of a tundra landscape. Mosses and low growing grasses dotted with red and brown lichen. This roof top garden has 30+ foot trees growing on it. The overall design of the garden is a representation of when the Mormon Pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley.
The northeast corner is planted with pine trees, broadleaf evergreens, aspens, elderberries, and an impressive range of forest flowers, representing the Rocky Mountains. The southwest is planted with a mixture of grasses, flowers, bristlecone pines, and shrubs to make it look like the valley did when the pioneers came down from the mountains. Also to the east is a fountain which symbolizes the mountain streams. This waters source turns into a series of rivulets that lead to the very edge of the building and pour down a multitier waterfall to the street level below.At this time I need to thank KSU for teaching me to appreciate a prairie ecosystem, because the meadow part of the roof was beautiful. Utah has ahad a wet cold spring and so the normally mustard yellow summer meadow was alive with purples, and blues, pinks and yellow and all sorts of urban birds flying around and eating stuff. It looked really cool. Yet, iot took a lot of hard work to maintain. Steve said that the meadow was especially difficult to maintain because it needed frequent weeding. Invasive and noxious weeds are regularly deposited due to birds, and wind. The birds pose another problem too. Around the perimeter of the rooftop there is a planter known as the eyebrow. Think of the hanging gardens. The planter hangs out from the wall and forms a ledge where the cascading plants grow. During the springtime this planter is full of juniper berries and other avian delicacies, so what happens when birds eat? They poop, all over the sidewalks below. I guess every design has some flaws and offers us something to think about.
The last treat of the tour was that we got to go inside and see some paintings that were done by one of our LA’s father. They were three beautiful portraits of the Apostles. All in all, the site visit was wonderful and today I learned that there is a rooftop garden of note on top of the new city Library. I guess I have to go visit that too. Now, I did not take a working camera and so I do not have a lot of images.
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