Impressions from our July GR Tour

On July 25th, GRIN organized a green roof tour at Ofis Werks, a new building featuring intensive and extensive green roofs, as well as a green façade. We heard from several professionals involved in the project, and the tour brought together a nice mix of people, including some green roof first-timers! What a treat! 

The tour started with a candid conversation with the project’s developer, which was brilliant. We learned about the complexities, opportunities and consequences of incorporating living architecture into a covid-era building. For example, the building was built and installed during the pandemic, which had implications on various aspects of the project, from field checks and site visits to tenancy uptake.

The green facade on the East side of the building was accomplished using the Jakob system of tensioned stainless steel cables. GRIN Board member, Ryan Vasseur, told us about the system and the project, which he and colleagues from the Architek Group of Companies installed and maintain. Climbing plants are rooted in the ground and will climb up the cables, which are vertically and horizontally arranged in a trellis formation.

With sufficient growing medium and resources (water, nutrition), Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) can grow 10′ in a year, so the facade should be covered within a few years. Keep an eye on this wall!

Once on the roof, we were treated to a big blue sky and a complex of green roofs. Given the value of amenity space to tenants, the area is primarily intensive roof featuring a variety of seating opportunities and furniture, including a big patio with permanent tables, chairs and barbeque and solid wood benches. It even features three planters for urban agriculture. The extensive green roofs line the edge of the roof and are inaccessible by a railing. The vertical plants at the edge of the roof, shown in the image below, will gradually grow to create the southern green facade, from the top down.

A railing divides the inaccessible extensive green roof (right) from the rooftop patio area (left). Suggest a name for the shadow in the comments below! Image courtesy Reece Rehm.

Special thanks to award-winning designer and GRIN director, Randy Sharp, who served as the living architecture consultant on the project. Not only did Randy grant us access to the roof, he bravely invited us onto the designer’s journey of proposing the dream and then accepting the building owner’s choices, which may be different for a variety of reasons. The discussion was rich, constructive and positive, thanks to everyone’s participation.

Two of Vancouver’s steady advocates for green roofs, Reece Rehm and Randy Sharp. Image courtesy: Reece Rehm

To stay in the loop about upcoming GR tours and other activities, join our mailing list. If you’d like to become a GR champion for your community, let us know how we can support you.

Lastly, please donate to our mapping project (and share with your networks)! Once the model is trained with Vancouver, this work will identify strategic opportunities for green roofs and green infrastructure in any BC community, identifying low-hanging fruit for climate resilience and urban nature.

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