The stormwater control aspects of this project combined the living roof with a capture and storage system to create a powerful system for managing water. During the renovation of this 40-year-old building, the three roof drains were diverted to new storage tanks at the base of the building (changed to below-grade tanks during construction). A sophisticated set of controls allowed the captured water to be pumped back to the roof for establishment irrigation and for a future living wall, as well as utilized for irrigation of the ground plane during the dry season (late summer). A simple custom monitoring package allows the quantity of roof runoff to be monitored, and compares that amount to the required irrigation. It’s expected that the system will capture more water than required by any of the roof or ground planting during the growing season.

* Work performed while with another firm

Click here to learn about this project’s living roof