Chadwick Arboretum Plans Green Roof Retrofit Project for Campus Building

Feb 04, 2010

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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio State University's Howlett Hall, home to the offices of the Chadwick Arboretum and Learning Gardens and many horticulture faculty members, is getting even more green: a 10,000 square-foot "green roof" is being planned for installation by late 2011.

Mary Maloney, Chadwick Arboretum director, said the feature will be located on a lower-level roof in back of the building, located at 2001 Fyffe Court.

"It's highly visible and accessible from the first-floor conference room in Howlett Hall, which will make it an ideal location to help educate faculty, staff, students and visitors about green roofs," Maloney said. A green roof system combines plants and a growing medium atop roofing layers designed for proper drainage, waterproofing and insulation.

"A green roof has many benefits," Maloney said. "It will reduce storm water runoff, mitigate the urban 'heat island' effect, reduce heating and cooling costs, reduce noise and increase wildlife habitat, all while extending the useful life of the roof. Plus, installing this roof will help us earn credits to achieve LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for Howlett Hall, and provide a prototype for retrofitting other roofs at Ohio State to become 'green' in the future."

In addition, the roof will be designed to accommodate ongoing research projects to become a true educational tool, she said.

The roof project is being coordinated by Chadwick Arboretum and will be funded by donations to the arboretum, Maloney said.

Anyone interested in the project may attend a program on Feb. 12 at 4:30 p.m., entitled "Fuzzy Positioning: Vegetative Roofs in the Age of Emerging Ecology." The event, sponsored by the Landscape Architecture Section of Ohio State's Knowlton School of Architecture, will be held just next door to Howlett Hall in the auditorium of Kottman Hall, 2021 Coffey Road. During the program, guest speaker Reid R. Coffman of the University of Oklahoma will provide information on green roof projects. "Anyone who has questions on the pending green roof installation on Howlett Hall, this is the forum to attend," Maloney said.

In addition, Maloney said, a smaller, day-long, invitation-only event will take place on Feb. 26, during which design professionals will begin to create conceptual designs for the roof.

For more information on the green roof project, contact Maloney at maloney.23@osu.edu or 614-688-3479, or Megan Welsh, a certified green roof professional and a student assistant at Chadwick Arboretum, at welsh.51@osu.edu or 614-949-6008.

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Martha Filipic
filipic.3@cfaes.osu.edu
614-292-9833

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Mary Maloney
Chadwick Arboretum and Learning Gardens
maloney.23@osu.edu
614-688-3479

Megan Welsh
welsh.51@osu.edu
614-949-6008

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