September 24, 2008

Gardens as Green Building Features

Green roofs are very popular these days - mainly the thin layer of sedums to catch and filter the first bit of rain that lands on a building. While these may be the simplest to build and maintain, green roofs can do much more. Chicago's city hall, for instance, has a mini-prairie, a haven for local raptors. Friends on Whidbey Island built a full kitchen garden into their earth-bermed not-so-big house.

Today Treehugger ran a long article today about the green walls on 11 buildings (some built, and some just in design phase). One even involved growing food.

At West Coast Green tomorrow, I'll be on the lookout for green roof (and wall) examples that feed as well as green. That and everything else I can soak up will be live blogged on a site dedicated just to this huge green building event.

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