Up On The Roof: Landscape Architecture Students Plan for Greener Prospects

Reprinted courtesy of KSU Media Relations and Marketing

At a time of year when most homeowners are clearing their roofs and gutters of leaves, twigs and even seedlings, landscape architecture students at Kansas State University have drawn up plans to plant entire landscapes up there.

There are challenges to creating “green roofs” in communities without them, but the potential is great, according to Lee Skabelund, assistant professor of landscape architecture. A layer of light-weight planting medium and vegetation can reduce heating and cooling costs while slowing the runoff of rainwater that would otherwise burden storm-sewer networks.

A city topped with greenery instead of conventional bitumen can improve air quality while reducing the overheating that built-up areas suffer in the summer. Skabelund also cited the benefits of longer roof life, resistance to fire and the blockage of telecommunication radiation.

When matched with solar panels and water-harvesting systems, such roofs can help buildings meet standards of the U.S. Green Building Council. Skabelund also emphasized the bonus of welcoming people into plazas or parks on those roofs that can support the added weight.

Twelve fourth-year landscape architecture students in K-State’s College of Architecture, Planning and Design tackled the installation of green roofs on several campus buildings, including the wide-open spaces of the Derby Dining Complex and the sawtooth structure that shelters the east wing of Seaton Hall.

“These are really explorations of what might be,” Skabelund said during the presentations by his fall specialization studio. Because they had only three weeks to research and assemble their proposals while still fulfilling other academic obligations, the students hadn’t fine-tuned costs, specific plantings or structural limits of existing roofs.

Even so, proposals were impressive. For example, on the flat roof of Seaton Hall’s west wing, Clay Deschler and Michael Meihaus, both from St. Louis, envisioned a park-like space of grassy hillocks intersected by metal walkways pierced to admit rainwater. An existing stairwell would be adapted to provide access and a top-floor “learning lab.”

Another scheme would turn the gritty, flood-prone blind alley behind Seaton Hall into a light-accented extension of a multi-level reworking of Weigel Library. Anthony Fox, St. Charles, Mo., and Chris Morton, Englewood, Colo., presented their suggestions, including a bright red cantilevered addition to the top floor, in a slick multimedia package. The green roof would provide research into suitable green-roof plantings while creating a space for reading and socializing.

Some architecture firms have made a specialty of green-roofing, including BNIM Architects in Kansas City, Mo. Installations like that atop Chicago’s city hall, the GAP complex near San Francisco’s airport and the headquarters of the landscape architecture society in Washington, D.C., have raised the technique’s profile.

“I think it’s something we need to seriously look into on campus, because of its potential to save energy and reduce runoff,” said Tom Rawson, K-State’s vice president of administration and finance.

He attended the presentations and took note of the summer temperatures recorded near the Seaton Hall air-conditioning intakes: 190 degrees and higher. A green roof can drop temperatures by half, Skabelund said.

But facilities managers can be wary, and not just because of higher initial costs. The multiple layers of root-proof membranes and earth-retaining matrices are foreign territory, and maintenance demands are another unknown. During a dry spell, for instance, a green roof might become a thirsty responsibility, unless you don’t mind a dormant bed of sedum or other drought-tolerant plants, Skabelund said.

With dry spells in mind, the student designs included cisterns to store runoff from thunderstorms for later reuse.

Tim Duggan, a K-State landscape architecture alum who works for BNIM, urged students after their presentations to emphasize not the overall costs, but rather the difference in cost over a conventional roof, and how that might be offset by potential savings and social benefits. He was one of several professionals and faculty who reviewed the designs.

To complement the work of landscape architecture faculty and students this past year at the International Student Center’s rain garden, Skabelund and Duggan would like to see a green roof demonstration completed during spring 2008.

Stacy Hutchinson, associate professor of biological and agricultural engineering, and other K-State faculty support such a project, Skabelund said. Hutchinson already is monitoring temperatures and water use for green-roof-like plantings in the Seaton Hall alley.

Other landscape architecture students who presented and their project buildings included:

Robin Banks, east wing of Seaton Hall, Manhattan; Lindsey Scheuneman, K-State Student Union, Olathe; fifth-year student Dan Robben, Chalmers Hall and Ackert Hall, Salina; Katie Sobczynski, Derby Dining Complex, Stilwell; Kris Coen, Chalmers Hall and Ackert Hall, and Kellen Stewart, the Vee House in Kansas City, Mo., both of Wichita.

From out of state: Cole Giesler, Derby Dining Complex, Ste. Genevieve, Mo.; Amy Shaffer, east wing of Seaton Hall, Lincoln, Neb.

Also contributing design reviews were Jim Scheussler and Celine Anderson of BNIM and Brian Davis of Jeffery L. Bruce and Co. in North Kansas City, Mo., as well as Stephanie Rolley, professor of landscape architecture and regional/community planning.

Faculty members assisting included Carolyn Blocksome, research assistant professor of agronomy; Raphael Yunk, assistant professor of architectural engineering and construction science; and Sutton Stephens, associate professor of architectural engineering and construction science. Landscape architect Lonna Brokesh, of K-State Facilities Planning, also helped the studio’s work.

“So many people play important roles in exploratory work such as this,” Skabelund said, starting with the personnel of K-State’s roof shop who gave students the access to develop their ideas.

For more information, contact:
Lee Skabelund, 785.532.2431