Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Writer: Larry B. Dendy, 706/542-8078, ldendy@uga.edu
Contact: Kevin Kirsche, 706/542-3605, kkirsche@uga.edu

UGA’s new art school building features environmentally beneficial green roof

Athens, Ga. – Students working in a printmaking studio in the University of Georgia’s new Lamar Dodd School of Art building will be able to see something out the window that’s not usually visible from a classroom roof carpeted by lush green plants.

The roof, atop a one-story building attached to the south side of the three-story Dodd building, is UGA’s first large-scale, integrated “green roof.”

With deep green foliage and colorful blooms intersected by curving bands of washed gravel, the roof will be a secluded and serene oasis instead of a hot, glaring concrete surface.

But nobody should expect to take sunbaths or grow tomatoes on this roof. Its main function is to help save energy, conserve water and protect the building, and it’s one of the features that make the 172,000-square-foot Dodd building on East Campus one of UGA’s most sustainable structures.

“Green roofs are gaining in popularity and people are more receptive of them but there are still a lot of erroneous images,” said Kevin Kirsche of the University Architects office. “This roof provides an effective educational tool and is also part of an overall stormwater management strategy for the site.”

Almost the entire surface of the 3,400-square-foot concrete roof, which tops an auditorium for the Dodd building, is under a blanket of greenery. The vegetation includes nine kinds of plants including a succulent-leafed plant called sedum, which thrives in rock outcroppings; ice plant; chives; and a native perennial named Rock Pink. Chosen for their hardiness and ability to withstand long dry periods and shallow rocky soil, the plants won’t grow higher than 18 inches and require little maintenance.

They grow in a multi-layered medium that begins with a waterproof membrane over the concrete roof. On top of the membrane are a drainage mat; a root barrier; a capillary mat woven with a grid of fine drip irrigation tubing and felt designed to hold water; and four inches of a lightweight soil mix composed of expanded slate, sand and composted worm castings. (Above: Workers create the environmentally friendly roof garden atop the new Lamar Dodd School of Art.)

Intersecting the green carpet are wavy bands of light-hued gravel. The bands set apart different planting areas, provide pathways for maintenance workers and also are an abstract reference to terracing that farmers once used to minimize erosion, said Kirsche, who primarily designed the roof.

The roof is visible from printmaking and painting studios on the south side of the Dodd building and from a public stairway in the building. Although attractive and inviting, it’s also off limits. It can be reached only by a ladder from the ground, and only maintenance workers will be allowed access.

There have been a couple of experimental green roofs on UGA buildings that were used primarily for research, but this is the first one specifically designed and built for maximum environmental benefit on a new campus building, Kirsche said.

“Green roofs help save energy by insulating a building and absorbing sunlight, which minimizes glare and the heat island effect,” Kirsche explained. “They reduce storm runoff because the plants utilize and filter rain. And they help protect the building from debris and harmful ultra-violet rays.”

The roof was added to the Dodd building as part of an overall landscape and stormwater management plan for the East Campus performing and visual arts complex, which also includes the Georgia Museum of Art, the Performing Arts Center and the Hodgson School of Music.

The Dodd building’s main roofs are designed to channel runoff into swales and rain gardens around the building, where pollutants and debris are filtered out before the water is funneled to a nearby small creek. These and similar features at other buildings in the complex helped UGA win the Stormwater Steward Award from Athens-Clarke County this year.

The Dodd building has several other environmentally beneficial features, Kirsche said, including an extensive passive solar and daylighting design that incorporates light shades and solar shelves, and a highly efficient heat wheel energy recovery system.

A heat wheel borrows the temperature from heated or cooled air that is exhausted from a building in order to reduce the amount of energy required to heat or cool fresh air brought into the building. Kirsche said the system in the Dodd building is expected to pay for itself through energy cost savings in less than five years.

A landscaping firm installed the green roof and will maintain it for two years, after which upkeep will shift to the UGA physical plant grounds department.

If this roof proves successful, green roofs may be considered as an alternative when roofs on other buildings are replaced, Kirsche said.

A dedication ceremony for the new art school facility will be held Sept. 4 at 2 p.m.

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