re: green roofs
excerpted from 2007 NYSCA grant application with Marielle Anzelone of Drosera:
Everyone has seen Al Gore’s film about the ozone layer, everyone has read about the disappearing honeybees - we all know the smell of garbage in August are vaguely aware that Fresh Kills is full. We have also looked out across that distinctive barren NYC roofscape and have perhaps heard the increasing buzz around “green roofs.” The advertised benefits are numerous: added insulation, less stormwater runoff, better air quality and of course more of that precious green amidst the grey. The applicants propose to go one (or two) better:
We propose to develop a 100% recycled, 100% native, green roof prototype.
A number of successful green roof manufacturers base their product on a modular plastic waffle, which is then placed on a rooftop. This system has many advantages, including ease of installation and removal for repairs, and the ability to “start” plants in a greenhouse. The applicants, however, find it unacceptable that these systems utilize virgin plastic, soil shipped thousands of miles, and plants native to the Mongolian Steppes. Instead, we propose to mine the 11,000 tons of garbage produced daily in NYC and the distinctive native flora, to produce a green roof synthesized of NY’s botanical past and its over-consumptive present, towards a greener flowering future.
Our goal is to develop a modular base composed of plastic containers removed from the city’s waste stream, which, combined with the recycled-styrofoam growing medium developed by the Gaia Institute and the humus produced at the city’s compost sites, will support the growth of indigenous plant species - thereby reducing garbage and building biodiversity. This solution addresses two deficiencies in current systems which limit the number of potential installations: high cost and heavy weight, and it offers the improvement of native flora over imports. Native plants are inherently suited to flourish in our area, and their evolved relationships with local insects, fungi, diseases, birds, mammals and other vegetation seeds a tremendous richness of biodiversity that current green roof systems cannot match. Above all, indigenous flora rebuild a regional imprint, impressing upon us all the relation between city view and vegetation, connections to time and place, history and the ecology of the site.
The applicants feel strongly that we, the human species, must reintegrate ourselves with the “natural” environment if we are to survive. We feel that New York City is the ideal place to demonstrate how this can happen. Our built environment, as it is fundamental to ourselves, is fundamental in that process, and we believe the NYC roofscape offers the ideal opportunity to simultaneously make the tangible advancements above, while drawing attention not only to our built environment but also the natural one we strive to reintegrate it with.