Especially on the roof, which may in fact be the most famous aspect of this extraordinary museum.
This is because the Academy has installed a very prominent, very elaborate, and very wonderful green roof.
Now please excuse me while I rave for the next few minutes about green roofs.
In case you are unfamiliar with green roofs, please do yourself a favor and try to find one nearby to go visit (San Francisco provides an interactive map). We encourage you to dig deeper on the web to learn more about them. They are awesome. And they are essentially just what they sound like.
Green roofs are building tops featuring vegetation that is typically integrated into the physical infrastructure of the roofing. Several American cities have gained prominence for their leadership in promoting green roofs; Chicago was long considered a leader, installing a green roof on its city hall. However, Washington DC has now claimed the top spot, in total roof square footage, through a recent green roof building boom.
Allow me to enumerate some of their benefits:
- They can provide much needed habitat, especially in dense cities, for a variety of species, particularly migratory birds and native flora and fauna
- They act as green stormwater infrastructure, helping slow (and filter) rain runoff and reducing the strain on sewers by capturing a portion of rain that falls on them
- They help save building owners and occupants money in a number of ways, by lengthening the life of the roof, providing insulation from extreme heat or cold (and reducing cooling and heating costs), increasing the marketability of the building and the real estate surrounding it, and potentially reducing fees or building review time according to local regulations
- They reduce the Urban Heat Island effect, a city phenomenon which causes temperatures in cities to be hotter than average, by replacing the dark and heat-absorbant surface typical of most roofs with vegetation and through the effects of evaporation and dew collection
- They can serve as much-needed space to garden and grow food, becoming components of urban agriculture (don't even get me started on this--another topic for another day!)
- They help clean the air, by absorbing carbon dioxide and noxious gases as well as filtering smaller dust particles and airborne pollutants
- They provide additional amenity space, can serve as educational forums, help suppress fire, and even reduce electromagnetic radiation!
- And they are gorgeous! (Don't underestimate biophilia!)
Green roofs always send a shiver of inspiration through me. And as you can tell, they tie into a number of other ecological topics. Providing an excellent segue into our next (several) blog posts...
