Graduate students from Pratt Institute's Programs for Sustainable Planning and Development (PSPD) will present concept proposals for the development of a soon-to-be built green roof on Pratt's Brooklyn campus on Wednesday, July 25, 2012, from 5:30 to 8 PM. The presentations, which were developed as part of PSPD's Green Infrastructure Design Build summer course, will take place in Room 306 in North Hall at 200 Willoughby Avenue in Brooklyn. Members of the news media who are interested in attending may RSVP to Amy Aronoff at aarono29@pratt.edu.
Students in the course learned about green roof systems, their various components, and the diverse green roof strategies being explored in New York CIty from leading professionals including Paul Mankiewicz, associate professor and executive director of Gaia Institute; Kubi Ackerman, project manager at the Urban Design Lab of the Earth Institute at Columbia University; and Ulrich Lorimer, native plant curator at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. The green roof professionals will be in attendance when the students make their concept proposal presentations on July 25 and will be providing critical feedback in a Q&A session after the presentations.
The student-designed roof will be located on North Hall, a building that houses the campus cafeteria as well as classrooms, and will be planted with native species and monitored to measure storm water management and energy efficiency benefits. The roof will be realized through a $475,167 grant received by Pratt from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Green Infrastructure Grant Program.
Pratt was one of 11 institutions from across the city to receive the grants, which represent a key component of the New York City Green Infrastructure Plan that was launched by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in 2010 to support PlaNYC's goals for improved waterways by implementing storm water management programs. The grant will also fund Pratt's Cannoneer Court Permeable Parking Lot retrofit that will act as a potential model for a citywide parking lot design.
The roof will be built by green roof specialty contractors, Highview Creations, in accordance with the parameters of grant guidelines. Once built, the projects will be maintained and monitored by a team of students called the green infrastructure fellows. The grant-funded projects will also become a living lab for Pratt students and for community-based organizations that provide green infrastructure training.
In addition to the student team proposals, which explore the multiple benefits possible with green roofs, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) 60% completion plan will be presented. One of the requirements of the DEP grant process, the 60% plan illustrates the layout and detailing approach of the green roof design and is reviewed by the DEP. Taking elements from the students' individual design ideas from the first weeks of class, and refined through in-class charrettes, discussion, and debate, the DEP plan has been developed in parallel with the student team proposals. Finalized under the guidance of Jaime Stein, director of the Urban Environmental Systems Management program (part of PSPD); course instructors Gita Nandan and Elliott Malby, both of the Brooklyn design firm thread collective; Highview Creations, the green roof installers; and the Pratt facilities team, the DEP 60% plan achieves the water goals of the original DEP proposal within the budget allotted.
To learn more about the Green Infrastructure Design Build course and the North Hall green roof project, please visit the class blog.
View from the windows of Pratt's North Hall of a proposed green roof design. Rendering credit: Catalina Parra.
ON-SITE MEDIA CONTACT:
Elliott Maltby at 718-666-6236 or elliott@threadcollective.com
MEDIA CONTACT:
Amy Aronoff at 718-636-3554 or aarono29@pratt.edu