Green roofs at O'Hare

27 July 2009 - Posted by Bert Aldridge - 0 Comments

Chicago is pretty good at big plans and thinking long term. After all, this year is the one hundred anniversary of Daniel Burnham's vision for the lakeshore, an ambitious bit of urban planning much of which is stil in place today. Chicago is the green roof capital of the US, with more than 2.5 million square feet of downtown green roof space. The city has been incentivizing commerical and residential building owners to develop green roofs since a pilot program in 2000 on the roof of City Hall showed that green roofs would help lessen the urban heat island effect. Now, green roofs have spread to O'Hare, where the vast remodeling project will include a green roof on the 17,800 sq ft Building 607.

Designed by McDonough Architects - they of Cradle to Cradle fame - the building meets the US Green Building Council's LEED standards, and will feature a green roof with an average depth of six inches planted with native grasses. As the say at greenroofs.org, the roof of Building 607 will be seen by millions of travelers per year.

Tags: Case Studies, Chicago, Urban

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