Green Roofs for Healthy Cities Announces Awards of Excellence Winners

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities has announced the winners of the 2015 Awards of Excellence. The award, broken down into eight categories, acknowledges excellence in innovative and integrative green roofs and wall design, while also raising awareness of the many benefits green infrastructure can provide both to clients and the general public.

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Aventura Optima Plaza – Aventura, FL (Credit: Savino & Miller Design Studio)

The awards will be formally presented at a luncheon at CitiesAlive (October 5-8, 2015) at New York City’s Brooklyn Marriott on Wednesday, October 7. This year’s conference theme is “Resilient People, Communities and Places,” featuring cutting-edge designs, new technical performance research, innovative policy work, a trade show with industry leaders, and informative professional training and tours.

2015 Awards of Excellence Winners

Intensive Residential
Project: TriBeCa Loft – New York, NY
Award Recipient: New York Green Roofs LLC
Floating amidst lower Manhattan’s skyline, architecture meets nature to transform a penthouse residence into the ultimate garden apartment. This project retrofits a nineteenth century loft building’s rooftops into a series of dynamic and diverse gardens.

Special Recognition
Project: LeFrak Lakeside Center Prospect Park – New York, NY
Award Recipient: Roofmeadow
This recreation facility inserted into the historic landscape, includes two skating rinks, one that is topped with an extensive green roof and intensive green roof areas which are seamlessly integrated into the surrounding landscape, preserving historic design while meeting the needs of a diverse contemporary urban community.

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Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology – Philadelphia, PA (Credit: Roofmeadow)

Intensive Industrial/Commercial
Project: Aventura Optima Plaza – Aventura, FL
Award Recipient: Savino & Miller Design Studio
Conceived as a balance of the loss of green space caused by the building’s construction by raising the landscape up and inviting office employees to use the space, activating it with a glass enclosed gymnasium and a tranquil space for relaxation.

Extensive Institutional
Project: Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology – Philadelphia, PA
Award Recipient: Roofmeadow
The Meadow Roof is a prominent feature of the building attracting individuals and groups eager to enjoy time in the rooftop amenity space. Surrounded by floor-to-ceiling etched glass walls on three sides and a clear glass railing open to the city on the fourth side, the Meadow Roof is accessible to all who have access to the building.

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Fidek Office Building – Red Deer, AB (Credit: Berry Architecture + Associates)

Extensive Industrial/Commercial
Project: Fidek Office Building – Red Deer, AB
Award Recipient: Berry Architecture + Associates
Part of a major renovation of a run down 1950s bowling alley, the building is located in the downtown core of the city. The green roof helps to refresh the neighborhood both aesthetically and environmentally.

Small Scale Residential
Project: 58A Melville Ave – Toronto, ON
Award Recipient: Johanne Daoust
This single family rooftop garden implementation was inspired by issues of food security and changing sustainability demands in North America.

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Helen Schuler Nature Centre (HSNC) – Lethbridge, AB (Credit: O2 Planning + Design)

Intensive Institutional
Project: Helen Schuler Nature Centre (HSNC) – Lethbridge, AB
Award Recipient: O2 Planning + Design
HSNC is an urban nature center with the goal of delivering diverse and dynamic nature interpretive programs through a team of volunteers, staff, and partners. As part of HSNC’s LEED-Gold certified expansion and renovation, interpretive roof gardens were constructed with the goal of creating a demonstration area for delivering interpretive programs and providing a living classroom for visitors.

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Breathe Wall – Grand Rapids, MI (Credit: LiveWall, LLC)

External Green Wall
Project: Breathe Wall – Grand Rapids, MI
Award Recipient: LiveWall, LLC
Installed in an urban center, Breathe Wall was intentionally redesigned multiple times over a two-year period. With multiple rotating palettes of over 70 different species annuals, edibles, and perennials, the wall was used as an abstract art piece designed to convey the message that plants give us more than beauty; they supply us with the very oxygen we breathe.