San Francisco

A quick visit to San Francisco on my way home.

Here I had the chance to meet a Landscape Architect that I met at the conference. He is working on a project in Arizona where water, like Australia is a big issue. He was very interested to hear about Australia and the water control issues that are now a part of our everyday.

To tell them that the use of a hose or irrigation in Brisbane is now banned created some amazement. I think water is an issue that the whole world is finally realising needs some serious understanding and management.

San Fransisco, like most cities in the US has a number of green roofs. The GAP Corporation installed a green roof to qualify for their LEED rating. One of the biggest benefits was its sound proofing qualities, the GAP headquarters is right under the flight path.

Union Square in the heart of the city is a green plaza built on top of a car park.

In the heart of one of the country's largest urban parks, the California Academy of Sciences is building a new LEED Platinum Green Museum in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Its 10 hectare, undulating green roof will sit 10.5meters in the air planted with a variety of wildflowers and other native species. Rana Creek Living Architecture has worked with Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Chong and Partners Architecture, SWA Group, ARUP Engineering, and the Academy to design a living roof that will cover 15,000 sqm of roof with four steeply sloped domes replicating the surrounding rolling hills. Two of the domes are almost 60 degree slopes.

The roof will be planted with over five plant species native to San Francisco, and approximately 1.7 million plants will blanket the living roof. The three-year research period during which Rana Creek Living Architecture designed, built and monitored a series of living roof mock ups, informed this diverse assemblage of indigenous plants, as well as the soil retention and drainage techniques ultimately chosen for the project. The California Academy of Sciences is unique amongst natural history museums in its dedication to combining research and education under one roof.