The newly-completed Vancouver convention center features a six-acre green roof, the largest in Canada, and the largest non-industrial green roof in North America. Built by LMN Architects, the building has some unique features, including:
- A green roof with 400,000 native plants and grasses, as well as hives for 60,000 bees
- Designed habitats for marine life in the building’s foundation
- On-site black water treatment and desalinization systems that are projected to cut potable water use 60 to 70 percent
- Seawater pump system for heating and cooling
- Radiant floor cooling
According to LMN Architects, its landscape consultant, PWL Partnership, joined forces with Paul Kephart, an environmental biologist specializing in living roofs, to design the green roof. LMN Architects write: “The final result will be a landscape that requires a minimal amount of irrigation water. The additional water that is used for irrigation will come from treated building black water, essentially drawing no water from potable sources. The roof landscape will have the ability to retain storm water releasing excess amounts slowly, clean particulate matter from this water, clean pollutants from the air, and provide habitat for insects and birds in the urban environment. The usually benign roof landscape will be transformed into a rich and diverse urban sanctuary.”
The convention center has also developed a system for re-using water and energy and removing waste. LMN architects writes: “a central heat pump plant connected to the sea water will provide heating and cooling to the convention centre. In summer, the sea water will provide a low temperature condensing medium resulting in low kW/ton energy requirements. In winter, the heat pump will cool the sea water and reject the heat to the building for heating. In intermediate weather, direct sea water cooling will cool the building. The heat pumps will be electric driven with the electricity in BC having a very low GHG signature.”
Watch a video tour of the green roof, and view Flickr photos of the building
Read LMN Architect’s case study
Photo credits: LMN
