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Staff photo by John Rawlston/Chattanooga Times Free Press - John Crider, left, and Leonel Ramirez of Fine Lines install flats of sedum plants Tuesday on the roof of the Creative Discovery Museum. The installation will create the largest green roof on a building in Chattanooga.
The largest green roof in the city grows at the Creative Discovery Museum.
"This is the Cadillac of green roofs," said Randy Whorton, owner of Engineered Verdant Solutions Inc., which began installing the rooftop garden on Tuesday.
Small trees, plants and pansies covered the 3,000-square-foot rooftop, a $100,000 project funded by greenspaces and Stein Construction. Engineered Verdant Solutions is a division of Stein.
"That's is what we do. We do it because it has a long-lasting effect," said Jeff Cannon, director of greenspaces. "It reduces the energy demand on the building. It restores habitat."
The garden's cost includes the plants, installation and preparation of the roof for the garden, said Creative Discovery Museum Executive Director Henry Schulson.
People won't be able to walk through the garden, but they can view it from the museum's observation tower and through the glass windows on the second floor of the museum.
Flowers and plants on the roof are expected to attract bees, birds, butterflies and bugs, Mr. Schulson said.
Julie Miller of Huntsville, Ala., watched Tuesday through a second-floor window as a crane lowered a crate of plants for the roof.
"I've been wondering what it is and what they're doing," she said.
She said she had heard of solar panels to improve the environment, but not rooftop gardens.
The garden is expected to help reduce the museum's cooling expenses in the summer months and is also expected to limit stormwater runoff by up to 90 percent, officials said.
The biggest benefit is that it provides an environmental educational opportunity for children and parents who visit the museum.
In the next few weeks, the museum will start installing interpretive signs that explain the environmental benefits of the garden. The signs also will note other environmental friendly buildings and projects that can be seen from the museum's tower.
The rooftop museum is a pretty straightforward system, Mr. Whorton said. Sedum plants -- from the succulent family, which includes cacti and aloe -- are all pregrown in modules, he said, and, as the dividers are removed, it creates a seamless appearance.
Ben Padgett, of Birmingham, Ala., also watched the garden's installation from the museum's second floor.
"I like it," he said. "You have to start somewhere to improve the environment."
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Yolanda Putman has been a reporter at the Times Free Press for 11 years. She covers housing and previously covered education and crime. Yolanda is a Chattanooga native who has a master’s degree in communication from the University of Tennessee and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Alabama State University. She previously worked at the Lima (Ohio) News. She enjoys running, reading and writing and is the mother of one son, Tyreese. She has also ...
Gosh, all this nice stuff for only a measly $100,000.00 What a great bargain. The money must grow on those roofs.
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