Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Summer 2009 - (Page 20)

COMMUNITY FOCAL POINT CATEGORY EXTENSIVE INSTITUTIONAL BUILT ON A FORMER LANDFILL SITE, THIS HILLSIDE COMMUNITY CENTRE IS NOW HOME TO ONE OF CANADA’S LARGEST PUBLIC ACCESSIBLE GREEN ROOFS SPECS PROJECT: Burnside Gorge Community Centre, Victoria, British Columbia AWARD RECIPIENT: Sharp & Diamond Landscape Architecture Inc. ARCHITECT: Garyali Architect Inc. INTEGRATED GREEN BUILDING CONSULTANTS: Advicas Group Consultants Inc. CIVIL ENGINEER: Westbrook Consulting Ltd. STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: Peterson Galloway Ltd. MECHANICAL ENGINEER: Hirschﬁeld Williams Timmins GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Aral Construction Landscape CONTRACTOR: Paradise Cityscapes Images courtesy of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities and Sharp & Diamond Landscape Architecture Inc. ntegrated into the hillside along Cecelia Creek Ravine in Victoria, British Columbia, the Burnside Gorge Community Centre blends architecture and landscape into the adjacent ecological and social fabric of Victoria’s northwestern neighbourhood. With 90 percent of the site functioning as greenspace, it has become a community focal point that features one of Western Canada’s largest publicly accessible green roofs. The new facility fulfills the needs of a diverse community (inner city youth, children, adults and seniors) acting as a neighborhood house and recreation centre. Connecting to Cecelia Creek Park and Galloping Goose Trail, the site is part of a larger green corridor. The landscape architect worked closely with the building architect to fit the building into the steep slope leading down to the ravine and transform this former industrial landfill site into a community highlight. The centre’s green roof is its unique and defining attribute. Street-level landscape flows over the architecture below, allowing for an 11,475-square-foot, three-to-six inch deep extensive green roof that is publicly accessible at all times. I Responding to structural limitations of the building, the landscape architect formulated a lightweight, growing medium for the proposed native plants. The team also developed a custom green façade detail, using diagonal cables, to shade the windows on the upper portion of the building. Rainwater collected from the roof and the permeable parking lot is channeled through a stormwater infiltrator before recharging Cecelia Creek. “The use of water in this area creates a comfortable feel to outdoor seating areas and visually reﬂects the surrounding architecture and large canopy trees. These elements combine with cascading waterfalls at the main entry to conceptually represent the streams and falls found in B.C.” Randy Sharp, GRP, principal, Sharp & Diamond Landscape Architecture Inc., Vancouver, British Columbia The Burnside Gorge Community Centre earned high marks from our judges for its water-preservation policies and community focus, but the aspects of the project that most impressed the judges were aesthetics and accessibility. Beautifully composed, it is also a roof that it is possible to walk onto at all times of the day. Socially and ecologically, the architecture and landscape at Burnside Gorge Community Centre combine to quietly illustrate a profound underpinning of sustainability – good design is good citizenship. D

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Summer 2009

Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Summer 2009
The Case for Mandated Green Roofs
Citiesalive!
Student Sustainable Design Competition
GIF Road Show
U.S. Green Roof Industry Grew By 35 Percent in 2008
Part 1 of 2: Risk-Reduction Tools
On the Roof With . . .
The World's First Accredited Green Roof Professionals (GRPs)
A Haven for Butterflies
A Green Roof at Sea
A Biophilic Oasis
A Green Roof for Every Angle
Community Focal Point
Nature in the City
Growing Lives
A Green Roof with Wings
A Policy Pioneer
A Dedicated Researcher
Designing a Better Future
Fire & Wind Standards
GHRC Professional Development Calendar
Welcome New Corporate Members
Green Wall Research
Standing the Test of Time

Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Summer 2009