Green Roofs in Buffalo, NY

Who is it exactly that should build Green Roofs?

Green roofs. Who is the expert you can call in? It is a roof, so you call a roofer? But, its a landscape project? Or, is it 'green infrastructure?" Or, a wildlife habitat?

I don't believe we have arrived yet - in Buffalo, NY - where there is really an isolated field or area of expertise, specializing in the green roof. My approach or belief is that the green roof is necessarily a collaborative project - we may look to the following specialties as needing representation in the process of project development and that there is no "ONE" authority or expert. 

1. Architect/Designer. Someone needs to lead with the vision, ideas, and to facilitate the collaborative process. I would suggest part of the skill and expertise deployed here would be the ability to have conversations at many different levels and to speak a range of technical languages.

2. Engineer. The first thing I need to determine in the assessment of a potential green roof site is "what and how much can be put on a roof." An understanding of how loads are distributed and how a building is structured can tell us what is a safe. It is possible your building can't bear anymore weight.

3. Roofer. Due to the investment of the "green" placed above the roof, we need to be sure the layers beneath the horticultural elements are sealed up good and leak free. Green roofs can double the life of a roof, but to find leaks and make repairs can be more difficult. I turn this part of the project over to someone who has way more experience and knowledge than I.

4. Horticulturist. While I may act as the designer who is pulling the entire project together, my real expertise is in making the plants grow. Cultivating in minimal, lightweight, and artificial growing mediums used on green roofs is about as extreme a condition as you can try to produce a garden in. This is not a task for the roofer as much as roofing is not a task for me.

My concern is that right now those clamoring to construct green roofs are not collaborations of experts but "green enthusiasts." And, while I am a "green enthusiast," what I'm pointing towards is the phenomena which has developed over the past fifteen years of "experts" who come to be because of "Google," as, now, we all can become knowledgeable of any number of things in twenty minutes of research. 

While there are some out there claiming expertise, it needs to be considered what kind of experience this expertise comes from. Buffalo has a lot of skilled people out there looking for the opportunity to produce something special - there are no shortage of them. We just want to use caution that we pull as many of these people together in collaboration when developing sites, structures, roofs, neighborhoods, and landscapes - always with skills, materials, climates, economies, and ways of being unique to Buffalo, NY. There is never a universal way to produce something - and I think with Green Roofs in Buffalo, we are still, together, figuring them out.