Greening Philadelphia: The City’s First Elevated Park
Posted in green roof, Jobsite Photos on December 18, 2015
Philadelphia’s first elevated park, Cira Green on top of Cira Centre South in University City, is now open! The 1.25 acre park, which sits 95 feet above street level, overlooks Center City, University City and the Schuylkill River, and has a unique water storage system beneath the pavers on the roof, which can route storm water to the green roof areas. It’s sure to be a popular and dynamic green space in the city!
We are thrilled to have a part in creating this exciting urban space in Philadelphia. Cira Green consists of different green roof areas, including large lawn areas and planters with trees and colorful perennials – our rooflite® growing media, engineered specifically for the different types of green roofs included in this project, was used to build this unique urban park.
Because of the location of this project, logistics were a particular challenge. We had to solve a number of issues in order to deliver our media to the project:
- Requirement of 2000 cubic yards of green roof media
- No staging area to store the material near the construction site
- Delivery had to occur on a road underneath the construction project with limited space
- Because of those space limitations, media delivery had to be just in time for installation
- Delivery had to happen in January in cold temperatures with a blower truck installation
So how did we get over these logistical challenges? As a start, we changed the type of truck we delivered our material in to accommodate the space limitations, and we developed a schedule to deliver the media right when it was needed instead of ahead of time, which is our normal process.
The larger issue was the January timeframe for delivery. Because of cold temperatures and the moisture contained within green roof media, winter can be a tricky time to install media. Fortunately, we are set up with the infrastructure to provide media at any time of the year, even if in cold weather. Our local blender has four acres of concrete, dry storage buildings where dry material can be stockpiled. This means that we can provide our green roof media, capable of being blown onto a rooftop, even in the coldest of months, for projects like CIRA Green.
It’s gratifying to see our hard work pay off with the opening of Cira Green. And you know what? The weather in Philadelphia is so mild this December that it’s a perfect time to check out this exciting new green spot in Philadelphia!
