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Posted on 02/01/2010 8:09:20 AM PST by reaganaut1
PORTLAND, Ore. — Urban gardening used to seem subversive. People planted tomatoes in public parks, strung their hops to rooftops to make homebrew and reclaimed empty lots as community farms, never mind the property owner.
Yet here in one of the more thoroughly tilled cities in America, subversive has come full circle: the federal government plans to plant its own bold garden directly above a downtown plaza. As part of a $133 million renovation, the General Services Administration is planning to cultivate “vegetated fins” that will grow more than 200 feet high on the western facade of the main federal building here, a vertical garden that changes with the seasons and nurtures plants that yield energy savings.
“They will bloom in the spring and summer when you want the shade, and then they will go away in the winter when you want to let the light in,” said Bob Peck, commissioner of public buildings for the G.S.A. “Don’t ask me how you get them irrigated.”
Rainwater, captured on the roof, and perhaps even “gray water” recycled from the interior plumbing are both possibilities, the architects say. But they concede that they are still figuring out some of the finer points of renovating the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building, which was completed in 1975 and is currently 18 stories of concrete, glass and minimal inspiration.
Who will prune the facade? Maybe the same folks who wash skyscraper windows, the architects say. Perhaps the exterior concrete panels removed in the renovation could be reused as salmon habitat in a nearby river.
The G.S.A. says the building will use 60 percent to 65 percent less energy than comparable buildings and estimates a savings of $280,000 annually in energy costs.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Legally or just squatting?
Well, the 133M is not all for reducing energy costs. They need a spiffy new lobby, and updated restrooms, and new carpets (low VOC of course) and nicer offices so they can serve us better.
What’s all this about vegetative Finns?
More feel good boondoggles at our expense. Wonder how many union workers will be paid $50/hr to maintain these cult gardens?
Pray for America’s Freedom
What’s all this about vegetative Finns?
Flower boxes.
What’s all this about vegetative Finns?
Flower boxes.
You do not understand rat math. In rat math, the key variable is feelings. In this case, the value of green feelings is incalculable. In rat math, the $280K in energy savings is just a bonus.
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Lots of Mary Jane plants mixed in for that greener effect!
Taxpayer subsidized, of course!
I am having someone take a picture of the roof of the Multnomah County Building, where the chief of police is etc, city council and what not. There is a WHOLE ECOSYSTEM up there. I am serious, they likely had to reinforce the roof to hold all that weight.
I will post the picture when I get it.
Looking forward to those photos! Thanks for the warning!
It is one of the "shovel ready" things. And work for the illegal Mexicans displaced from their usual workplaces in last year's ICE raids. It will be safer for them down on Third, and under the SEIU umbrella no doubt.
You can't put a price on registered Democrat voters.
Hard to see what’s really happening in those pictures.
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