Vancouver's convention center is home to a 6-acre living ecosystem.
Vancouver’s Convention Center roof is alive. The 6-acre “living roof” is larger than four football fields making it the largest green roof in Canada and the largest non-industrial green roof in North America.
The wild coastal grass on the roof is home to 400,000 indigenous plants, 120 kilograms of seed and 80,000 planted bulbs.
“We’re excited to see that the living roof is truly flourishing in a short span of three years; and what’s more, doing what it was intended to do,” says Bruce Hemstock, landscape architect of the project.
“The aster, in particular this year, is thriving beyond our wildest imagination with some up to eight feet tall. It provides the rooftop honeybees with an incredible source of food.”
In addition to providing a wild environment for indigenous insects and animals, the roof acts as an insulator to reduce summer heat gains by up to 95 percent and winter heat losses by up to 26 percent.
The Vancouver Convention Centre is LEED Platinum certified, the first convention center in the world to receive this highest level of LEED certification.
Hemstock built himself a garage with a living roof. He believes living roofs can play a pivotal role in restoring balance to ecosystems in central business districts and neighborhoods around the world.
“It’s a working roof that’s giving back to the environment and to ecology. That to me is really cool,” says Hemstock. “When you go up there you feel like you’re in a field in the middle of the country.”