Garden in the Air
Our goal was to benefit the environment by elevating a small piece of the owners’ well landscaped property up onto the second floor roof of their existing home. A new roof garden extends the interior experience of a classic Squirrel Hill home. In addition, the design respects the historic character of the neighborhood. Bee wing inspired metal guardrails form a direct visual connection with the organic metal work of the synagogue across the street.
This project extends the owners master bedroom outdoors. By erasing the walls of the existing home, the design forms a three season outdoor sitting area. And in winter, you can still look outside and understand the connection of the garden with the surrounding urban forest.
Buildings with green roofs lose thirty percent less energy than those without. A roof garden provides shade, removes heat from the air, and reduces temperatures of the roof surface and surrounding air.
75% of the site area supports the green roof vegetation, while open jointed pavers clad the remaining 25%. These systems reduce storm-water runoff by 50-100% during most rains. Over half of the annual rainfall on a typical green roof will stay on the roof until it evaporates back into the air, thus never entering the stormwater system.
Before we added this rooftop garden to the home, gutters and downspouts conveyed one hundred percent of the rooftop water to Pittsburgh’s combined storm/sewer street lines. Now, 100% of the site area is clad with either green roof vegetation or open jointed pavers.
The rooftop perennials and sedum were selected for their ecological benefits and ability to thrive in a rooftop environment. All are native or non-invasive adaptive species. This project provides an alternative to the urban heat island. It is self-watering, and it will remove as much as 18 pounds of particulate pollution in a year.
Shim Sutcliffe’s Garden Pavilion and Reflecting Pool inspires the work of this project. For more Fisher Architecture green roof projects, follow the link to view the Fisher House, the Edgar House, 243 Claremont Drive, and the Pittsburgh Lake House.
