micro-fund this barn raising

What if you gave $26,000 to a school to build a rooftop farm?  What if 260 of your friends each gave $100?  South Philadelphia High School is elbow deep in the latter scenario thanks to a strategy known as crowdfunding.

On April 9th South Philadelphia High School launched an online fundraising campaign to raise over $26,000 through micro-donations.  The publicly-sourced contributions will fund a full-time garden educator position and the development of a Greening Master Plan for the school’s 5.5 acre urban campus.  This first phase of funding will parlay into four additional campaigns that will address the complete design of rooftop and ground-level improvements and construction of the campus vision.

South Philadelphia High School’s urban context || image by Google Maps

5.5 acre campus || image by Google Maps

Multi-acre roof || photo by Lauren Mandel

The project goals are simple: education, healthy eating, and stormwater management.  The suite of infrastructural improvements outlined in the Greening Master Plan will present the school’s teachers with unique curriculum-building opportunities that take kids out of the classroom!  Math, biology, English, and culinary arts teachers will introduce skills and concepts through outdoor education, which has the potential to offer long-lasting impact for the school’s 1,400 students.   The greater community will benefit not only from empowered, motivated  kids, but also from public green space – something that the neighborhood lacks.

Turning the campus into an outdoor classroom and neighborhood gathering space will involve rooftop and ground-level improvements.  The roof will host an educational rooftop farm (likely 0.5 acre in size), extensive green roof areas, and solar panels.  The landscape below may feature rain gardens, porous pavement, street trees, and expanded vegetable garden plots (of which the school already has two).

The brains behind this forward-thinking initiative is the school’s own Principal Otis Hackney, a Philadelphia native.  Hackney dreamed up the project one day when speaking to the school’s part-time garden educator, Molly Devinney, who’s position is funded by the local civic association.  Devinney recalls Principal Hackney pointing to the roof in 2012 and asking, “Do you think we can grow food up there?”  Hackney shared his idea with Kim Massare, president of the Lower Moyamensing Civic Association (LoMO), who reached out to my company Roofmeadow to discuss the idea.  The whim quickly snowballed into a phased strategy for refining the vision and securing funds to ensure its execution.

South Philadelphia High School’s rooftop vision || rendering by Lauren Mandel

The team decided to  partner with Projexity, an online platform that raises micro-donations for neighborhood improvement projects, in order to engage the local and global community.  While Projexity targets projects internationally in Philadelphia, San Francisco and Toronto, the company was founded by three University of Pennsylvania alumni (two of them my classmates in graduate school).  With Projexity’s local roots and a crew of Philadelphians including Hackney, Devinney, Massare, and myself (my grandparents actually went to South Philly High), this project is by Philadelphia, for Philadelphia.  

Now is your chance to dream big with us.  Help South Philadelphia’s students and community members reach their goal by supporting this incredible “barn raising” initiative.  Please visit Projexity.com for more information on how to get involved and make a difference.

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making your rooftop farm a reality

As my company, Roofmeadow, delves deeper into the world of rooftop agriculture, keep us in mind for your rooftop farm or garden project!  With engineers, landscape architects, construction specialists, and a rooftop agricultural expert (yours truly) on staff, we approach each project holistically, with the roof’s long-term performance in mind.  The hunger for local food has reached new heights, and we’re here to help you make this vision a reality.

This video clip will be featured at the Green Roofs & Walls of the World Virtual Summit 2013, hosted by greenroofs.com, from February 12th to March 13th.  Visit their website for information on how to access the Summit.

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South Philadelphia High School is moving UP!

What if your school served fresh produce, grown just yards away from the cafeteria?  What if that food came from the roof?  This vision is inching toward reality as South Philadelphia High School administrators and local neighborhood association representatives collaborate with the Philadelphia-based green roof firm Roofmeadow (where I work) and a hot new crowd-funding website called Projexity.

South Philadelphia High School || photo (left) and rendering (right) by Lauren Mandel

In August 2012 Kim Massare, elected president of South Philadelphia’s Lower Moyamensing Civic Association, pitched her idea of a greener school to Roofmeadow.  The idea was simple:  take advantage of South Philly High‘s mammoth roof to build curriculum, improve student and faculty health, and manage stormwater.  Key components such as productive agricultural plots, outdoor classrooms, and even solar panel arrays could provide endless fuel for innovative coursework for the school’s 1,400, plus students.  Ground-level landscape improvements could further the school’s ‘greening’ initiative, while fostering a fresh escape for neighbors who lack nearby park space.  It’s a win-win situation.

Now I’ll be honest; I was intrigued by the idea.  But how could a public school in Philadelphia’s crumbling school system possibly raise the funds for a project of this magnitude?  In steps Projexity.  This brand new fundraising website – which is scheduled to launch within the next month – capitalizes upon the ability of many small donations to create a big impact.  Kickstarter proved this concept successful by facilitating fundraising for artistic projects world-wide since 2009.  According to Kickstarter’s website, “over $350 million has been pledged by more than 2.5 million people, funding more than 30,000 creative projects” since the website’s launch.  President Obama’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns utilized similar fundraising tactics to raise record amounts of capital.  Projexity is built upon the same principal, but this website specifically targets crowd-funding for public landscape and urban design projects.

South Philadelphia High School’s ‘greening’ initiatives (supported by the Lower Moyamensing Civic Association and Roofmeadow) will proudly appear as Projexity’s first Philadelphia project.  Stay tuned for more news as this exciting project moves forward!

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a retrofit, retrofit?

In the green roofing world we recognize two types of green roofs: those built on new construction, and those built atop existing buildings. The latter is known as a “retrofit.” When considering a retrofit, a structural engineer must confirm that the building is strong enough to support a green roof, and a waterproofing representative must evaluate the roof’s existing waterproofing membrane. If all the stars align, then the retrofit is a go!

3"-thick green roof retrofit || photo courtesy of Roofmeadow

So can a retrofit green roof be retrofit with a rooftop farm? I had never considered this scenario until several weeks ago, when a repeat client of my firm, Roofmeadow, approached us with the question. We designed and built a 13,000 (0.3 acre) green roof for this client in 2007, on top of his factory in NJ. The 3″-thick green roof continues to manage stormwater and perform beautifully, but now the client is looking for more. He wants to grow food on his roof in order to sell to local restaurants and markets.

Luckily, this particular green roof will be easy to retrofit. Green roof systems contain various types of drainage layers, depending on the particular needs of each project. Some drainage layers are made of granular material, while others consist of synthetic sheeting (i.e. plastic peg sheets, egg crates, or tangled filaments). One drainage layer on the market is made out of foam scraps that are salvaged from car seat manufacturing, and bonded together to form a thick mat. In addition to managing the flow of stormwater and retaining water for plants, this multi-purpose layer can protect the waterproofing membrane from shovels and hoes when used in a rooftop farm buildup. Luckily, the green roof in question contains this type of drainage layer.

When retrofitting a green roof such as this with a row farm, the strategy would involve peeling back the top layers of the system to expose the foam drainage layer. Additional green roof media would be brought to the site and mixed with the existing media to create a deeper system. While the existing media contains a very low organic content (4%-6%), the new media would contain more organics to appease the veggies-to-be. Next would come grading, laying out irrigation lines, and planting, and then vwalah – rooftop farm.

Not every retrofit retrofit would be this simple. Nevertheless, there is always a way to figure out a solution, so go ahead and dig in.

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the buzz.

If you mentioned rooftop farming a few years ago, most people would think you were crazy.  But now that rooftop farms and gardens have taken root across the country, more and more people are joining the conversation.  Groups like Cloud 9 Rooftop Farm, the Philadelphia Rooftop Farm (PRooF), NYC Rooftop Farm Initiative, and FarmRoof are talking the talk, and some are just beginning to walk the talk.

Rooftop place-making || photo and rendering by Lauren Mandel

Historically, aspiring rooftop farmers in the U.S. had to seek out rooftops and convince building owners to let the space.  Now, business owners in Philadelphia and New York City are elevating the buzz to new heights by planning for their own rooftop farms.  As the Rooftop Agriculture Specialist at Roofmeadow, I’ve spoken with several of these business owners during the past few weeks.  The prospective projects range in scale from 2,000 square feet (0.05 acre) to 66,000 square feet (1.5 acres), and include row farming and raised beds.  One prospective client even requested rooftop chickens!

Each business owner is interested in rooftop agriculture for a different reason.  Some value the marketing potential of a rooftop farm, others are interested in managing stormwater, and others want to supplement their commercial kitchens with roof-grown food.  Regardless of intent, the rooftop agricultural buzz is growing.  It’s growing all around the country, and it’s going to be big.

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indecent exposure

As a Project Manager for the green roof firm Roofmeadow, I regularly travel around the country to perform construction oversight.  In December I had the good fortune of overseeing construction at a hotel in Lower Manhattan, which sits one block from the Hudson River.  From six stories up the view was unparalleled – and so was the wind.

During construction, the green roofs and raised bed production area experienced 50 mph winds.  A much milder microclimate could be found at the street level, but up on the roof, temperature fluctuations and extreme wind conditions reigned.

Lower Manhattan green roof construction ||  photo by Lauren Mandel

Exposure is one of the most significant obstacles to rooftop farming.  High winds cause winnowing (soil loss) and desiccation (soil drying), while temperature fluctuations can cause crops to bolt (flower) prematurely.  Each roof experiences a slightly different microclimate, but some basic rules of exposure are as follows:

1| Mind the water: Rivers and other bodies of water in cities often act as wind corridors.  Selecting a roof that is shielded from these channels can help to minimize extreme rooftop winds.

2| Stay low: Higher building stories generally experience greater wind speeds, which means that a farm will experience less stress on top of a 1-3 story building than on a taller structure.

3| Surround yourself: Take advantage of high neighboring buildings and taller segments of the farm’s own building, which can act as wind breaks. Positioning your farm directly south of a taller building wall can help to block gusts.  The wall may also capture heat, which will warm the adjacent soil. Be sure to avoid taller buildings to the south that will cast shadows on your farm.  Also keep in mind that building north of a vacant lot can be risky, because you never know if a taller building will be erected on that site.

4| Cover up: Temperature fluctuations can be minimized by covering your crop rows with shade cloth.  This thin cloth is used regularly on ground-level farms, and it benefits crops by capturing the heat that is released by the plants and soil.  Rooftop wind will fill the cloth like a sail, and so it’s best to build low hoop houses to frame the cloth.  These hoop houses should be screwed or bolted to the sides of raised beds, or ballasted by the walkways between farm rows.

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