Office of External Communications

Houston, TX 77204-5017 Fax: 713.743.8199

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 14, 2005

Contact: Marisa Ramirez
713.743.8152 (office)
713.204.9798 (cell)
mrcannon@uh.edu

HOUSTON, April 14, 2005—Students at the University of Houston College of Architecture are rolling up their sleeves and pulling up their gardening gloves as they prepare to plant and care for native vegetation on simulated rooftops. The mock green roofs being assembled April 18-25 will resemble the real thing that will sit atop a new facility on the UH campus.

“Students will monitor these mock green roofs all summer to see how the plants respond,” Chula Sanchez, adjunct professor at the College of Architecture said. “This is an on-going, living, green roof research laboratory.”

Green roofs literally are vegetation-cover roofs on buildings that create a living, breathing, aesthetically pleasing and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional roofs. Sanchez says green roofs clean the air, cool buildings and reduce energy costs and storm water runoff.

“Flooding is a big issue for Houston,” she said. “Green roofs offer a natural solution as opposed to an engineering solution. Plants and soil absorb the rain and excess water is channeled into retention tanks.”

Students will be using plants grown in a park-like area near the architecture college of architecture known as the “green zone.” The students’ mock green roofs will look like the green roof that will eventually sit on top of the Burdette Keeland Design Exploration Center. The Keeland Building formerly was the university’s band annex and is being remodeled into a hands-on studio for architecture students. It is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2005.

“The green roof project is an example of our college’s deep interest in sustainable design,” Joe Mashburn, dean of the college of architecture said. “It will provide yet another hands-on project for our innovative students’ involvement.”

The green roof on the Keeland building will feature native vegetation on the sloped roof and will join a handful of green roofs in Houston located in the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and at the Marriott Houston Downtown. Other examples of green roofs are the Chicago City Hall, the Ford River Rouge plant in Detroit and the Mercedes-Benz M-Class facility in Alabama.

“This is something very special,” Sanchez said. “Our students are learning to design and build with an eye toward being environmentally aware. That’s very promising for the future of our city and even beyond.”

For more information on UH College of Architecture, visit www.arch.uh.edu

About the University of Houston
The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate, civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and service with more than 35,000 students.

For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.