E-mail
Print
Green roof project comes to life
Associate professor, former student help design Sandburg upgrade
By Kristin Kern
“The real payoff of the green roof is anything our campus can do to help prevent overflows and backups into Shorewood residents’ basements” – Jim Wasley, UWM Associate Professor of Architecture
Sandburg Hall Commons went under an environmentally sound transformation this summer as a green roof was built to take the place of the 30-year-old former roof.
Research began several years ago when Jim Wasley, an Associate Professor of Architecture at UWM, proposed the idea. The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage District then funded a grant to research storm water and how to make UWM a zero-discharge zone, according to Wasley.
With the old roof being 30 years old, the insulation started to break apart. Wasley and a former UWM student Joel Springsteen helped design a green roof for Sandburg that would help prevent heavy storm water from overflowing and sending sewage water into Milwaukee River and Lake Michigan.
The roof on top of Sandburg is constructed of two roof levels according to Wasley, “Upper level is all Wisconsin Native Plants while the lower portion is European Sedum,” he said. This will help with retaining storm water along with increasing insulation.
The European Sedum will help to soak up water like a sponge, Wasley says, which will help prevent storm water from overflowing. “The real pay off of the green roof is anything our campus can do to help prevent overflows and backups into Shorewood Residents basements,” Wasley said, “Especially since Edgewood Avenue floods more easily since it’s on low points.”
While the green roof in the short run cost around twice as much as it would of to normally replace the old roof, Wasley believes the long run payoffs are worth it. The green roof will keep temperatures cooler on top then a normal tar roof and should help with the longer life span, “We want the best possible roof,” he said, “the green roof protects, keeps it cool, very well protected and will last twice as long.”
The green roof on Sandburg Hall just the beginning of movement on our campus to improve the environment and hopefully a trend that will pick up, “I hope people see this idea and like it and it will spread,” Wasely said.
While the roof with take a few years to be completely finished, students are able to see the progress of the new green roof on top of Sandburg via web cam by logging into www.aux.uwm.edu/greenroof, at which they can view Springsteen’s design of “Ripples in Ponds.”
> Comments