http://chicagoist.com/2004/11/16/for_once_in_an_article_about_daley_green_doesnt_mean_money.php All comments for For Once, in an Article About Daley, "Green" Doesn't Mean "Money" en-us 2009 Marcus Gilmer Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:30:00 -0600 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss marcusisabadass@gmail.com marcusisabadass@gmail.com 60 http://chicagoist.com/2004/11/16/for_once_in_an_article_about_daley_green_doesnt_mean_money.php#comment-243161 http://chicagoist.com/2004/11/16/for_once_in_an_article_about_daley_green_doesnt_mean_money.php#comment-243161 Comments Wed, 17 Nov 2004 12:17:21 -0600 <p>The writing style on this piece hit just the right balance of snarky and informative. MORE of this kind of writing please. Thank you. (Rawr).</p> http://chicagoist.com/2004/11/16/for_once_in_an_article_about_daley_green_doesnt_mean_money.php#comment-243157 http://chicagoist.com/2004/11/16/for_once_in_an_article_about_daley_green_doesnt_mean_money.php#comment-243157 Comments Wed, 17 Nov 2004 10:21:00 -0600 <p>Listen, the green roof-thing is great, but as an architect, I need to point out the big 'ol headaches that go along with them. For one thing, you are both adding water to and kepping water on the roof. Now, any normal person would think, "But a roof is designed to be waterproof!?!" Yes, it is, to a degree, but more accurately, a roof is designed to keep water out of the building long enough to get it OFF the building. Normally water standing around on a roof equals leaks. Leaks equals BAD! Additionally, all those plants and dirt and water are freakin' heavy! You need to reinforce the structure underneath by quite a bit. Don't forget that we get snow here, and all those plants are going to hold even more snow on the roof than normal, so you need to design the structure to hold up the plants, dirt, water (frozen), and extra drifted snow! Yikes! Back to the leaky roof thing. As long as the contractor actually builds what we design (which doesn't always happen), it's quite rare for a building to collapse because of a structural failure. Leaky roofs, on the other hand, are really common and scare the crap out of architects. We put the necessary information on our 'blueprints', but then some crew of roofers has to go out and actually install the roof. One little screw-up on their part and you've got a leak. If you're lucky, the leak shows up quickly and in a visible location and you catch it and fix it. But sometimes, the leak is in a hidden location and leaks for a long time, causing all sorts of extensive (a.k.a. expensive) damage. Who ya gonna sue? Everybody! "Everybody" often includes the architect. Thus, while I totally LOVE the idea of roof-top gardens, they are expensive and bring with them a bunch of serious problems.</p>