Garrett Krueger | Green Roof Professional (GRP)
Garrett Krueger, GRP, BSc 22’
Garrett Krueger is currently a fourth-year student at University of Cincinnati and will get a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Architecture in 2022 and became a Green Roof Professional (GRP) in 2021. He has had several internships in his hometown of Indianapolis, IN and Baltimore, MD and plans on getting a Masters of Architecture (M.Arch) following his undergrad. He hopes to work in the D.C. – Baltimore area and combine his architecture and green roof knowledge to one day consult for retrofits and design new roofs for the emerging market there.
Contact: gt_krueger@comcast.net
Why did you become a Green Roof Professional (GRP)?
Beyond just pragmatic reasons, it’s always helpful to have various levels of professional certifications like that, especially for emerging professionals. I also want to move to the DC or Baltimore area, which has the most green roofs in North America. Beyond that I find myself concerned about the environment and architecture. Green roofs can improve architecture a lot, and cities as a whole.
How has it enhanced your career/opportunities?
As a student, I’ve noticed that the program goes heavily into roofing and practical concerns that universities usually avoid. It's been fantastic for understanding the technicalities of green infrastructure.
It also made me start thinking about my career and what I want to do. Having this professional knowledge has helped me because I understand how to properly design them, which has led to putting more realistic green roofs on my school projects. I’m hoping that will translate into better career opportunities with the areas that I want to go.
What trends about green infrastructure/sustainability make you excited for the future?
The ways we're able to play with green roofs. Green walls are very exciting but green roofs can do more, with more diversity and plant life and soil and growing medium depths. Architects and designers can play around with that kind of stuff. That trend is very exciting.
What do you see as the role of green infrastructure in resilience and the COVID-19 recovery?
As green infrastructure becomes a greater part of architecture design, it will naturally be a benefit for recovery. A lot of the problems we come to think about have been packed in with buildings with poor circulation, as we breathe the same air over and over again. It would improve air quality on the urban scale, and get people moving around in nature.
Tell us about what you’re working on right now.
I’m designing an airport in school. It’s also a great case study in designing green roofs. Green roofs are a great way to make airports more pleasant and reduce the environmental impact of air travel. We have a pretty major green roof, it’s in Phoenix so a pretty stressful environment for plants. We’ve placed it outside of the security hallway checkpoint, so people can have something pleasant to look at while they stand waiting for security. It is also accessible once you get past security!
This design work was of a hypothetical complete replacement of Phoenix, AZ’s Sky Harbor Airport. Photo: Garrett Krueger & Ryan Carlson
Anything else you would like to add?
This is an exciting field, and I hope that it continues to spread to students like me. A lot of classmates haven’t heard of the GRP program, it will be fun to see it go to the next level over the next few years. I would also like to be a green roof consultant one day, I would like to stay in architecture and work with green roofs.
Enroll in The Living Architecture Academy, our online training platform which is dedicated to bringing you the best, most up to date professional development resources on design, installation and maintenance practices. See our Green Roof Professional (GRP) program for more details.
Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC)is a non-profit 501(c)(6) professional industry association working to grow the green roof and wall industry throughout North America since 1999. Our mission is to develop and protect the market by increasing the awareness of the economic, social, and environmental benefits of green roofs, green walls, and other forms of living architecture through education, advocacy, professional development, and celebrations of excellence.
Read The Living Architecture Monitor, our quarterly online magazine that follows industry design, policy, research and technology developments.
GRHC’s next event is a half day Virtual Symposium on Urban Agriculture Technology, Design And Planning is March 16, 2022 from 1 to 4:30 pm est. www.greenroofs.org/events.
From the Living Architecture Monitor
