Michael Davenport | Green Roof Professional (GRP)

Michael Davenport, GRP.

Photo: Omni Ecosystems

Michael Bukka Davenport is Omni Rewild’s Director of Technical Support and has worked for over 30 years in professional horticulture with a broad range of practical experience. Born in California and raised in New Jersey, he has grown plants almost everywhere in between, from rural Oregon to New York’s Central Park. Formerly the Curator of Horticulture at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo and Director of Horticulture at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Miami, Bukka currently focuses on innovative living infrastructure. Bukka is particularly interested in planting landscapes that support local wildlife. Plant conservation fieldwork in South Florida, the Caribbean, Mexico, and Madagascar has greatly informed his design and development of sustainable landscapes.

How did you find out about GRHC and the GRP program?

I had never even heard of GRHC while working in at-grade horticulture. When I joined Omni Ecosystems, I quickly signed up for GRHC updates and have been reading newsletters ever since.  

Great black wasp feeding on Pycnanthemum virginianum at Studio Gang headquarters, Chicago. Over 80 plant taxa grow on this 5,000 sf green roof located seven blocks west of the Chicago River. Photo: Michael Davenport

Why did you become a Green Roof Professional (GRP)? 

At the beginning of 2023 I transitioned from full-time maintenance to a technical support role. The GRP training helped fill knowledge gaps, particularly on the construction side.

What does your job entail? What does your day to day look like?

I might have a training session, perhaps remotely teaching a roofing company crew how to install Omni Infinity media. I could be on a roof myself, weeding, cleaning drains, testing irrigation, and photographing flowers and insects. I may be working on a social media post or sifting through historical images of a project to capture the plant species for our internal database (750+ species and counting!) I may get on a call with landscape architects to consider appropriate plants for their design vision. Perhaps I’m reviewing FM Global guidelines, municipal code, or a new drainage layer product. I work closely with our business development and research teams so there’s always something bubbling. Today I worked on a Floristic Quality Inventory of an Omni Meadow on top of a warehouse. Every day is different.

What is your favorite part of your job?

Seeing a species that I may have added to a roof assembly as seed three years earlier flower and produce viable, roof-adapted seed is awfully satisfying. Observing butterfly larvae chewing on that same plant is even better. Receiving an image from a project that we have remotely assisted showing an established meadow in full bloom might be the best. The opportunities the green infrastructure industry provides to scale up habitat restoration and make cities more liveable makes work fun and meaningful.

What advice would you provide to someone interested in pursuing a similar career path to yourself?

Delicately fringed flowers of Bishop’s Cap, Mitella diphylla, a native woodland perennial growing below a Japanese White Pine on a green roof at Omni Ecosystems headquarters in Bronzeville, Chicago. Photo: Michael Davenport

Get some life experience installing and maintaining green roofs. Learn the plants that grow on those roofs, especially the weeds, and see where they grow in natural areas nearby. Learn which plants in your region offer great ecosystem benefits and add appropriate candidates to existing green roofs. Experiment, make improvements, take lots of photos, keep records, and help build something great. If you learn the plants, the rest is easy. And if you can grow on skyscrapers, you can grow anywhere.

What trends about green infrastructure/sustainability make you excited for the future?

I’m really pleased to see more of an emphasis and interest in biodiversity.  If you aim for biodiversity, all other green roof benefits will follow. The reverse is not always the case.  

What do you see as the role of green infrastructure in resilience and the COVID-19 recovery?

That’s a tricky question. During stay-at-home times in 2020, people obviously found great value in on-structure greenspace and the real estate industry ran with that, promoting amenity decks as safe shared spaces. But remote working has led to a huge surplus in commercial office space and I’m concerned that new development will slow with accompanying stagnation for new green infrastructure. Hopefully any new construction slowdown can be alleviated by adaptive re-use. Possibly of larger importance is the surge in urban gardening during the pandemic. I love reading stories about nurseries running out of plants because of high demand. A silver lining of Covid-19 may be that more people now realize they require a closer connection to the natural world and green infrastructure will be considered essential rather than a luxury.

How does having a GRP on projects benefit the company? 

My increased fluency in the technical side of roofing has had benefits. The GRP training also exposed me to other vegetative assemblies and media–always good to know more about the competition!

Bukka weeding at WFYI Public Media headquarters, Indianapolis. Soundproofing the recording studio below from nearby rescue helicopter traffic was the foremost consideration on this project. Photo: Steven Gallup

Tell us about a recent project or two: 

In 2023 we completed a 36,000 square foot Omni Meadow installation on two large residential buildings near the Ravenswood Metra stop in Chicago. Much of it is viewable by the residents and pollinators began using the ecosystem as soon as the plants started blooming. Along with some cemeteries and city parks, this project will help bridge a green corridor for birds, bats, and bugs from the La Bagh Woods in the Cook County Forest Preserve to the Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary on Lake Michigan.

About the same time we also completed an at-grade installation at the Salt Shed, formerly a Morton Salt distribution site along the Chicago River. The site was heavily contaminated and we figured out how to capture most of the stormwater runoff without excavation by using deep bioswales and Omni Infinity media along the river and North Elston Avenue. Native perennials, shrubs, and trees will help keep heavy metals out of the waterways and support local wildlife.

 

 

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities 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. 

We publish The Living Architecture Monitor quarterly online magazine where industry leaders share their insights and expertise. These articles increase awareness of the economic, social, and environmental benefits of green roofs, walls and other forms of living architecture.

We also offer free access to The Living Architecture Academy, an online professional development platform which is dedicated to bringing you the best, most up to date professional training information on design, installation and maintenance practices across a wide range of green infrastructure topics. The LAA offers short lectures and multi-day courses such as: Green Roof Professional Training, Introduction to Green Walls, Biodiverse Green Roof Maintenance, and more.  

We also publish the Green Pages: Industry Green Roof and Wall Directory which is designed to support you with your living architecture projects by providing a list of trusted manufacturers, suppliers of accessories, green walls, nurseries, and certified Green Roof Professionals (GRPs). From small-scale residential projects to large commercial installations, this directory has everything you need to find support to create a sustainable and beautiful living space.

From the Living Architecture Monitor

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