Green Roofs for Healthy Cities Announces New Southern Plains Living Architecture Center
January 26, 2022: Green Roofs for Healthy Cities and the Green Infrastructure Foundation are pleased to announce the creation of the Southern Plains Living Architecture Center to be led by Texas A&M university faculty. As the newest Regional Academic Center of Excellence, it will bring together academics and industry to aid applied study of integrating plants and living organisms within and upon buildings as design ecosystems to make cities more livable.
“This is a great opportunity for faculty and students to collaborate on living architecture work already underway in the Southern Great Plains and set the stage for new developments in research and innovation while helping students prepare for careers in this growing field,” said Dr. Reid Coffman, Chair of the Regional Academic Center of Excellence program for GRHC. “Booming economies and extreme climates make the region a priority area for research, teaching, and training in North America.”
The new center will be led by Professor Bruce Dvorak, Executive Director and Associate Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning in the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University. Located in the Blackland prairies of College Station, Texas the center is focused on growing knowledge for successful living roofs and walls in the southern prairie ecoregions. This region has different challenges from those in Ohio, Denver and the Upper Midwest. Dvorak said, “Our group is expanding with new members. For example, Dr. Tom Woodfin joins the center to begin applicable approaches to green roofs irrigated from HVAC condensate water. These kinds of innovations will expand how green roofs can be effectively adapted to central Texas.” The faculty is currently collaborating as an “Interdisciplinary Green Roof Research Group” to set up the center and organize future education and research-sharing events.
The Southern Plains Center is GRHC’s fourth and will join three current centers; Greater Ohio Living Architecture Center, Colorado Center, and Southern Illinois Center. Together, these Centers have built upon much of the work in living architecture already underway and set the stage for new developments in collaborative research and innovation, while helping students prepare to enter this growing industry.
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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.
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GRHC’s next event is a half dayvirtual symposium on blue-green roofs to be held February 16, 2022 from 1 to 4:30 pm est.www.greenroofs.org/events.
From the Living Architecture Monitor
