As the elevator doors open, I can’t help thinking I’m on another planet.[rssbreak]
Maybe it’s because Toronto’s City Hall was once featured in a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, or maybe it’s because I’m staring directly at a flying-?saucer-?like clamshell and about to glimpse the city’s greener, friendlier future.
The third-?floor tour is part of the CitiesAlive World Green Roof Infrastructure Congress that began at the Sheraton across the street earlier on October 19. Toronto’s hosting key thinkers and businesses behind the push for living walls and grassy rooftops and, like most hosts dropping serious cash on a reno, the city’s giving guests a tour of the, at last count, nine-year, $2-million-plus work in progress.
“It will be Toronto’s largest publicly accessible green roof and an urban oasis in the heart of the city that will include gardens, a courtyard framing the council chamber, a podium terrace and a new walkway,” Mayor David Miller announces with a certain understated jubilation.
As he speaks, a couple of guys chat me up. They’re not delegates, but they’re into the green roof already.
“Do you think I can smoke a joint up there?” one asks.
I tell him it might be a bad idea, what with it not being a park yet and security all over the place. But at least there’s some enthusiasm for a new public space.
Of course, the gardens are rough around the edges, understandable for an unfinished project. Still, the terrain already inspires. For one, at 3,400 square metres, it’s the city’s biggest green roof. Herbs, flowers and grasses – all carefully selected (some even rescued) to survive our Toronto winters – offset the cold concrete feel of the hall towers.
“It’s a showcase,” says deputy mayor Joe Pantalone of the project the next day at a seminar detailing the overall package rolling out atop buildings in T.O. “This roof is like a jewel in what the city hopes will become green crowns topping every new building.”
And the fact that a gathering of global experts chose to meet in Toronto glitters, too. Suddenly Toronto is the go-to place for a bustling new industry – you can see it here as academics, architects, local developers, students, contractors and greens rub shoulders, and casual observers justify the price of the seminar ticket as much cheaper than one to Berlin or Copenhagen.
In case you were too busy smelling the daffodils back in May, the city adopted a bylaw detailing how much green-roof coverage new buildings require to get project approval. It mandates that any 2,000-to-4,999-square-metre structure built after January 2010 (2011 for industrial edifices) needs to create a green roof covering at least 20 per cent of available roof space. On the higher end of the spectrum, a structure at 20,000 square metres or more must have a green roof at 60 per cent.
City Planning’s Jane Welsh explains the construction standard.
“It’s a set of performance measures we require for new developments in the city.” Basically, it’s a rule book for making a proper green roof (i.e., you can’t buy a pile of fresh sod and throw it down on your tar roof).
What’s nice is that we’re actually leading the push on a municipal level for once. “Toronto’s the first city in North America requiring and governing green roofs,” says Miller, adding, “I’m very proud.”
Our current total of 135 green roofs (one of which I toil under here at NOW) and 70 under-construction ones will increase, bylaw’s supporters expect, by 50 to ?60 new sky gardens per year.
The good thing is that carrots still dangle for existing building owners interested in cashing in on incentives. A traditional green roof can get a $50-per-square-metre rebate (up to $100,000), which helps cut into the $250-square-metre cost of a high-end green roof.
Cool roofs – basically reflective shingles able to reduce the heat-island effect – aren’t left out, though the cashback is much lower: $2 to $?5 per square metre, capped at $50,000. Notably, this only applies to commercial, industrial and institutional buildings.
Not everyone’s convinced that the bylaw will work. “It’s going to take 30 years [to see benefits],” says Terry McGlade, founder of Gardens in the Sky, who calls for stricter requirements, like 100 per cent green-roof mandates.
But some worry that compulsory gardens could tamper with real estate pricing. “There’s an impact on affordability,” suggests Susan Lewin of CS&P Architects. Condo builders can just pass down the costs of green roofs to buyers. There’s also the idea that a school, say, could use the funds better. “Does the green roof come out of more important things in the budget,” she asks.
The bylaw, as well, contains an “in lieu” clause that allows builders to buy their way out of the green-roof requirement. But the fee of $200 per square metre costs more than a cheapie green roof.
Some conference delegates raised concerns about the fact that maintenance expenses for green roofs might outweigh energy savings. It’s entirely possible. But Pantalone says, “We’re trying to provide a holistic approach.” He fears a cyclic chicken-and-egg debate threatens the logic of green roofing, which is about our collective existence in a carbon-addled world.
With eggs in the green-roof basket until at least 2012, the city’s counting on a sure win for air quality, lower greenhouse gas emissions and better stormwater management.
Okay, the city’s right: green roofs make sense. But even if the plan crumbles, Toronto just got one amazing garden at the heart of City Hall.
pault@nowtoronto.com
