Until recently, I was thinking too hard and blogging too little.   Then the phone rang.  It was Jeremy Ellenbogen, CEO of Seven21 Media Center in my home city of Kingston NY.  Seven21 is a repurposed factory, now housing a couple of dozen film, video, web and other new media businesses, and a couple of studios.  

“Melissa, we need your help,” he said.  “We’re building a green roof.  We’re in ‘just do it’ mode.  But some expertise wouldn’t be a bad thing.”  

Green roofs are gaining popularity in Europe and are no longer completely exotic in the U.S. They can radically alter the energy economy of a building by keeping it cool, retaining rainwater that would otherwise surge into storm drains, extend the life of the roof by protecting it from light and heat - and bring beauty to the toughest areas.  

Midtown Kingston, where Seven21 is located, is a tough place and also a creative one.  Sprinkled among the dilapidated storefronts and substandard residential real estaate are new bakeries, hair salons, galleries and health centers, as well as the city’s Parks and Recreation department and the YMCA.  Digital and creative technology professionals and realtors have banded together to create the Digital Corridor Initiative, getting commercial buildings market-ready and then reaching out through social networks to get geeks from Brooklyn actually buying buildings and transplanting their businesses.  This effort runs parallel with the Green Trail along Broadway, which has begun to develop bicycle racks and signs and maps; streetscape plantings, and energy efficiency initiatives among the merchants.  The Green Trail partners, having issued an invitation and gotten some interest, were looking for a project smaller than a building but bigger than a planter.

That would be a green roof.

So I called Paul Mankiewicz, Ph.D., CEO of the GAIA Institute in the Bronx, who designs green roofs as well as advanced environmental remediation projects.  He was delighted to commit a day to a training for engineers, architects, landscape architects and other interested parties...  Jeremy pressed us to get it going, so it’s set for May 29!!!  

While many folks know me as slow and steady, the action orientation was agreeing with me.  I realized that, while figuring out a design and test plot for Seven21, we could involve some landscape architects and other professionals in practice exercises... maybe get a bunch of rooftops... maybe solicit applications from building owners who could buy the materials and maintain the plots, but get the labor subsidized... and hey, we’ve got training and green infrastructure.  Isn’t that what the economic stimulus is supposed to fund?