Botanical Research Goes Platinum

The Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) calls Fort Worth its home. It's home is a LEED Platinum building. This is one of the only LEED Platinum buildings in Texas. My class was fortunate to receive tours from two of BRITs ambassadors. As soon you pull up the BRIT building you see native Texas landscape and prairie grass native to this area of Texas.

The location of the landscaping as well as parking spots was planned on purpose. Our ambassador explained the parking lot was laid out this way in order to minimize the amount of run-off.  The parking lot is broken up by green space and slopes downward. The green space catches the rain water so it does not drain into the street.

My favorite part of this building is the "Living Roof."  The roof has thousands of plants growing on it. Our ambassador explained that hundreds of these square bins hold the plants on the roof. The species range from types of flowers to grasses.  The make-up of the roof has changed since it was first planted. This is because birds and the wind have brought in seeds from maybe plants not originally on the roof. Below are some pictures of the roof. I personally was very curious about the time it takes to care for a roof like this. I asked if the roof had to be mowed. The answer was yes- plants had to be cut back so the roof could be maintained and not get out of hand.

A living roof is not a sustainable technology I think I will have in my future home. However, I really like another technology the BRIT displayed: the use of recycled cedar as a wall decoration. In the entrance inside of the BRIT is a huge wall of wood. This wood is from recycled cedar called sinkers.  These trees sunk in a river after being cut down several years ago.  Someone then came in and fished out these trees  out of the river and used them to create the wall at the BRIT. I love this whole process of reclaimed wood. The wall is absolutely beautiful and I would love to have something like it as a statement piece in my home.  

The BRIT was a great place to visit. It shows how some of the more creative technologies of sustainability like the living roof and reclaimed wood wall. This building is the perfect example of sustainability maximized. 

REFERENCES

http://www.brit.org/ 

http://www.KrantzRecoveredWoods.com/WhyRecovered.aspx