Photo courtesy: PWL Partnership Landscape Architects Inc. and DA Architects and Planners

Extensive Institutional

Project: Vancouver Convention Centre Expansion Project - 284,650-square foot (2.4 hectares) extensive green roof.
Award Recipient: PWL Partnership Landscape Architects Inc. (landscape architects)
Client: PavCo
Landscape Architects – Don Wuori Design
Mechanical Engineer – Stantec Inc.
Architects – DA/MCM +LMN
Structural Engineer – Glotman Simpson Consulting Engineers
Landscape Contractors – Holland Landscapers Ltd.
Electrical Engineers – Schenke Bawol Engineering Ltd.
Propagation Contractors – NATS Nursery Ltd.
Roofing Contractors – Flynn Canada Ltd.
Horticultural Consultant – Rana Creek Habitat Restoration
Contractors – PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc.
Steep Sloped Green Roof Components Supplied By – American Hydrotech, Inc.

Photo courtesy: PWL Partnership Landscape Architects Inc.

Emulating nature, a sophisticated runnel system created an efficient and elegant stormwater solution.

The coastal grassland habitat of the Vancouver Convention Centre green roof is an integral part of the nature-based, green stepping stone network that encourages birds, honeybees and other insects to move between the existing natural areas within urban Vancouver. While much can be said about this roof, it was this seamless design that impressed the judges, as did the project’s stormwater management profiles.

To manage stormwater the design team developed three strategies: minimize expense by not custom-designing “super” drains; keep the water on the roof as long as possible; and release it slowly so as to allow it to move to conventional drains equally spaced along the roof edge and eventually into the adjacent Coal Harbour. As such, the roof was divided up into individual 800-square-metre drainage areas based on drainage basin size, stormwater volumes and flow rates. This is the largest area that a conventional-sized roof drain can accommodate under planted conditions. The excess stormwater from each drainage basin was directed to a roof drain via a conveyance runnel system. The roof runnels consisted of 30 cm wide aluminum-edged, rock-filled channels perforated on the uphill side and solid on the downhill side. The runnels zigzag down the sloping roof planes much like a grassland stream moves through the landscape collecting excess stormwater, preventing additional demand on municipal infrastructure.

Learn More: Read more about the integrated design of this extraordinary green roof in the cover story of the Summer 2010 issue of the *Living Architecture Monitor* magazine available online at www.greenroofs.org.

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