GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Grand Rapids Downtown Market now has a living roof to complement its living wall. The installation of the 1,200 square foot living, green roof featuring three patterned plant mixes of yellow, green and pink, and red and purple was completed on Friday, June 28, 2013.
“It’s spellbindingly beautiful and onlookers are literally stopped in their tracks, struck by its impressively beautiful display,” Amber Ponce said, Business Development Director for LiveWall and LiveRoof, the Spring Lake-based sister companies leading the market for green roofs and living walls. “It’s the very best time of year to see it, now while it’s in its peak blossom and prime bloom.”
The living roof creates a healthy, sustainable ecosystem that covers the rooftop of the building. It now accompanies an 832 square foot outdoor living wall, perhaps the biggest in the state, which was installed in May.
A wall collage of green-hued plants was part of architect Hugh Boyd’s plan to complement the building design. The LEED Certified Downtown Market used locally sourced and grown materials including, made-in-Michigan aluminum railings and molded planter boxes, as well the wall and roof plants, which were all grown within 30 miles from the Market’s location.
