By the time the University of Kentucky starts its fall semester, students and faculty will be able to enjoy a lush new feature of the newly remodeled Student Center—a planted roof installed by the Klausing Group, a Lexington-based commercial grounds management and landscape construction company.
Totaling 6,000 square feet and planted in seven different sections of roof on the second and third floors, the student center project is the largest green roof the company has tackled to date.
Klausing Group has also installed green roofs atop the University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital, and at Champions Court 1 and 2 dormitories at UK.
An aerial view of UK’s Chandler Medical Center reveals green space on the building’s roof, which the Klausing Group maintains. / Photo courtesy Klausing Group
Shane Tedder, UK’s sustainability coordinator, said there are 11 green structures on campus, with two more planned, including the new student center.
The first was installed in 1963 to cover a basement area of a science building. The largest, at 60,000 square feet, is above a patient-care facility at UK HealthCare, which Klausing Group didn’t install, but maintains.
Roscoe Klausing
The new student center’s roof will add green space to campus, Tedder said, “and will have some nice environmental benefits with regard to stormwater and heat load.”
Green roofs were once a rarity in Lexington, but Roscoe Klausing, president and CEO of Klausing Group, said his company has been installing and maintaining an increasing number of them.
“It is really starting to take off,” Klausing said. “We see projects more and more with vegetative roofs, and it simply wasn’t a thing in Lexington 20 years ago.”
After a Lexington stormwater quality and quantity grant in 2011 helped fund a 250-square-foot green awning at Klausing Group’s headquarters, the company began offering green roof and awning installation and maintenance services to its clients.
Green roofs are sorted into three categories, Klausing said. Extensive roofs feature shallow, lightweight soil and are planted mostly with succulents and grasses. Intensive roofs are laid with deeper soil, which enables a greater variety of plants, shrubs and small trees. Semi-intensive roofs have elements of both. Installation costs average from $25 to $30 per square foot, Klausing said.
Green roofs don’t have to be flat, but because of the extra weight of plants, soil and protective layers, they tend to work best when installed with new construction or during major renovation projects. Like a typical garden, planted roofs need to be weeded and maintained regularly, though less often over time.
Using lightweight soil and hardy plants like sedums that filter and slow stormwater runoff, Klausing said green infrastructure can insulate buildings, provide habitat for beneficial animals, reduce urban heat-island effects, absorb noise, improve air quality and simply look good.
The Klausing Group uses a planted awning at its Lexington headquarters to demonstrate beauty and benefits of a planted roof. / Photo courtesy Klausing Group
Dan Stever is Klausing Group’s director of education and outreach and senior horticulturist. While acknowledging green infrastructure in Kentucky is a bit scarce, part of his role is to increase awareness. He often uses Klausing Group’s green awning as a teaching tool.
So far about 1,000 people—landscape architects, garden clubs, students and some state, local and national landscaping and environmental organizations—have visited the site to learn about the green awning.
“Helping people understand what the possibilities are and what the benefits are, that’s a big part of what I do, and a big part of my outreach,” Stever said.
Klausing has studied city-planning best practices for years and believes natural elements should be incorporated throughout cities whenever possible.
He adds that Lexington’s revised stormwater management guidelines emphasize investments in green infrastructure, including green roofs, certain permeable paver systems and rain gardens.
“It’s a very exciting time, he said.