First green roof in Cedar Rapids to be installed on top of New Bohemia condominiums

Displaced by the Floods of 2008, residents of Water Tower Place will soon be doing their part to lessen the likelihood of another disaster.

The first known “green” roof in Cedar Rapids will be installed on the warehouse-turned-condominiums at 900 Second St. SE.

Common in Europe, green roofs incorporate plants into a rooftop drainage system.

The system absorbs water to help prevent stormwater runoff that contributes to flooding.

Other benefits include heat retention in the winter and cooling in the summer, said Dr. Cam Campbell, who moved into Water Tower Place in May 2008, just weeks before the flood.

“We wanted to do something proactive,” said Campbell, who serves on the condominium's board of directors.

Campbell and his wife, Kathy, pointed to the rooftop's rock that will soon be replaced by sedum, a perennial groundcover. The rocks make the roof uncomfortably hot in the summer when residents want to use the roof for grilling and parties, they said.

The board received a $98,000 grant through the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Funding came from a $1.4 million I-JOBS urban stormwater fund, said Allen Bonini, supervisor of the DNR's watershed improvement division.

Bonini said two other projects that incorporated a green roof received grants from the fund: Indigo Dawn Inc., in Des Moines and Parker House Properties, a historic building in Mason City.

Projects not only help with stormwater management, but will create jobs through environmental improvements, he said.

Davenport will be using its grant for bioretention cells - large-scale rain gardens - to allow water to infiltrate from a city parking lot. Carter Lake has a similar project with its new library, where water will be redirected so it doesn't run off the parking lot directly into the nearby lake.

“This it to try to get people to think differently about how they manage their stormwater,” Bonini said. “Collective efforts of each of us can have a big impact.”

Just one block from the Cedar River, the first floor of Water Tower Place was inundated during the flood.

The former warehouse in the New Bohemia cultural district has about 45 condominiums on its six floors, with a 10-by-12-foot test plot of green roof that was installed last year.

Campbell said the roof will be a demonstration and teaching site to encourage similar practices in the Cedar Rapids area.

Full installation should be done by fall. Partners include Roof Top Sedums and T&K Roofing and Sheet Metal Company, Eastern Iowa firms experienced in green roofs.

For more information, see:

http://wtpgreenroof.org