The Big Impact from a Little Green Roof

The exterior of the Bike Box Green Roof Project.

Against the backdrop of one of Cleveland’s most popular bars, a small environmental project has made big impacts on the design of a little green roof in dense urban environments. In 2013, Claire Bank, an architect with ThenDesign Architecture (TDA), managed a green roof project that was installed on one of Cleveland’s popular “Bike Box” installations and sought to demonstrate a new way to think about sustainability in a concrete jungle. Now, this internationally recognized project has attracted hundreds of professionals annually, showing them a new way to integrate native plant species into an otherwise inhospitable environment.