Frederick Douglass Library Green Roof

The Frederick Douglass Community Library green roof project includes the rehabilitation and waterproofing of an existing roof and a newly designed 4000 SF native green roof installation. The green roof was designed as a hybrid “intensive” and “extensive” system, supporting both custom grown native sedum mats and deeper soil profile areas of native meadow grasses and perennials.

While not visible from the library itself, the green roof was designed with sculpted light-weight geofoam in an organic pattern that mimics natural topographic features – rising portions of the native plant material above the adjacent parapet wall, allowing it to be seen from the roadway and sidewalk below. The green roof is small, but visually impactful and stimulating for students in navigating the hallways of the adjacent James P.B. Duffy School #12. A central stair and hallway within the school includes multi-story, floor to ceiling windows that look out onto the green roof and artistic streetscape.

Zakery Steele served as Senior Landscape Architect, responsible for concept design, visualizations, construction documents, and construction phase efforts for the green roof assembly and planting.