The Bike Box Living Roof Lab in Cleveland, Ohio received an Award of Excellence from Green Roofs for Healthy Cities for built projects. Led by CAED Associate Professor Dr. Reid Coffman, the highly collaborative project reclaims a sliver of the concrete jungle in Cleveland while making discoveries on how living architecture can aid global conservation efforts.
Funded in 2013 by the Northeast Ohio Sewer District to profile urban green infrastructure, the 149 square foot green roof caps a repurposed shipping container transformed into a bike shelter for one of Cleveland’s most popular urban neighborhood corner bars, The Happy Dog. The roof was designed and installed by a team of graduate architecture students to examine how native plants could create local biodiversity and stormwater benefits. Today, it hosts two rare and endangered plant species that are being studied by Master of Landscape Architecture, MSAED and doctoral students studying Biology.
The project has been praised for the educational outcomes and broader impacts of a roof its size. Each year the roof is visited by hundreds of professionals and students and has been a part of national training and education programs, such as the NSF REU study program and Green Roof Professional (GRP) training. Overall, this roof shows that thoughtful design collaborations can lead to multiple and long-lasting impacts.
Some of past and current students include Clair Markwardt Banks (Architecture/MUD) Leno Esposito (Architecture), Josh Thomas (Architecture), Neil Reindell (Architecture/MUD), Megan Haftl (Architecture/MUD), Jeff Jasinski (Architecture/MUD), Erin Laffay (Landscape Architecture), Meghan Blackson (MSAED), and Katie Manning (PhD biology).
For more information, please visit the Kent State CAED’s Novel Ecology Design Lab (NEDLab)