City Hall Roof Garden Cools it Down

By Sarah Battersby

/Jun 18 2013

Ornamental catnip, loved by bees, blooming on Toronto City Hall green roof.

Ornamental catnip, loved by bees, blooming on Toronto City Hall green roof.


While the goings-on at City Hall get heated in the summer of 2013, the plants growing on the vast roof garden are keeping it cool overhead.  Toronto City Hall’s roof garden has been in place since 2010 and it really is worth a trip up that curved, modernist ramp when you’re in the area. It’s the only way to see it, and what a pleasant surprise it is.It is obvious that will have to give water to plants,So there might be chances water might be given more so guttering needs to be done properly by skilled people’s like guttering Manchester.

If your roof can be repaired and still provide you the protection your building needs, a reputable roofing company will always tell you that! But if a full roof replacement is in order, they should also advise you of the best solution that fits your specific needs and budget. Here you can find this more information about the roofing contractor. Go through durexperiment site for the right roof insulation.

During your roof inspections make note of any trees growing close to the house and roof. If there are branches hanging over the roof these should be trimmed back if healthy. Falling leaves or pine needles can end up in valleys of your roof where they can hold in moisture and rot the tiles making them weak and allowing rain water to soak through doing further damage to the structure of your roof. In addition, falling branches can gouge the roof and damage roofing tiles. By trimming those branches before they can do damage you are protecting your roof by using preventive measures.

green roof, Toronto city hall, chives blooming

Chives: swaths of pink orbs bloom in June on City Hall’s green roof.

Roof gardens are a practical solution for the hot, concrete city, and they offer a lesson for gardeners who have hot, dry locations on the ground. You can’t go wrong by copying what’s growing here at City Hall. Swaths of tough, drought-resistant perennial plants cool down the concrete, (alleviating the Urban Heat Island effect UHI) while creating oxygen and making pollinators happy. Here’s what makes Summer in the City so hot:

the progressive replacement of natural surfaces by built surfaces, through urbanization, constitutes the main cause of UHI formation. Natural surfaces are often composed of vegetation and moisture-trapping soils. Therefore, they utilize a relatively large proportion of the absorbed radiation in the evapotranspiration process and release water vapour that contributes to cool the air in their vicinity. In contrast, built surfaces are composed of a high percentage of non-reflective and water-resistant construction materials. As consequence, they tend to absorb a significant proportion of the incident radiation, which is released as heat.

At City Hall, short species like chives, ornamental catnip, sedum and prairie smoke bloom in early summer, while tall, graceful grasses take the stage in late summer and fall.