NYHQ Goes Green With New Modular Roof

By Joe Marvilli

Workers install the modular green roof at New York Hospital Queens.

The New York Hospital Queens is continuing its quest to go green, having partnered with Manhattan College to install a modular green roof.

  The project was born out of a winning entrance by Manhattan College in a contest for a grant from the Flushing and Gowanus Green Infrastructure Grant Initiative by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

  Installation of the green roof, which is a roof partially or fully covered with plant life, began this November and is expected to be completed by next spring.

  The plant life will be embedded on three different roofs of the hospital, providing a nature-filled view from several different points, such as patients’ rooms in the north and west buildings as well as the mother/baby unit.

  The Flushing and Gowanus Green Infrastructure Grant Initiative was started to explore ways to reduce combined sewer overflows, which happen when storm water and wastewater divert into New York City’s surrounding waterways during heavy storms. The DEP requested grant proposals from environmental groups and academic institutions for inventive green infrastructure that would act as storm water capture systems.

  Eight grants were submitted by the March 2010 deadline. The five winners were announced in early July of the same year.

  Out of the total $2.6 million given to the winners, Manhattan College received $660,440 for their green roofs, designed to control runoff from one to one-and-a-half inches of rainfall on a half-acre roof. The school partnered with HDR Inc, a global architecture firm, for the project.

  “We’re excited about conducting this study on a green roof at New York Hospital, which is within the Flushing Bay watershed,” Guy Apicella, HDR Water Resources Modeling Section Leader, said. “The benefits of green roofs in controlling and treating storm water will be assessed through the planned monitoring, thereby providing data for planning and designing other installations in the city.”

  Once the project is completed, engineering students from the college will study the green roofs for the next three years as part of the grant conditions.

  Kevin Mannle, Director of Engineering at NYHQ, was heavily involved with the roof’s installation.

  “The program in general is great,” Mannle said. “We’ve taken some great strides to reduce our corporate emissions.”

  Reach Reporter Joe Marvilli at (718) 357-7400, Ext. 125, or at jmarvilli@queenstribune.com.