Join the Center for Architecture and ASLA-NY for the first in-person 4 LA CES™ and a beer program in 2023! This program will focus on all aspects of planning your next green roof project.
Vegetated roof systems, or green roofs, offer an array of environmental and economic benefits. These include rainwater management, urban heat island reduction, and habitat creation, while principal economic benefits include creation of additional usable space, and increased real estate value. Local Law 92 and 94 were passed by the New York City Council in 2019 to mandate the installation of sustainable roofing zones on all rooftops undergoing major construction, both for new and existing roofs. Taken together they set forth the requirements for sustainable roofing zones on all new construction and adjust the requirements for smaller buildings.
Our esteemed speakers will explain all aspects of your next green roof project, helping you address vegetation, water use, appropriate hardscape, and structural concerns. While reviewing different green roof systems, meeting project goals like rainwater management, paving constructibility and maintenance is of the utmost importance.
This session will be followed by a networking happy hour to continue the conversation.
Speakers:
Artie Rollins, Assistant Commissioner for Citywide Services
Chris Brunner, Co-Founder, Technical Director and Operations Manager, New York Green Roofs
Marni Majorelle, President, Alive Structure
Michelle Cashen, Director of Design Build, Brooklyn Grange
About the Speakers:
Artie Rollins, Assistant Commissioner for Citywide Services
Artie is a passionate leader and drives change in the greenest agency in New York City, NYC Parks. Rollin's office is located at the home of one of the most unique green roofs in the city, where global leaders have admired and replicated, Randall’s Island. He uses new technologies to bring about strategic change and reduce the City’s carbon footprint. His background in the green industry began working for a Developer in New York City. He saw the immediate benefit of embracing sustainable practices in construction.
Rollins joined Parks in 1995. He demonstrated a keen eye for cost savings and improvements. He is currently the Assistant Commissioner for Citywide Services at NYC Parks. In this capacity he oversees over 300 staff members serving NYC Pools, Trades Shops, Stationary Engineers, Capital Requirements Contracts, and four main areas in Sustainability: Education, Retrofits, Preventive Maintenance, and Measurement and Verification. Rollins most notably started the installation of the Parks Department Green Roof and White Roof programs in 2007. He attended the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), earning a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering in 1986.
Chris Brunner, Co-Founder, Technical Director and Operations Manager, New York Green Roofs
NY Green Roofs is a full service green roofing firm based in New York City. Brunner serves as Technical Director and Operations Manager. The firm focuses on commercial, residential, and institutional bid/build and design/build installation, maintenance, and consulting services. Since 2008 New York Green Roofs has been involved in the successful implementation of hundreds of green roofs in NYC and currently maintains nearly 500,000 square feet in the NY Metro Area. From setbacks reaching to 30 stories on the Empire State Building to the nearly 6 acres atop the Jacob Javits Convention Center, Brunner's firm collaboratively designs, installs, and maintains some of the city’s most iconic green roofs.
Marni Majorelle, President, Alive Structures
Alive Structures is a design and build certified woman owned business based in Brooklyn, NY. Founded in 2007, Alive Structures has many years of professional experience with a wide range of landscaping projects. The company is committed to improving the environment in New York City and specializes in ecological green roofs and gardens improving the city’s air and water quality, reducing energy consumption, creating natural habitat, and making the city more resilient and healthy.
Alive Structures has been featured in the New York Times, Martha Stewart, Inhabitat, Bloomberg News, and many other publications, and it’s clients have ranged from residential home owners to large corporations, industrial property owners, and public housing. Alive Structures has received grants from the Department of Environmental Conservation, the Department of Environmental Protection, and the Greenpoint Community Environmental Fund. A native New Yorker, Majorelle is passionate about her city and strives to make it a more sustainable, natural, and beautiful place to live. She is often collaborating with environmental organizations, artists, other businesses, and city agencies in order to reach ambitious goals.
Michelle Cashen, Director of Design Build, Brooklyn Grange
Michelle Cashen is the Director of the Design/Build department at Brooklyn Grange, a landscaping, farming, and events business based in New York City. For the past decade, Cashen, along with the Brooklyn Grange team, have been farming NYC roofs, building green spaces, and fostering connections between the natural and built environment for concrete-dwelling urbanites. In 2022, New York Magazine recognized Cashen’s team among their shortlist of the “City’s Best Landscapers” that same year, Brooklyn Grange’s design work was awarded a Green Roof and Wall Award of Excellence for The Farm at Javits.
Cashen has also helped various businesses and organizations secure over $2 million in grant funding for green roofs from DEP’s Green Infrastructure program. While she relishes any opportunity to make the city in which she was born and raised a greener and more climate resilient place, Cashen is particularly excited by opportunities to build green spaces that are publicly-accessible and include food production.
Charles Duprey, Founding President, NaturCycle
Duprey is an expert in green roof media manufacturing and design and has over 16 years experience. Duprey has worked around the Northeast on a wide variety of projects from the new One Acre Farm at the Javits Convention Center, to the Statue of Liberty Museum, and more from New York to Portland, Maine. He is a certified educator for Landscape Architects.
Duprey has presented at many different conferences from the NY Solid Waste Association, Water Environment Federations events along with many private contractors, engineers and architects. He currently serves as a Trustee for the Composting Education and Research Foundation. Duprey is a past Vice Chair of the US Composting Council Market Development Committee and current Co-Chair of the Seal of Testing Assurance Advisory Committee. He still serves on numerous committees, published articles on compost use and testing and actively interacts on compost use to this day. His firm Naturcycle works with municipal and private composters around the Northeast to market and use compost in the public and private sectors. Along with operating three soil blending facilities strategically located around the Northeast focusing on specialty soils, green roof media and more.
This event is offered in person and virtually; COVID-19 vaccinations and face masks are strongly encouraged for all visitors. Read our full Health and Safety Protocol here.
The New York Chapter, American Society of Landscape Architects
