It’s about to get greener on top of Portland’s central library building.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and the city of Portland recently gave two grants to Multnomah County in order to fund a $180,000 ecoroof on its central library building at 801 S.W. 10th Ave., in downtown Portland.

DEQ awarded the county $102,000 while the city gave $60,000 to cover construction and maintenance costs for the roof, which is currently being worked on by Snyder Roofing of Oregon. This is the second green roof project Multnomah County has performed; the Amy Joslin Memorial Eco-Roof on the Multnomah Building was constructed in 2003. 

Snyder is currently applying a cold-applied roofing system to the top of the 95-year-old library, which was extensively renovated from 1994 to 1997.

“Ecoroofs can triple the life of a roof membrane,” said Multnomah County project manager Alan Proffitt. “The biggest causes of roof breakdown, UV rays and thermal shock, can’t get to the membrane.”

The library green roof will involve several layers of installation. [Read full article]

By Nathalie Weinstein,

DJC Oregon - August 4, 2008