Vision

The RBC Waterpark place project is a LEED Platinum office complex located on 88 Queen Street in Toronto. The 31 storey tower and 980,000 square foot building were developed by Oxford properties and designed by WZMH Architects. This modern office building is setting a new standard for smart design, sustainability and an amenity-rich downtown office life. Part of this design are the 4 500 m2 (48,500 square feet) green roofs located on the 3th and 8th floors and on the roofs of the tower designed by DTAH Landscape architects.

Design

The green roofs on the 3th and 8th floor are designed in a striped pattern using different coloured sedums. They are visible from various locations and levels of the building for the office employees to enjoy. Some of the stripes are also planted with single upright accent perennials and grasses, which were planted through the sedum mats into the growing medium to accentuate to overall design pattern.

Green Roof Assembly

As the combination of sedums and perennials was part of the overall green roof design, the ZinCo Sedum-Roof plus assembly was used to install this green roof. The Floradrain® FD25-E and the light weight engineered growing medium ZinCoblend-E are key elements in this assembly, providing the necessary growing conditions and meeting the storm water management requirements for the city of Toronto.

Key Challenges

The key challenges of this project were the design of the green roof assembly, specifically for the high wind areas on the tower roof. Anti-erosion measures were included to safely secure the growing medium in these areas, as well as an irrigation system to protect the green roof from drying out. Another challenge was the vertical transportation of the materials, especially to the 31 storey tower roof. The davit arms for window washing were used to hoist the materials onto the tower roofs.