First the Los Angeles Times and now USA Today pick up the story on an 18-story Portland federal building being covered with a $100 million plus green wall. The Portland building will have a series of 250-foot trellises attached to its west side that will hold planters and greenery to provide environmental benefits like reduced cooling costs. The USA Today article mentions that "living walls" and "vertical gardening" aren't new—in fact, LA has a few that were installed by a company called Green Living Technologies. Currently downtown is home to four living walls on Skid Row: at the Weingart Center, the Rainbow apartments, the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, and the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex. The gardens are part of the "Urban Farming Food Chain," a pilot program begun in LA a few years ago (Architect's Newspaper has more on the trend). All this upright gardening reminds us of the recent story out of China, where a 70-story "vertical forest" is planned. [LA garden wall Image via Greenroofs.com]
· Giant Trellis for Portland Federal Building [LA Times]
· Try Pruning This [USA Today]
· Urban Farming Foodchain [Official Site]
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