HBS The Rock
Boston, MA
Harvard Business School
The Rock Center
Location
Boston, MA
Size
2,500 sq. ft.
Project Completion
August 2019
AWARD WINNER
Project of the Year by SIKA SARNAFIL - Sustainability, Third Place
BRUTALISM MEETS GREEN RENOVATION
The Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, a 50-year-old brutalist building at Harvard Business School, was in need of an update. Instead of demolishing the building, HBS decided to renovate and worked with Recover to design two pollinator-friendly roofs that would manage stormwater and insulate the underlying structure. Recover installed all roof elements above the waterproofing which required craning materials to the roof over a period of two-days. Materials included: seventy super-sacks of engineered green roof media, grow-through pavers for border pathways, slate flagstones, 2,000 flowering perennials, and six prefabricated 2-foot diameter weathered-steel rings that give enkianthus and witch hazel bushes space to thrive. Drought tolerant plants were selected to help the Business School meet its water management goals.
The green roofs are visible from 2nd and 3rd floor office windows as well as from the 2nd-floor patio where, in the summer, building staff enjoy watching bees dance around anise hyssop flowers while they patiently await the roof’s resident praying mantis to reveal herself.
Post-construction, Recover maintains the roofs to keep them thriving year after year.
PROJECT INFORMATION
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Harvard Business School
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Intensive
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Drought-tolerant perennials, grasses, trumpet vine, witch hazel, enkianthus
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Recover Green Roofs
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Recover Green Roofs
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ZinCo USA
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Sika Sarnafil PVC
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Read Custom Soils
