Client: Target Corporation

Location: 2939 W. Addison St., Chicago, IL

GreenGrid^® Size: 9,664 ft²

Installation Contractor: GreenGrid^®/WESTON

Green Roof Design: Hayden Bulin Larson Design Group Ltd., Landscape Architects

Rooftop System: Extensive

Status: Completed Summer 2003

Project Narrative: Target’s retail store on Chicago’s northwest side now features an environmentally friendly green roof. The almost 10,000 ft² green roof portion is designed to help reduce pollution and cut the store’s energy and maintenance costs. Another unique aspect of this building is that it is a complete reuse/expansion of a former department store vacant for the past 20 years.

The City of Chicago, a pioneer in green roofs in the U.S., has been encouraging the use of green roofs on new and existing privately held buildings across the city. Mayor Richard M. Daley explained, “the City of Chicago is using rooftop gardens, along with light-colored coatings and rooftop solar panels, to replace traditional black tar roofs and improve air quality. Rooftop gardening, like greening on boulevards and in parking lots, reduces dark, heat-trapping surfaces, which in turn lowers temperatures and reduces air pollution.” (A Guide to Rooftop Gardening, The City of Chicago, 2001).

Target's 9,664 ft² GreenGrid^® green roof was completed in 4 days. The 1,208 GreenGrid^® extensive modules were planted with Sedum acre, Sedum kamtschaticum, Sedum rupestre ‘Foresteranum’, Sedum spurium ‘Dragon’s Blood’, and Sedum spurium ‘Bailey’s Gold.’ The green roof design called for entire rows of one species of sedum which, when mature, will illustrate a striped pattern on the roof deck.