Minnesota’s Target Center Completes Green Roof

September 29, 2009

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At 2.5 acres, the green roof atop the Target Center in the Twin Cities is the nation’s fifth-largest and the first installed on a North American arena.

The green roof in downtown in Minneapolis is planted with sedum and plants typical to the Minnesota prairie, including lupine, wild strawberry and dotted blazing-star, reports the Downtown Journal. The plants were grown off-site in New York.

The roof, which should last 40 years, is expected to capture about a million gallons of stormwater per year. Additionally, it should help alleviate the “heat island” effect that many typical downtown structures contribute to. The green roof, and 29 smaller conventional roofs that were part of the same project, cost $5.3 million, reports the Star Tribune.

During construction of the roof, 100 percent of the old roof was recycled by Tecta America, which handled the installation, according to a press release.

Target Center is home of the NBA’s Timberwolves.

Green roofs are becoming more and more popular.

The Wood County Hospital in Bowling Green, Ohio, added a green roof with 15,000 square feet of live plants at a cost of $330,000, reports McClatchy, via Energy Central.

And a vegetative roof atop the headquarters of American Life and Accident Insurance Co. of Kentucky will reduce heating and cooling needs by 20-30 percent.

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Reader Comments

It is exciting to see a public area getting in on the green roof craze. It makes a lot of sense and will help spread the word to the thousands of people who attend shows at the Target Center every week.

Matt Courtland of A Sustainable Life | September 29th, 2009

It sure is a step in the right direction,but at what cost????
There are over a billion square feet of white roof’s in this country,witch by the way do not stay white.
After investigating a few here in florida we found that within a sixty day time frame after cleaning we already had a good shade of gray,witch translate in to a few degrees of heat.
The one half we treated with our self cleaning coating stayed clean,saving on cooling cost????
Ad to that the cleaning and sealing products we use to treat all ac units,we could save any one 20% on
theire electric bill
So why would you spent millions on green planted roofs????
Please someone look into this green nanothecnology,this could potentally save 90% on what youre doing now,with the same results.
Please take a minute to visit our website at
extremeseal.net and see how you to can be green and still save.
Thank you for your attention in this matter.
Yours.
Paul Bogaars.

paul bogaars | October 5th, 2009

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