Green+Wall

The idea of this project is to place a tree in the large blank area above the north facing entrance in the Aiken Center. It would help clean indoor air pollution, be aesthetically pleasing, could possibly be a symbol of the Rubenstein school; something that sets us apart to prospective students and even other students on campus. It would also provide students with a continuous learning opportunity to maintain the care and upkeep of the tree. It would be visible from the inside and outside of the building.

Open space above doorway - Very large, empty area, north-facing window

Potential issues
 * High up, hard to access and water....solution: hydroponic drip fed directly from the green roof rainwater runoff?
 * North-facing, so limited light
 * How much weight can the space support?
 * Large area - expensive
 * Ideas for flat bottom space
 * Norfolk Island Pine - not a true evergreen (so it doesn't need a dormancy period) and doesn't need a ton of light so it should do well in that space. Also cheap and fast growing

2/17 Sometime next week I'm going in to talk to Mark Starrett about possible options in regards to greening the space above the north doorway.

2/24 I was supposed to meet Mark Friday the 21st, but unfortunately he was ill and needed to reschedule.

3/19 I met with Mark today to assess the open area for these trees. My original idea was to fill the landing with soil and plant one large tree, Mark suggested instead that we plant a small grove of them on either corner of the landing, which I agree is more feasible than one large tree. Also, these Norfolk Island Pines don't need a ton of soil and the landing area looks sturdy enough to support several potted Norfolk Pines (currently trying to confirm that). Other issues include water and safety. For watering the plants, a hydroponic drip from the green roof runoff was my original idea, but issues with no water being collected 4-5 months out of the year and siphoning rainwater runoff could potentially effect data collection. Mark suggested an automated irrigation system that monitors soil moisture, similar to the one installed in WDW that waters the indoor trees there. A possible issue with that would have been proximity to a water line, but we discovered there's a sink and emergency shower water line directly behind the wall in the back right corner of the landing, so all that would need to be done would be getting a hole drilled through the brick and running a short line to the landing with the control panel for the automated irrigation system set up in that classroom. The final issue to assess before writing this proposal is contacting risk management about safety precautions. There would need to be some kind of ladder in the building to reach the landing, anybody with access would have to take the "working at heights" safety course, and a railing might need to be installed. Also, it depends on how often we need access to the plants. They need to be watered at least weekly, but with an automated irrigation system, we can cut down the number of times people need to be up there to maybe once every few months for monitoring purposes, or even once a year to fertilize it once the system is up and running.

I plan on starting to write a proposal for this project after I get price estimates for a few things:
 * 1) Risk management (ladder, railing)
 * 2) Drilling a hole through the bricks to the water source
 * 3) The cost of the irrigation system