Petal: Place
Imperative 02: Urban Agriculture

Rooftop Garden

Like most spaces in The Kendeda Building, the rooftop garden serves many purposes and helps contribute to the building’s performance. The approximately 5,000 square foot rooftop garden consists of a honeybee apiary, pollinator garden, blueberry orchard, and a laboratory. These elements help satisfy the Urban Agriculture Imperative requirement while simultaneously offering valuable curriculum and research opportunities. 

As with most rooftop gardens, The Kendeda Building contains catchments to help manage rainwater runoff. It also helps mitigate the urban heat island effect by reducing the amount of heat radiated back into the surrounding area. The PV array overhangs onto the rooftop garden providing occupants with shade thereby extending its use into more months of the year.

The Kendeda Building provides a model for sustainable and productive infrastructure that supports pollinators and pollinator habitat conservation awareness. The Georgia Tech Urban Honey Bee Project is an interdisciplinary undergraduate research and education program focused on the impact of urban habitats on honey bees. This unique program has located their hives on The Kendeda Building rooftop garden.