It has been more than 10 years since the application of a living roof at the Ford Dearborn Truck Assembly Plant in Dearborn, Mich. The facility opened in April of 2003, with the actual roof application completed the preceding year. This was a landmark project for living roofs in the United States. At 454,000 square feet, it holds the distinction of being the largest living roof on a free-standing building in North America. It’s the fifth largest in the world. It also helped spawn interest in living roofs across the industry.
Throughout the years, I have chronicled my involvement with the Ford project from initial design discussions through quality control of the actual application. A couple of years ago, Roofing Contractor published the study that I completed on how the roof system was performing after eight years of application. A recent inspection revealed that all is well with the roof, the vegetation and the environmental systems set in place on this structure. Since it was installed, I have completed 30 vegetative roofs, including two more on Ford Motor Company facilities (including the company’s World Headquarters Building) in 2012.