Chicago City Hall is on the list...check out this great article and see some of the other pretty AWESOME roof tops.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Service with Precision Quality
Service: at Weber Metals Inc., we strive to service our customers. Precision, quality work in the sheet metal fabrication industry, combined with unmatched turnaround time. A very difficult job to master! With over 25 years of experience we have learned the logistics of product flow and shop setup to deliver custom fabricated metal with incredibly fast turn around time. Combine that with state of the art metal fabrication equipment to provide accurate parts every time, and you get the parts you need when you need them.
Reduces Energy Costs...
Green roofs last longer than conventional roofs, reduce energy costs with natural insulation, create peaceful retreats for people and animals, and absorb storm water, potentially lessening the need for complex and expensive drainage systems. On a wider scale, green roofs improve air quality and help reduce the Urban Heat Island Effect, a condition in which city and suburban developments absorb and trap heat. Anyone who has walked across a scalding parking lot on a hot, summer day has felt one effect of an Urban Heat Island.The layers of a green roof must, like any roof, accommodate drainage and protect the building from the elements with a waterproof membrane. But they also must create a growing area and potentially provide support, irrigation and root protection barriers while staying as light as possible.
Two types of green roof exist: intensive and extensive. Intensive green roofs are essentially elevated parks. They can sustain shrubs, trees, walkways and benches with their complex structural support, irrigation, drainage and root protection layers. The foot or more of growing medium needed for an intensive green roof creates a load of 80-150 pounds (36-68 kilograms) per square foot. Extensive green roofs are relatively light at 15-50 pounds (7-23 kilograms) per square foot. They support hearty native ground cover that requires little maintenance. Extensive green roofs usually exist solely for their environmental benefits and don't function as accessible rooftop gardens.
One of the most famous American green rooftops, Chicago's City Hall, combines extensive, intensive, and the intermediary semi-intensive systems on one retrofitted roof. Under the Mayor's direction, the City of Chicago's Department of Environment City Hall pilot program kicked off a citywide push to support green rooftop systems with incentives and grants.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Fashionable but are nothing new...
In 1914, architect Frank Lloyd Wright used a roof garden for a Chicago restaurant.
Green roofs are increasingly fashionable, but they're nothing new -- elaborate roof plantings were used in Rome and Mesopotamia 2,500 to 3,000 years ago. The best known were probably the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Green roofs are increasingly fashionable, but they're nothing new -- elaborate roof plantings were used in Rome and Mesopotamia 2,500 to 3,000 years ago. The best known were probably the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Simpler green roofs have also been used for millennia by Scandinavians and Kurds. Homes were made of mud; weeds grew on the mud and created sod that helped keep the home warm or cool.
Going green on your roof will improve visual and aesthetic impact, and can prolong the roof's life. It reduces heat loss in winter and heat gain in summer, and can reduce water runoff by as much as 50 percent while putting to good use an otherwise unused space, providing habitat for birds and butterflies. Using the rooftop expands living space for activities such as dining, recreation and enjoying city views.
The benefits of gardening on the roof are so many that the Environmental Protection Agency is encouraging cities to start roof garden programs. The EPA's goal is decreasing the heat-island effect found in cities, which raises temperatures in urban and suburban areas by several degrees. The agency estimates that increasing an urban area's acreage of planted space by just a few percentage points can lower temperatures several degrees, significantly reducing smog and saving millions of dollars in energy costs.
Some gardens at the J. Paul Getty Museum of Art in Los Angeles are green roofs, too. There's a lush garden on the roof of Chicago's City Hall. Green roofs dot the tops of offices and residences in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and San Francisco. In Washington, there are several buildings with such roofs, including the national headquarters of the American Society of Landscape Architects.
Going green on your roof will improve visual and aesthetic impact, and can prolong the roof's life. It reduces heat loss in winter and heat gain in summer, and can reduce water runoff by as much as 50 percent while putting to good use an otherwise unused space, providing habitat for birds and butterflies. Using the rooftop expands living space for activities such as dining, recreation and enjoying city views.
The benefits of gardening on the roof are so many that the Environmental Protection Agency is encouraging cities to start roof garden programs. The EPA's goal is decreasing the heat-island effect found in cities, which raises temperatures in urban and suburban areas by several degrees. The agency estimates that increasing an urban area's acreage of planted space by just a few percentage points can lower temperatures several degrees, significantly reducing smog and saving millions of dollars in energy costs.
Some gardens at the J. Paul Getty Museum of Art in Los Angeles are green roofs, too. There's a lush garden on the roof of Chicago's City Hall. Green roofs dot the tops of offices and residences in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and San Francisco. In Washington, there are several buildings with such roofs, including the national headquarters of the American Society of Landscape Architects.
Friday, May 6, 2011
GET goes Bendable and Expandable
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Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Durable Countertops
Using sheet metal for countertops in bars and restaurants has been around for centuries. Now, many home owners are using it in their own kitchens as countertops. The look of sheet metal deviates from the norm, and it's fairly durable. There are three types of sheet metal that are used for countertops: zinc, copper and stainless. Stainless and copper sheet metal are generally more commonly used than zinc sheet metal, but recently that has started to change. Zinc sheet metal is now being used more and more for it's unique look and it's ability to be shaped and molded...but it can be much more costly.Monday, May 2, 2011
Lets talk METAL
Stainless Steel
The look of an industrial kitchen is yours with stainless steel sheets, which give a continuous design flow when matched with stainless steel appliances.
Copper
This is one metal that can turn a backsplash into a work of art through many novel finishes. For instance, handcrafted 2-inch wide enameled copper tiles can create a striking border with 4-inch square brushed, patina, verde or bright copper tiles. Two-color copper bricks can give a look that is anything but rustic. Copper finishes can capture every color and design imaginable.
Read more: Metal Kitchen Backsplash Ideas eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/list_5931581_metal-kitchen-backsplash-ideas.html#ixzz1KeojHRsI
The look of an industrial kitchen is yours with stainless steel sheets, which give a continuous design flow when matched with stainless steel appliances.
Copper
This is one metal that can turn a backsplash into a work of art through many novel finishes. For instance, handcrafted 2-inch wide enameled copper tiles can create a striking border with 4-inch square brushed, patina, verde or bright copper tiles. Two-color copper bricks can give a look that is anything but rustic. Copper finishes can capture every color and design imaginable.
Read more: Metal Kitchen Backsplash Ideas eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/list_5931581_metal-kitchen-backsplash-ideas.html#ixzz1KeojHRsI
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