The Daniels Faculty’s Green Roof Innovation Testing Laboratory (GRIT Lab) is participating in Doors Open this year. Join us at 230 College Street on Saturday, May 23rd for tours of our award-winning green roof research facility.

Green roofs reduce building temperatures, mitigate urban heat island effect, absorb storm water and improve biodiversity. The multidisciplinary research team at the GRIT Lab tests the environmental performance of green roofs and green walls, and whether solar panels and green roofs can share the same space. The GRIT lab includes: 33 test beds, 270 sensors, a weather station, solar photovoltaic technology, green wall testing sites and a beautiful view of the city from the rooftop of 230 College Street.

Visitors will meet in the lobby of 230 College Street where a guide will meet them to take them up to the roof. There, they will be greeted by a researcher from the University of Toronto who will provide the tour.

Participants will be guided through the various green roof test beds and green wall testing sites. They will also be able to examine the solar panel/green roof installation that is testing whether the two technologies can work together and actually benefit one another. Each tour group will have the opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the benefits of green roofs and some of the early findings from research conducted to date.

Tours
10:30 am (1 hour)
11:45 am (1 hour)
12:00 pm (1 hour)
1:15 pm (1 hour)
2:30 pm (1 hour)
3:45 pm (1 hour)

Participants are advised to dress in outdoor appropriate clothes (sunscreen, a hat, or an umbrella may be needed, depending on the weather).

For more information on the GRIT Lab, visit: http://grit.daniels.utoronto.ca/

This year's Doors Open event features more than 155 buildings, including 55 new participants, an exciting speaker series and city-wide walking tours. Details are available at: http://www.toronto.ca/doorsopen.

Rendering Toronto's Landscape
Students from the Daniels Faculty’s landscape architecture program are also curating an exhibition in conjunction with Doors Open at Toronto’s City Hall (100 Queen Street West). Together with Ryerson University's School of Urban and Regional Planning, Master of Planning, and York University's School of Urban Studies the show, Rendering Toronto’s Landscape, will showcase drawings that transform experiences and observances at site and city scales. The display is being presented in partnership The Cultural Landscape Foundation, which is also hosting the conference Leading With Landscape at the Isabel Bader Theatre on Friday, May 22.

More on the GRIT Lab:

• The GRIT Lab receives an Award of Excellence from the American Society of Landscape Architects
• Can green roofs and solar panels share the same space? GRIT Lab researchers prepare to find out in phase II of green roof study
• The GRIT Lab launches phase II of its award-winning research — PLUS: check out the new web app!