Southfield, Michigan

The A. Alfred Taubman Student Center at Lawrence Technological University was constructed to be a state-of-the-art LEED Silver building. They call it a “living laboratory” of sustainable design and engineering. The building incorporates a Hydrotech green roof composed of 6″ of lightweight soil and sedum plugs along with many other innovative technologies. We installed the soil, drip irrigation and thousands of sedum plugs on the roof as well as all landscaping around the building. The site landscape includes a large bio-swale that captures and filters storm water from the surrounding site as a pretreatment before entering storm drains.

The landscape around the building features a grove of Ginkgo trees, a large lawn area to accommodate student gatherings and outdoor classes, and a concrete and clay paver amphitheater. We also installed several walks of clay pavers, ornamental gardens and the mist system for the central rock feature.

  • Landscape architect: Harley Ellis Devereaux
  • Main characteristic of the project: Green roof, clay pavers, landscape and irrigation installation
  • Challenges of the project: Used innovative green roof technologies with lightweight soil and sedum plugs. Included large bio-swales to capture and filter storm water.
  • How we made it work: WH Canon Landscape Company had close cooperation with the designers to define the what and the how of the project execution.