The Green Roof, built in November 2007, is the first green roof on a city-owned building in Denver. Designed to be publicly accessible, interpretive and educational, it demonstrates the many benefits of green roofs to communities and the environment.

The Green Roof is also a research site. Data is collected annually for the species grown in this garden. Species are selected for their rate of establishment, their environmental tolerances, their ease of availability and/or propagation, their aesthetic value and their potential wildlife habitat value. Plants are also chosen for their tolerance of minimal supplemental irrigation.

Some of the exceptional plants grown thus far on the Green Roof include carpeting groundcovers of Chrysanthemum weyrichii, Delosperma nubigenum, Thymus neiceffi and Veronica thymoides. Ipomopsis aggregata and Penstemon angustifolius are also noteworthy performers.

For a list of plants on the Green Roof, click here.