February 8, 2006—ShoreBank was awarded one of twenty $5,000 green roof grants from the City of Chicago’s Department of Environment that will assist in realizing new green roof projects throughout the city.
ShoreBank’s grant will go toward green roof design and installation for its new branch scheduled to open later this year at 79th and Racine. Once completed, the new branch in Chicago’s Auburn-Gresham neighborhood will be the first and only LEED-certified bank building in the city and one of the first of its kind in the country, according to ShoreBank.
The twenty projects awarded grants were selected in a “blind” process; evaluation criteria included project location and type, visibility, and overall environmental benefit. The grants went to residential and small commercial buildings, including a fire station built in 1888, and an adaptive renovation of an existing warehouse in the historic Stockyards District.
Green roofs benefit individual building owners by making the building warmer in winter and cooler in summer, thereby reducing energy requirements and costs, and by creating conditions for a longer-lasting roof system. They benefit the local community or city by reducing stormwater runoff, thereby relieving pressure on the storm sewer system, and by helping reduce the urban heat island effect.
