VCU news

By Leila Ugincius

Virginia Commonwealth University has brought a bit of nature back to the city.

As part of the university's continuing efforts to go green, students and staff planted gardens in unexpected settings on each of its Richmond campuses.  Organizers held ribbon-cutting celebrations this month for each.

The Monroe Park Campus officially unveiled the Pollak Building's rooftop garden on April 17.

The vegetated garden — the legacy project of the 2009-2010 Monroe Park Campus Student Government Association (SGA) — serves as a living classroom to educate the campus community as well as a small gathering place for students. It demonstrates the stormwater reduction capacity of roofs as well as the cooling effects for mitigating heat island effect, said Jacek Ghosh, VCU Sustainability director.

The Pollak Building roof was selected for a couple of reasons, Ghosh said. First, the existing configuration allowed easy access from the corridor to the roof. Plus, the roof has good solar exposure that allows for different types of species to be planted.

"In a few weeks, a beehive will be installed," Ghosh said. "Bees will pollinate and create a more intact rooftop ecosystem. Finally, we have a wind turbine that was installed a couple of weeks ago. This is a pilot project designed to evaluate what the financial payback could be for harnessing wind on campus."

David Hanson, vice president for finance and administration, said the rooftop garden serves as a shining example of VCU's commitment to sustainability.

"Sustainability is a three-pronged stool," Hanson said. "Environment is part of it, but there's also a social component and an economic component. And I think this is a great example of how we can combine all three."

The MCV Campus launched its own environmental project combining social and economic elements on April 24 with the opening of the community garden on 10th Street.

The community garden includes plots owned by students, faculty, staff and community members, an open teaching area and two plots run and managed by volunteers who will donate all the food grown to local food banks.

"Community gardens are meant to be social gathering spaces," said Rachel Elves, green affairs chair for the MCV Campus SGA. "We want everybody to feel welcome and to be able to use the space."

Initiated by the MCV Campus SGA and Green Unity for VCU, the community garden project soon attracted the help of student clubs, service-learning groups, Greek organizations and VCU Facilities Management.

"What's awesome about it is the community aspect," said sophomore Alex Little, garden manager. "People are going to be able to come together, grow food together, learn together and have a local community where you see where your food comes from."