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The green roof required 2,000 pounds of dirt and sod to sustain plants that thrive at high altitudes. The roof even includes two working beehives. Workers hoisted 2,000 pounds of dirt and sod to the roof and began planting. At Bernheim, a companion garden would be built, allowing for research and ensuring that the roof be a model for future green endeavors. Te plants would take care of themselves, but would be attractive, with considerations given for density, texture, color and bloom, allowing green views to workers in taller constructions. With an eye toward Mies' symmetrical style, the garden is plotted in squares that mimic a bee's work pattern. Two working beehives are on the roof, annually producing more than 200 gallons of honey, which was named best in the state at the 2012 Kentucky State Fair. Te roof garden is now its own ecosystem as birds, insects of all sorts, and traveling plants have made the rooftop home. Green roofs help with sewer systems by managing storm water and cooling the city; the plants clean the air. "Te idea of letting nature reclaim what we have already built is in many ways the future of architecture," Wourms says. "If we are talking about design, Mother Nature had millions of years to do all the tests and trials for us. Our only job as the designers of this future is to match biological diversity to the conditions between buildings and humans. We are looking at the grand design." "At the most," Lampton says, "we can fll a bucketful. Te Ohio will be here for a thousand years. It will not remember that we did one thing or another, but the future will know." Living Proof The next big project at the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest is its "edible garden," part of which is to open this year. Edible garden? Isn't that just a vegetable garden? Yes and no. Claude Stephens, facilitator of outreach and regenerative design at Bernheim, explains: "It is like a vegetable garden but goes way beyond that. We're looking at edible weeds, native plants, nuts and fruits native to the area, and that ecological relationship in nature that ultimately provides food." The edible garden, which is across from the visitor center and includes an outdoor pavilion, is being built to the standards of the International Living Future Institute's "Living Building Challenge," which, according to the institute's website, aims for "the creation of building projects at all scales that operate as cleanly, beautifully and effciently as nature." Adds Stephens: "(We) have had to question and re-think nearly every aspect of how buildings come together. And that's taking into account that we have also worked on a LEED Platinum (the highest level of energy and environmental design) building. Bernheim is absolutely the right place for this kind of experiment. Our vision calls for us to be leaders in ecological stewardship. Applying the language of nature to the built environment is where the future of building is headed." JLC 10.13 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 83