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this living wall, as they had vast experience designing and installing some of the expansive living walls ever created," said Kuttner, Ambius was hired in the fall of 2011, and the lead designers for the project were Denise Eichmann, and Mark Hawry. Eichmann is internationally recognized for the design and construction of uniquely challenging, one-of-a-kind sustainable landscape projects with award-winning expertise on the design, construction and installation of vertical gardens and living walls. "Dr. Perkins was the originator of the green wall's plant pattern, which is a DNA double helix strand which highlights a DNA strand made of evergreen so that it stays green all year round, as well as seasonal changes with evergreen and flowering plants," said Eichmann. "Working with Dr. Perkins, his colleagues, and the architect firm, we produced four drawings with recommended plant species and plant design for the spring, summer, fall and winter living wall prototype." "Part of our green wall message is that DNA is always with us, and as the DNA strand is made of evergreen, we have a living statement that the fundamentals of life are always with us," said Perkins. "It was important that the plant species During www.landscapeirrigation.com were noninvasive, and we labeled plants as 'red light' (too invasive or not indigenous), 'yellow light' as possible contenders and 'green light' as our top recommendations," said Eichmann. "After the plants were selected, we started the design and plantacquisition process." "The plants were all grown at the Twixwood Nursery in Berrien Springs, Michigan," said Nichols. "Steel panels were plugged in with the different plant species which remained in the nursery for 16 weeks to grow into their panels. After 16 weeks, they were shipped to our site for the Ambius team to install." "A vertical green wall is an unnatural growth environment for plants in terms of drainage, solar input, and other factors," said Perkins. "Plants that do well in highstress environments are often invasive. Ambius worked collaboratively with us, patiently and enthusiastically, to identify plants that were able to tolerate those unique conditions and not disrupt the surrounding vegetation communities. We weren't so much concerned that the plants were native to North Carolina (that's a really tough designation to pin down, anyway), as with whether the plants would invade the surrounding landscape (i.e., be the next kudzu or autumn olive)." Solution "We have an underground irrigation system that captures rainwater," said Nichols. "The irrigation system for the green wall is quite complex with the wall broken out into seven different irrigation zones." "The top zone is the most exposed and requires the most water," said Eichmann. "We established a system where each zone was watered separately from each other, taking advantage of the university's underground irrigation system and ensuring that each zone was appropriately watered." The installation of the green wall took about two weeks. "It was fascinating to watch the installation process," said Nichols. "The wall is 24 feet wide and 35 feet tall, and there were 693 standard panels and several custom panels, so ensuring that the right plant was placed in the proper place was crucial. Each plant container was numbered, and Ambius followed their chart which showed exactly where to put each container on the wall." "The living wall features 14 plant species including Carex (sedges), Polystrichum (Christmas fern) Heuchera (coral bells), Sedum (stonecrop), English Lavender, Gelsemium (yellow jasmine) and Hellebore (Lenten rose)," said Eichmann. "Ambius was able to deliver a truly turnkey system and were great partners to work with," said Michael Heavner, project manager, Matthews Construction. "We had never been involved with a green wall of this size and magnitude before, and were happy to report that the system was installed and working beautifully just as projected." Results "This living wall at our Platinum LEED-certified facility is now directly involved in teaching about environmental conservation," said Perkins. "Queens University of Charlotte is demonstrating conservation, as the abundance of green design features ensures that students learn both in and from the building. Its green wall features non-invasive plants which keep the building cool. The students understand how living walls come complete with their own 'life support' system, which is comprised of a supporting structure to hold the plants vertically, a growth medium to ensure plant longevity, an irrigation/fertilizaLandscape and Irrigation 21