Coava Coffee went green at its new West Side location on Jefferson Street in Portland, Oregon with the installation of a LiveWall^® Indoor Living Wall. An organic expression of Coava Coffee’s organic brand, the green wall is living artwork that attracts and engages customers as they enjoy their coffee in the café’s upper level seating area.

“Living walls, also called green walls, are structural systems that cover walls with growing plants. Living walls transform unadorned walls into vertical gardens,” said Dave MacKenzie, president, LiveWall, LLC. “In retail environments, living walls make interior spaces more appealing and relaxing.”

“We are not just selling top-tier specialty coffee. We are offering hospitality, creating a welcoming ambiance, where our customers feel like friends invited to hang out in our cafés,” said Matt Higgins, founder and president, Coava Coffee Roasters. “I had seen green walls in larger spaces, and that got me thinking about featuring a green wall as a unique living work of art our customers can experience as they enjoy a great cup of coffee with us.”

Completed in October 2017, the six-foot high vertical garden spans 17 feet along the back wall of the café’s upstairs seating area. In total, the green wall has 52 LiveWall modular planters with inserts that contain the growing medium and plants. Blossoms Floral, a full-service florist and design studio, provided and maintains the plants, a mix of more than 100 Pothos ‘Neon’ and Pothos ‘Silver Cloud’ plants arranged in a distinctive pattern of wide stripes in alternating dark and light green colors.

“Coava Coffee has direct relations with small rural growers, and the green wall suggests and reinforces the direct connection between Coava and the source farms,” said Mark Annen, AIA, NCARB, Annen Architecture and Design, the project architect. “In addition to expressing the Coava brand and creating captivating visual interest, the green wall fulfills an important architectural function.”

Annen explained that the upstairs section of the café has a low ceiling that hides the mechanicals. The space between the ceiling and the concrete floor could feel compressed. The green wall balances the weight of the concrete floor and ceiling, creating a sense of openness.

Don Trotter, owner of Oregon Restaurant Equipment, specializes in restaurant construction and equipment installation and served as the general contractor for the project. He was responsible for the selection and installation of the green wall system. “Price and ease of installation as a turnkey system were key factors in the specification of LiveWall,” he said.

“We trusted Don’s recommendation,” said Annen. “LiveWall looked to be a well-designed system that could be maintained under the demands of a commercial application. The hardware, planter hanging system, and irrigation lines are simple but solid in construction.”

“The living wall meets our expectations and has been well-received by our customers,” said Higgins. “When we look at customer reviews on social media, they include positive comments and photos of the green wall.”

Coava Coffee Roasters

Coava Coffee began in Matt Higgins’ garage in 2008. A veteran barista and roaster, Matt dreamed of starting his own company, where he could roast and prepare coffees that would be exciting for professional baristas and inviting to everyday drinkers. To accomplish this goal, Matt committed to sourcing exceptional “coava” (green coffee) as the bedrock upon which the company was built. Today, Coava Coffee has three locations in Portland and one in San Diego. Visit Coava online at www.coavacoffee.com. Better yet, stop by to visit us. We will tell more about the Coava story and make you a great cup of coffee, which is our greatest joy.

Check out the feature in Coffee Business World!
Organic feature for a green coffee roaster

The new Monroe County Parking Garage in Bloomington, Ind. features a unique LiveWall® installation. LiveWall, the green industry’s most sustainable, durable and low-maintenance living wall system, fills five of the parking structure’s window openings with a variety of plants that bloom in shades of yellow, red, pink, purple, and green.

“The idea was to break up the otherwise stark exterior of the six-story parking garage with an interesting and visually appealing element, achieved by incorporating some green design,” said Stephen Andoh, AIA, LEED AP, project manager, Axis Architecture + Interiors, the project architect.
“Many older buildings in the area have second and third story window boxes planted with flowers,” said Julie Thomas, Monroe County commissioner. “Installing LiveWall put window boxes into the windows of the parking garage. The green wall, with a total of 180 plants in a variety of seven annuals, is a beautiful, lively addition to the garage “LiveWall was a good choice for an outside green wall exposed to the elements. Its components are strong and durable,” said Joel Fleming, project manager, Hagerman Construction Corporation, the project’s general contractor.

“LiveWall’s structural design lent itself to a secure installation within the garage windows in a way that allows for easy access from behind the green wall on the inside the garage,” said Logan Messmer, project engineer, ProCLAD, Inc., a building envelop contractor selected to install the parking garage green wall.

The window openings in the parking garage measure 8 feet long by 6 feet tall. ProCLAD designed and installed a framework within the window openings with 4-inch by 4-inch by ¼-inch tube steel. They bolted the LiveWall system’s horizontal aluminum rails to the tube steel frames. Each of the five sections of green wall has six rows of LiveWall modular planter boxes, which slide into the rails.

By Growing Fresh Vegetables and Herbs on LiveWall Green Walls, Phipps Educates Visitors and Inspires Vertical Gardening for Urban Horticulture

Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens has created a display of LiveWall^® green walls to showcase  vertical gardening as an option for growing local produce in urban areas. Founded in 1893, Phipps has been Pittsburgh’s green oasis for more than 120 years. The conservatory is a green leader among public gardens — widely recognized for its leadership and commitment to sustainability including environmental conservation, renewable energy, green building design, and healthy living. LiveWall, LLC is the leading designer of practical and sustainable living wall system solutions for vertical gardening.

“Limited space is a significant challenge for urban gardening,” said Michael Bechtel, display horticulturist, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. “With our green walls, we have the opportunity to study, evaluate and learn about growing edibles on space-efficient vertical gardens. This forward-thinking approach enables Phipps to offer education and assistance to homeowners, schools and community organizations on planning, installing and maintaining their own green walls so that they can benefit from fresh produce.”

“Green walls, also known as living walls, are structural and horticultural systems that attach to existing walls and transform them into vertical gardens,” said Dave MacKenzie, president of LiveWall. “Growing vegetables and herbs on its green wall display is an innovative way for Phipps to demonstrate how families and community groups can grow their own fresh, healthy produce even if they do not have areas for large garden plots.”

Phipps offers a variety of adult and youth programs, classes, and events to educate visitors about the benefits of greener gardening, raised-bed vegetable gardening techniques, local food production, and healthy eating. In addition, Phipps sponsors Homegrown, its outreach program dedicated to increasing community access to fresh produce, promoting better food choices, and improving the overall health of families. Since 2013, the program has established more than 200 vegetable gardens in urban and underserved neighborhoods. The latest step in Phipps’ important outreach mission is the installation of the LiveWall Green Wall display of vertical gardening. In the spring, beets, carrots, collard greens, kale, and kohlrabi grow on the green walls. Summer plantings include basil, rosemary, thyme, celery root, and various peppers.

Starting in 2015, Phipps tested LiveWall Inspire Living Wall Panels alongside several other living wall systems on the south facing wall of its Production Greenhouse Facility. The standardized panels are 4-feet wide and 7-feet, four inches tall. Each has 24 molded plastic modular planter boxes. After completing initial testing, Phipps installed nine more Inspire standard panels.

According to Bechtel, LiveWall proved to be the system of choice because of its soil volume and depth for growing and sustaining plants on the sunny wall, its integrated irrigation components, and the strength and durability of its materials.

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LiveWall^® Enlivens the Showroom at LACarGuy’s Subaru Dealership in Hawthorne   

When car buyers stop into Subaru Pacific, 14700 Hindry Avenue, Hawthorne, Calif., they receive a special “green” welcome at the LACarGUY dealership. The showroom features a living wall, a 14-foot high vertical garden with ten rows of planter boxes containing 120 plants, created with the LiveWall^® Green Wall System.

“Living walls, also known as green walls, are structural systems that attach to existing exterior or interior walls to transform unadorned wall surfaces into vertical gardens,” said Dave MacKenzie, president, LiveWall, LLC (Spring Lake, Mich.) “When installed indoors, they make interior spaces more appealing and inviting and improve indoor air quality.”

“Think about the typical car showroom. They are sterile, stressful. Our living wall is an organic, green element that creates a more relaxed, welcoming environment,” said James Hartzberg, general manager, Subaru Pacific. “As a symbol of our commitment to sustainability, it connects with the values of Subaru car buyers.”

“The green wall brings to life what LAcarGUY and Subaru stand for,” said Alisha Auringer, manager of the environment, LAcarGUY. “It visually expresses our commitment to caring for the environment.”

Installed in January 2016 by Outside Matters Landscaping (El Segundo, Calif.), the Subaru Pacific green wall is 13 feet, 7 inches high and 8 feet wide. Totaling 110 square feet, it has ten rows, each with six LiveWall modular wall-planters lined with plant container inserts that have a mix of six different indoor plants.  Florasource, Ltd. (San Clemente, Calif.), an independent horticulture supply company and Southern California LiveWall representative, advised LACarGUY on green wall design and plant selection and provided 120 pre-grown nursery plants in the containers.

Love of the outdoors and concern for the environment are hallmarks of the Subaru brand. For example, Subaru has built all its cars in zero-landfill manufacturing facilities since 2004. The LAcarGUY family of dealerships is passionate about the environment. Among its green initiatives, LAcarGUY was the first dealer in the country to promote adoption of electric vehicles by offering charging stations open to the public at its dealerships. Subaru Pacific earned distinction as an Eco-Friendly Certified Dealer — joining the ranks of Subaru dealers that meet stringent environmental standards. In addition to the green wall, Subaru Pacific has a 100-foot-long stormwater retention planter that captures all the runoff from its building, and daylighting solar tubes reduce electricity consumption in the service area.

“Whether they want to test drive a Subaru Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle that reduces smog-forming emissions to nearly zero, take a look at our green wall, or learn more about LACarGuy’s environmental stewardship and conservation efforts, we invite people to visit Subaru Pacific,” said Hartzberg.

LAcarGUY

The LAcarGUY family of dealerships has been a Los Angeles fixture since Mike Sullivan’s dad “Sully” opened his first dealership, Volkswagen Santa Monica in 1974.  Today, Mike Sullivan’s LAcarGUY has grown to 11 award-winning dealerships throughout Los Angeles. As a leader in green vehicle sales, LAcarGUY is proud of its efforts to lead the industry to a greener automotive future, both internally and externally.  Internal sustainable efforts include an LAcarGUY green team, installation of EV charging stations, building Audi’s first Gold LEED-certified dealership, and monthly employee education led by the company’s Manager of the Environment.  LAcarGUY partners with a variety of local green organizations as well, including Heal The Bay, Grades of Green, Environmental Media Assoc, California parks to name a few.  Learn more about LAcarGUY on our website. Find us on Facebook.

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