Nurseries and landscapers from the Lower Mainland have planted the seeds for contracts to develop a "living roof" atop Vancouver's expanded convention centre.

Proposals for contracts to supply and grow 752,000 grass-like plants and shrubs, comprising 19 different species, over six acres were due to be submitted April 25. A separate contract to install and maintain the plants will be awarded next year.

"This will be the largest non-industrial (roof) in North America," said Bruce Hemstock, the project's architect, during a recent information session with gardening and landscaping industry insiders and reporters.

The living roof will insulate the new $565-million convention centre building, now under construction near the current site at Canada Place. The green space will also absorb and filter storm water while relying on recycled waste water from inside the building.

Bayne Stanley, Business Edge
Project architect Bruce Hemstock checks out one of the plant test boxes for the expanded Vancouver Convention Centre's six-acre 'living roof' concept.

Plants are expected to be grown off-site and on-site and installed by 2007, before the expansion facility opens in 2008. Hemstock, a principal with PWL Landscape Architects Inc., and Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre Expansion Project Ltd. (VCCEP) executives will evaluate the proposals and determine whether to deal with one grower-supplier or several firms.

Hemstock said his group has conquered technical issues, but needs help with esthetics. The preferred plants are drought-tolerant and mostly native to B.C.

Test plants are already being grown on wooden plots on Port of Vancouver land north of the Hastings Park thoroughbred horseracing track.

"The whole idea was to create an ecological sanctuary up on the roof," Hemstock said at the testing site after the information session downtown.

"(The living roof) is something that is very new, certainly to urban situations ... and the idea behind it is to allow for different expressions of a roof type in the downtown, to push the issue of sustainability."

Hemstock and VCCEP executives hope the roof will obtain gold status under the leadership in energy and environmental design (LEED) certification program, intended in part to help Canada meet its emissions-reduction obligations under the Kyoto protocol.

"A lot of these plants don't exist at this scale, this size of numbers that we're looking for for this project - the numbers are quite large," said Hemstock.

Suppliers, who will likely have to put up warranties, will face a major challenge. One VCCEP official admitted the developers don't yet know how they can get plants into construction site, and there will be no place to store them before they go on the roof.

Paul O'Rourke, horticultural manager for Surrey-based Wilco Landscape Contractors Ltd., one of Canada's largest growers and installers, said the two-week period between the information session and the proposal-submission deadline was too short.

It only gave potential bidders time to do research, without gathering follow-up information.

"On a project of this size, the more time you're given, the more accurate the proposal is," said O'Rourke.

He said the large project may deter smaller firms that specialize in growing plants native to B.C.

He called for several nurseries to be allowed to supply plants.

"Obviously, it's a big project and most nurseries are going to be very interested, but like Bruce (Hemstock) said, most native-plant nurseries are smaller nurseries and a project of this size will dedicate a lot of their resources," said O'Rourke "That's why a lot of the questions revolved around warranties. There are a lot of plants needed and then there's the one-year warranty of making sure that they actually stay alive onsite. That's almost out of (the growers') hands."

Geoff Hoogstra, Wilco's Vancouver-area estimator, said growers have reason to be concerned about contract requirements because there is no model to go by.

"It is an untapped area," said Hoogstra. "When you've got such a big site, you're going to be looking at it and (saying to yourself): Six acres of greenspace - on a roof! Nobody's really done this."

Noting that local plants could also be susceptible to strong winds, Wilco said one deal to supply and install the plants might alleviate concerns, because the supplier would be sure to dedicate time to maintenance.

"As you can see, the turnout for this kind of project is relatively small, considering the size of the project," said O'Rourke, adding few Vancouver-area nurseries would be able to submit a "proper proposal."

Reporters and publicists appeared to outnumber industry insiders at the information session, and only three firms sent representatives to the test site.

Angela McQueen, a VCCEP contract administrator for the living roof, said growers had time between April 1 and April 11, as well as the two weeks after the information session, to review the request-for-proposal guidelines.

"We actually allow a lot of flexibility for these guys to make proposals to us," said McQueen. "We sent out evaluation criteria of the kind of things that we're going to be looking at when we're evaluating the bids. But we're certainly very open to any proposals, and methodology approaches that the bidders brought."

Ron Nataros, owner of Langley-based NATS Nursery Ltd., said VCCEP has put forth "a great spirit of co-operation" and his firm had a fairly good idea of how to grow the plants in time.

"It's a spectacular opportunity to be part of something really neat," said Nataros.

As a taxpayer, he said, he is comfortable that the contracting process is being done properly. The federal and provincial governments have each contributed $222.5 million while Tourism Vancouver has provided $90 million and the remaining $30 million will come from parking, supplier agreements and retail leases.

NATS supplied plants for the test plots, but Nataros said his firm did not have an inside track on getting the grower contract.

"We'll have to prove ourselves and show that we can work as a team with their organization, also (show) that we can, if necessary, bring in colleagues in the industry to work in specialty plants."

VCCEP's McQueen said the installation contract will offered through a request for proposals or tendering process.

(Monte Stewart can be reached at monte@businessedge.ca)