The EcoCenter at Heron's Head Park

The EcoCenter at Heron's Head Park is a landmark environmental education center in San Francisco dedicated to environmental justice and teaching about sustainability in the built environment. The center features: an off-grid solar array, an on-site wastewater treatment system with a constructed wetland; 15K gallons of rainwater storage; vegetative roof; reused and recycled building materials, and an array of sustainable landscape and land management solutions.

Monday, October 25, 2010

We have rainwater!

Habitat Gardens installed a meter for our rainwater catchment barrels so that we can see how much rain we have! After this past week's rain, the meter jumped from 4 1/2 feet to over 6 feet!

The first rainwater tank gets water from the standing seam roof, while the second and third tanks receive water that drains through the living roof. The second and third tanks are connected by a pipe underground so the water level in those two tanks will always be the same.

Currently, the rainwater from the second and third tanks are pumped to irrigate the roof at timed intervals. The EcoCenter, as a living building, reminds us that we need to stay in tune with the natural cycles of sun and rain because the building was designed to engage and harvest the power of the elements.