A partnership between Philadelphia Water, the National Park Service, Independence National Historical Park and SHIFT_DESIGN has created new “living wall” that manages stormwater runoff from the roof of the Department of Interior building located at 3rd and Walnut streets.

The wall features over 70 individual plants—all of them native to Pennsylvania—suspended from a vertical structure which collects rainwater from the roof in four stainless steel tanks.The water is then pumped from the storage tanks via solar power into irrigation lines that sustain the plant life.

The wall was made possible because of a partnership between Philadelphia Water, the National Park Service and the Pennsylvania Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Coastal Nonpoint Pollution (CNPP) grant program.

In addition, SHIFT_DESIGN conceived, fabricated and installed the living wall. Drexel students Oliver Law, Hanna Karraby, Aimee Turner and Iat Chi Sin worked with SHIFT_DESIGN through a cooperative program to help install the wall, which was finished this week after a  two-and-a-half year process.

Image via Kristen Gillette