(Bowling Green)--Wood County Hospital is in revival mode. And the patient in this case is the roof.
As part of its $42 million, 100-thousand square foot expansion, the facility is adding a green roof to its second floor roof.
Catharine Harned's vision of a colorful second floor roof is now reality. It's an area full of evergreens and grass. The director of marketing for the hospital says beauty is only a small part of why the $330 thousand dollar project happened. She says the beauty can actually soothe the patients and make them feel better, generally speaking.
In this 15-thousand square foot area, crews installed thousands of trays of plants, and it took more than a dozen trailer loads of materials to make this all possible.
And beside aesthetics, project backers admit there are benefits to the hospital itself, in addition to all the people in it. It's been proven a green roof can extend the life of the underlying conventional roof for decades, perhaps even 50 years, through better drainage and blockage of the sun's harmful ultraviolet light. A solid foundation starting at the top and working to the ground.
The upkeep, I'm told, is simple. Fertilizing and some weeding. By the way, the new wing of the hospital should be ready for patients by the beginning of the year.
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