It may look like a typical campus lawn, but the environmentally-friendly green roof at the recently completed LEED Gold “South Forty House” at Washington University in St. Louis is much more than that.  The university’s need for a central commissary kitchen (serving 3,000+ students) with its required loading dock, coupled with its placement in the center of a pedestrian-oriented residential district presented a major design challenge. Mackey Mitchell’s innovative solution was to place the facilities below grade and cover both the kitchen and loading dock with a green roof.  The roof absorbs water runoff and provides insulation, reducing the building’s energy use, and students can enjoy the ample lawn space for recreation or relaxing.