PNC (NYSE: PNC) has successfully installed a 2,380 square-foot living wall with 602 modular panels on the exterior of their Pittsburgh headquarters building, One PNC Plaza..  Each 2’x2′ panel has roughly 24 plants, so there’s approximately 14,448 plants covering the wall of this 30-story building.

It also offers cooling for the building: Preliminary studies show a south facing Green Living Wall can be 70 to 80 degrees cooler than other surfaces on the same building.

Of the eight varieties of plants on the wall, some will change in the winter and some will bloom in the spring.  It’s a beautiful display and there’s probably no more obvious way to wear your environmental commitment on your shirt sleeve.  Part of that commitment includes sourcing materials locally, and PNC acquired all hardware, plants, materials, and installers within a 500-mile radius of downtown Pittsburgh.

The green wall is anchored directly into the building’s reinforced concrete masonry with a stainless steel bracketing system and panels made with recycled aluminum.  There’s an internally controlled irrigation system that requires just 15 minutes of watering once per week (or in colder months only 15 minutes per month), and when it’s fully saturated, it will weigh about 24 tons.

The wall is a product of Green Living™ Technologies of Rochester, New York, and designed by Kari Katzander of Mingo Design also of New York.  Cenkner Engineering Associates of Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, and BD&E Strategic Branding and Design of Pittsburgh provided engineering and additional design.

Photo credits: PNC Bank.