Certified Platinum

The federal building here in San Antonio has been certified platinum:

On the third floor of the Hipolito F. Garcia Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, a door leads from a beige-painted hallway to a lush meadow.

Inside the building, at Houston and Alamo streets, bureaucrats, lawyers and the public shuffle between U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the post office and various federal agencies.

In the meadow, planted on the roof, butterflies and bees flutter and buzz between tufts of dark-green buffalo grass and purple heart.

The green roof is the centerpiece of a $56 million renovation of the 75-year-old building, the "greenest" owned by the U.S. General Services Administration. It is the first GSA building to earn platinum certification — the highest — in its category from the U.S. Green Building Council under its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system.

The mixture of native and adaptive grasses and sedum proved that plants can grow on a roof in the middle of San Antonio. At 13,000 square feet, it is the largest green roof in the city.