Plant-topped, solar-powered shelters with deep ENST ties to debut in Prince George’s County
Cool Green Shelters, an offshoot of Maryland-born company Living Canopies, will bring comfortable, sustainable bus shelters to riders often left unprotected. The company's first shelters will debut in Hyattsville this summer.
Image Credit: Rendering courtesy of David Tilley
Anyone who's waited for a bus on a scorching July day, dark winter evening or in a skin-soaking downpour knows the disappointment of finding an unsheltered bench—or worse, a lonely bus sign left open to the elements. In fact, less than one-fifth of bus stops in the U.S. offer any shelter for riders.
But an outgrowth of a University of Maryland-born business, Living Canopies, will soon help riders seeking shelter from the storm—or sun—by offering protective, energy-producing and beautiful transit oases. The inaugural batch of a new plant-packed eco-transit hub, called Cool Green Shelters, will be unveiled this summer in Hyattsville, just a few miles from UMD’s campus.
“We wanted to find a way to not just get people out of their cars, but bring value to communities,” said environmental science and technology Associate Professor David Tilley, CEO and co-founder of Living Canopies with former student Nick Cloyd ’13, M.S. ’17. “We see a lot of potential in the bus stop.”
Living Canopies’ route to transit stops began shortly after the company’s effort to bring its tendrilled, flowering patio umbrellas to the retail market temporarily folded; the company had just boxed up the last of an initial order for Sam’s Club in March 2020 when COVID-19 shut the world down. While Living Canopies stayed afloat during the pandemic and resumed a trial relationship with Sam’s Club in 2021, the events of the past year caused Tilley to re-examine the company’s mission.
