Hmmmm, reminds me of "The Day of the Triffids"......

-----Original Message-----
From: Lawrence Kestenbaum [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 1999 11:11 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Ivy Altitude


In Boston last weekend, I stayed at employer expense in the Doubletree
Suites on Soldiers Field Road (apologies to BP'ers in the area, but
assigned responsibilities left me very little time for visiting).

The Doubletree is a reddish-brick suites hotel with atrium, probably built
in the 1980s, nominally 16 stories tall (1st floor is ground level, and
the 13th is "skipped"), located on a narrow little triangular site --
former industrial? -- between a railroad yard and the road that hugs the
south bank of the Charles.

The hotel and the adjoining parking garage are both partially covered with
what appears to be English ivy.  Indeed, on the east side of the building,
the ivy has grown as far as the bottom of the seventh story -- that is,
the ivy vines are fully six stories tall.

This leads me to wonder -- how high can ivy go on a building?  If
unchecked, would the Doubletree become completely covered?  The World
Trade Center?

---
Lawrence Kestenbaum, [log in to unmask]
The Political Graveyard, http://politicalgraveyard.com