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In the late 1990s, the Felician Sisters in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, members of a Franciscan order, began planning a building project with two goals: to downsize their convent in response to their shrinking numbers, and to make life more comfortable for the convent’s nuns, whose average age was 77. With the help of architect Laura Nettleton, then of Eastman Perkins, the sisters decided to vacate their 70,000 ft² infirmary and renovate the adjacent 161,000 ft², 1932 motherhouse, where they would consolidate their living quarters, chapel, and school.
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The Felician Sisters are heirs to the Franciscan tradition of caring for the natural world, and their vows of poverty encourage conservation of energy and materials as well as money. Despite these values, green building was not on their radar when they embarked on their building plan. But when Sister Mary Christopher Moore, one of the convent’s leaders, happened upon a newspaper article about the LEED-certified Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank (among the first LEED buildings), she was intrigued. She brought the article to a meeting with Nettleton and the convent’s building committee, and a consensus quickly developed that green building should be part of their plan.
“That was the moment that turned things around for us,” Sister Christopher says. The sisters decided not only to go green, but to pursue LEED for its educational value, and their project, completed in 2003, was certified at the Gold level.
The Felician Sisters embody the trend toward an increasing interest in green building among religious groups. Fletcher Harper, who heads the interfaith environmental organization Green Faith, speaks regularly with congregations involved in building projects, and tells them that the only financially responsible way to build is to build green. But, he says, those with fiduciary responsibility for religious organizations tend to be risk-averse. They often assume that green building comes at a premium price, and frequently underestimate the savings that may be reaped over the life of a building. Furthermore, some politically conservative congregations may respond negatively to the idea of green building on ideological grounds, rejecting anything that smacks of environmentalism, Harper says. He also finds that many congregations use an informal process to choose an architect—going with someone a member knows, rather than putting out a request for proposals—and may not even bring up green building goals until the architect has been hired. By that time, he says, “the train’s left the station.”
The Felician Sisters got lucky with Nettleton, who was delighted to make green goals a high priority and had previous experience with environmentally sound building. The sisters’ motherhouse was gutted, then heavily insulated and equipped with high-performance windows, solar hot water heaters, low-VOC finishes and occupant- and light-sensors. The contractor, Sota Construction Services, painstakingly removed and later reinstalled more than an acre of maple flooring and piles of doors, transoms and trim, conserving materials and retaining interior elements whose quality would have been impossible to match with new replacements. The sisters now live in “households” of ten single rooms grouped around a shared kitchen. Mindful of their dwindling numbers, the sisters have planned for the gradual shift of these living units to rented elder housing. Next door, the infirmary was converted to 59 units of low-income housing, contributing to the Franciscan mission to care for the poor.
As clients, the Felician sisters were somewhat unusual, Nettleton says. Meetings frequently involved prayer, and she often met with more than a dozen sisters, rather than a more typically sized group of around three client representatives. Initially she had wanted to slim down this group, but the nuns are accustomed to working through consensus, and the process “went as smooth as could be.” The sisters took the long view in considering building options, and were enthusiastic about putting their resources into the building’s essentials rather than elaborate finishes.
Sister Christopher speaks of the project as an impetus to take their tradition “to the next level.” Since the renovation’s completion, the sisters have offered tours of the building and use it to help educate convent school students and their families. They also made the decision “not only to build green, but to live green,” Sister Christopher says. The convent’s food service sources much of its food locally, has minimized packaging and the use of disposable paper products. The sisters have eliminated toxic cleaners in favor of vinegar and water and implemented a strong recycling program.
Sister Christopher says the teaching of the Catholic Church makes clear that people have a responsibility to take care of the creation. As followers of Francis, patron saint of the natural world, the Felicians’ imperative is even clearer. For Sister Christopher, green building is a natural outgrowth of her order’s vocation. “If you think about it in terms of care of the resources God has given us, it’s not a new concept,” she says.
This article was produced by BuildingGreen, LLC.- www.buildinggreen.com
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