Get Thee to a (Green) Nunnery

The sisters knew they had a problem. Their numbers were dwindling, which meant more and more unused rooms in their fortress-like convent, built in 1932 on a hilltop outside Coraopolis, Pennsylvania. Many of them were over 70 and had respiratory and other health problems. It was getting expensive to heat the drafty rooms in the 60,000-square-foot infirmary building where they lived, much less to keep up the nearby “mother house,” an even larger building that also houses a small Catholic high school. In 2000, the Felician Sisters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart realized they needed to downsize.

They hired Laura Nettleton, then an architect at Perkins Eastman, an international firm with a branch in nearby Pittsburgh. Her first task was to conduct a feasibility study on renovating the infirmary, but the nuns initially balked at the costs, she says. Nettleton suggested they abandon the infirmary and live in the mother house instead, which would mean around 75 nuns with an average age of 77 sharing living quarters with some 300 high school students. “It’s a big change for a 77 year old,” Nettleton says. The nuns began every planning meeting with their architect and contractor by saying a prayer—one that means, in essence, change is the spice of life. 

After a year or so working with the sisters, she realized they were not just tolerating change—some were embracing it. Nettleton had been talking with the sisters about ways to save money by, for example, recycling building materials. Then one day, Nettleton recalls, “Sister Mary Christopher brought a magazine article in, and she said, ‘Why don’t we do a green building?’ And I said, ‘Well, we are.’” The sisters were pleased to learn that green techniques fit well with the philosophies of their patron saint, Francis of Assisi, known for his love of animals and nature.

As the renovation went on, the green projects grew more ambitious. Nettleton, the sisters, and a contractor, Ernie Sota, installed huge solar panels on the roof of the mother house to heat all the water in the building. They chose tile made from recycled airplane windshields and chair upholstery made of recycled seat belts. They created a greenhouse addition in the basement, an enclosed garden in a central courtyard, and a worm farm and composting bin in the basement that the nuns tend to once a week. During renovations, a construction crew removed, cleaned and re-installed one and a half acres of hardwood floors from the mother house. The sisters received a LEED gold certification in 2006, and they have won other awards from local groups. One sister, Mary Cabrini Procopio, took news of their building back to the Vatican in 2006. “They have become ambassadors of the green gospel,” says Nettleton. “They are spreading the word.”