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The Benedictine Women of Madison, whose mission is to weave prayer, hospitality, justice, and care for the earth into a shared way of life as an ecumenical Benedictine community, began their partnership with Hoffman in 2006. One of their initial goals was to design and build a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Platinum facility that would inspire and encourage others to build and live sustainably. However, creating the highest-rated LEED building in the country was not part of their original intent.

Seeking to replace Benedict House-their 60,000 square foot conference center that never effectively served their mission, was extremely costly to operate and maintain, and was a contradiction to the prairie they were restoring on their 130-acre site-the Sisters set high expectations for the new, 34,000 square foot Holy Wisdom Monastery. The monastery needed to:

• Embody their mission.
• Portray an elegant simplicity central to their monastic values.
• Provide spaces ideal for both quiet, personal reflection as well as community gathering.
• Be designed and built sustainably-respectful of its natural environment-within a fiscally responsible budget.
• Achieve a LEED Platinum certification.

The collaboration between Hoffman and the Sisters produced a building that is not only meeting all of their needs, but one that received 63 out of a possible 69 points under LEED-NC v2.2, making it the highest-rated LEED Platinum building in the United States. Holy Wisdom Monastery was completed at a cost of $246 per square foot, a figure that contains all project-related costs (except land), including the responsible deconstruction of Benedict House.