College of St. Scholastica | Benedictine Sisters Monastery Renovation

A Modernized Home for Aging Sisters

The Benedictine Sisters of St. Scholastica founded the College of St. Scholastica in 1912. Though the College and the Monastery are now separate entities, the Sisters live on campus and maintain an active presence both with the College and within the greater community.

Over time, the size of the monastic community has decreased and aged. Many spaces no longer accommodated the accessibility and health needs of the Sisters. In 2020, HGA studied options for reducing the footprint of the Sisters’ living quarters and repurposing some spaces for College or other community needs. As a result of this study, HGA was hired to consolidate the living spaces for the Sisters in a renovated portion of their building and add a new dedicated entry addition to clarify the separation of their living and administrative areas from remaining College functions.

The Sisters now occupy less than half the square footage they were using and their spaces are updated to meet the needs of their aging community. Rooms were designed to be universally accessible, with restrooms and bedrooms sized to accommodate accessibility and assisted living care in the future if needed. Sisters needing assisted-living spaces were co-located with those not needing care, and group dining and lounge spaces were consolidated to foster the sense of community in a tighter footprint.

Exterior courtyards and gardens were updated to bring more light into the facility. A new link was added to the Chapel that the Sisters use for daily prayer, allowing Sisters to access the worship space without having traverse through College facilities.