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When you construct a building that you want to last, you build the foundation first and build it well. When you want relationships to thrive and last long, you take the time to build the trust that is the foundation of those relationships. Rachel Carson EcoVillage at Providence Heights is doing both, laying a foundation of trust for a community of people who will depend on one another in the years to come, and laying the foundations for a 35-unit ecovillage on land gifted to them by the Sisters of Divine Providence, adjacent to the campus of La Roche University, 15 minutes north of Pittsburgh, and slated for completion in late Spring 2025.

I interviewed two members of this EcoVillage community on May 1^st, Becky Lubold and Stefani Danes, after Becky and I met up at a Slippery Rock Township Zoning Board hearing regarding an asphalt plant that wants to build on Slippery Rock Creek. I had heard about Rachel Carson EcoVillage, but had lost track of how it was progressing. Becky suggested we have a Zoom call with Stefani, and during that call I found out lots about the history of this project, the current plans, the commitment to energy savings in construction design and use of appliances, the certification of the buildings and the general philosophy of the EcoVillage itself, as a way of people living together as friends, sustainably, in today’s world.

Like most things, Rachel Carson EcoVillage started small: just a few people from the Pittsburgh area who were interested in starting an intentional community based on the co-housing model. They formed the Pittsburgh Co-Housing Group in 2000. There were discussions and several attempts to start this community, but land became a problem each time. In late 2019, the group learned that Chatham University, the alma mater of author and environmentalist, Rachel Carson, had issued a request for proposals for an ecovillage. The group made a proposal and were selected from roughly a dozen proposals. With their acceptance and a letter of intent, the group began in January 2020 to gather people to live in this intentional co-housing community. Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country and the world. The group had to meet via Zoom, but they continued to talk to people in the area, the country, and in other parts of the world, at first on a monthly basis, and later several times a month, as updates to progress on the project became apparent.

By this time there were over 60 people working together to bring this co-housing community to reality, and they accomplished a lot over four years. There are so many details to work out: the layout of the buildings and units, the construction of the units and the common building, certifications and just finding more people to join the community.

Suddenly, over the summer of 2023, there was no response from Chatham University to their inquiries, and in September the group learned that the University had changed its mind and would no longer offer the land for the ecovillage. They had all of the permits approved and the Blueprint Robotics factory in Baltimore had already started constructing the panels that would be assembled on site to make the buildings, but now, there was no land to put the buildings on. They never received an explanation from Chatham. But they needed to find a new location, quickly.

Members did a search, asking around for anyone with property. But as it turned out, an attorney of theirs had a client who had just taken a property off the market that fit the group’s needs. The Sisters of Divine Providence, located in Allison Park, 15 minutes north of Pittsburgh, had put a piece of their property up for sale: a wooded area that had been undisturbed for a hundred years. But they had only received interest from people who wanted to cut down all the trees and make parking lots. That didn’t sit well with them or their philosophical and religious commitments, so they took the property off the market right around the time the ecovillage group was looking for a new home. Once the Sisters learned about the ecovillage project, they were interested in helping because the goals of the eco-village and their own mission were so well aligned. That mission aims to make visible the providence of God in the world, and their highest priority from the most recent convocation, a part of their five-year plan, is EcoJustice: God has provided so many benefits for us and all life, and therefore it makes sense to conserve those resources and have a positive relationship to the natural world.

Though they had sought to sell the property, the Sisters now decided to gift the property to the ecovillage. With a place to build their village, the group could now move final plans forward. Those plans include a set of 35 units, grouped in buildings of two or three units, that will be nestled among the trees on the property. Every unit is complete in itself with full kitchen and laundry and may have one to four bedrooms. There will be a common parking area within walking distance of all of the units, and a common building equipped with a kitchen, common library and large dining area where members can have meals together, hold meetings and just spend time together when they are not in their individual homes. Common tools will also be housed in the common building.

As noted, while the foundations of the buildings will be constructed on the property itself, the walls and roofs of the buildings are being made at Blueprint Robotics’ factory in Baltimore, MD. The panels are the outer walls of each building, but they also contain all doors, windows, ductwork and electrical work. All of that is completed in the factory and shipped to Pittsburgh for assembly. This shortens the actual construction time on site and protects material from the weather; they estimate construction time is half that of conventional, stick-built homes. Once the envelope or shell of each unit is assembled, they will only need interior dry-walling, shingles, siding and other finishes. Each unit has a kitchen, dining and living spaces and one or two bedrooms on the first floor, while the second floor is open and can be used however the owner chooses. Some may want to add more bedrooms, others may want to add a yoga studio or a library. They can customize the upstairs to suit their needs and tastes. The plan is for all 35 units to be completed by Spring 2025, so about a year away from now.

You may be wondering: okay, there are places to live in a nice, wooded area. But what makes this different from people who live in a more traditional, wooded housing development? Part of the difference is in the commitment of the people to working closely with one another on the shared concerns of the community as they arise, and part of it is in the care that has been taken in constructing homes that are extremely energy-efficient, to lower the amount of energy needed and lower routine maintenance costs for the people living there. The commitment to self-governance is described as a sociocracy: a way of decision-making combining the best of ‘horizontal’ consensus and traditional ‘vertical’ organizations. Small groups of 6-10 members take responsibility for various aspects of running the organization and make decisions on behalf of the whole community. There is a Governance group, an Eco-Resources group, a Transportation group and a Community Life Group. The Transportation Group, for example, looks to find the best resources for EV chargers for the parking lot, a car sharing program, safe bike routes, safe walking routes, and access to public transportation. There is also a Membership and Outreach group, a Legal and Financial Group and an Administration Group. Everyone can get involved and the work of governance is spread out among all of the members.

You might say, well, this all looks fine on paper or on a screen, but is that really going to work in practice? The answer: it already is working. The co-housing group has been making decisions together since 2020. So they already have established working relationships. As a community, they understand that at times members will leave and new members will come, but there is a history of already working together with these various groups, so new people can find a place to get involved once they are moved in. Like anything, how well it works depends on the people and how committed they are to the idea of an ecovillage. Members live in their own homes, but they will be able to join other members a few times a week for common meals, if they choose. There is commitment but also flexibility. While there are plans to try to find space for a community garden (hard to do with all of the trees) residents will park in the community lot and carry, or use a wagon, to bring groceries to their homes. Work will be shared, with neighbors helping neighbors as needed.

Diversity is prized in Rachel Carson EcoVillage. The community is multi-generational. Right now, a lot of the folks involved are empty-nesters, but they have some younger members, and they are looking forward to having families with children there. There is an excellent school system, and there is a Catholic K-8 school on the Sisters’ campus as well. Members come from all kinds of backgrounds, jobs and pastimes: there are quilters, an architect, a yoga-instructor, engineers in building and construction, systems engineers, medical professionals, artists and musicians. The community is dedicated to respecting diversity and helping each member thrive. At the core of their commitment to each other is a commitment to live more harmoniously with the natural world, not on the assumption that we need to destroy nature in order to live. We can live and maintain a connection with nature and have a positive influence on the health of the natural environment. The goal is a community of people balancing privacy with close relationships of work and fun; people who look out for one another. It’s also an opportunity to educate and encourage each other, and to live more lightly on the planet.

Keep your eyes open for a kick off event which will be happening later this summer: they are still in the approvals process. Meanwhile, go to Rachel Carson Ecovillage’s website to watch for the announcement and connect with them to keep up with their progress (https://rachelcarsonecovillage.org).

When complete, each home will be Passive House Institute Certified, which means it is super-insulated (twice what most recent codes require), and will perform at a high level with very little electricity and no fossil fuels. They estimate utility bills will be 10-15% of the bills for a typical, new house of the same size. Blueprint Robotics will work with local contractors to ensure that the panels are installed tightly so that there are no leaks letting cold air in, in the winter. All indoor air will be filtered (so if Canada catches fire again, people can breathe clean air inside their homes). All of this means that each unit will not need a big furnace, just a small heat pump to heat in winter and cool in summer. And having those trees around should help regulate temperatures as well. Energy will be from green sources. Appliances will perform at energy star level, at least. They are looking into putting solar panels over the parking area, but for now, electricity will come from the grid and will be chosen from green, renewable sources.

As of the writing of this article, 28 units have been committed; only seven remain available. Again, each is a large one or two-bedroom house with its own kitchen, dining room and bathrooms. There will be guest rooms in the common house for when you have company, unless you’ve added more bedrooms on the second floor of your home. Families can move in and use the space as needed. Single folks can make arrangements to live together, sharing a home in various ways. One person may purchase the unit while another rents from them. There is a lot of flexibility built into how the buildings can be used and what kinds of activities you can do. The focus is on the buildings accommodating many needs and desires, and being serviceable, so that new residents can make changes to suit their needs and tastes. For instance, the outside walls have an interior 2×4 stud service wall, with all of wiring and piping already there. A resident can make changes without interfering with the part of the wall that has the insulation. In fact, Blueprint Robotics provides complete as-built drawings that show every detail; so if you want to move your sink, the drawing shows where every screw, pipe, and stud are located. The building envelope stays intact.

The assembly crew from Baltimore will work with local contractors and sub-contractors, and they are already planning the logistics. There will be specialized teams working with local tradespeople, training on site for the crew in how to make sure joints are carefully sealed, and other differences necessary to get this kind of high performance from a home. The ecovillage group has been working with a building performance consultant, the Auros Group, which is based in Pittsburgh, getting advice and training on how to do everything for peak efficiency, with special training for the construction workforce. They have been more than pleased by the expertise and helpfulness of the people at Blueprint Robotics. Their company’s major projects are much bigger than a 35-unit ecovillage. They build single-family homes and apartment buildings in the mid-Atlantic area; but they have been good to work with throughout this process.

Becky and Stefani said that the group wants this community to be a model for others. While they currently do slide-shows; once the homes are built and residents have moved in, they will offer tours so people can be introduced to and appreciate the sustainable, environmentally-friendly, community-focused way of life in a cohousing community, so cohousing can be better appreciated and built in other areas. They will have a waiting list for people interested in getting a unit (once all 35 are purchased), but they hope other people will be interested in cohousing groups and use Rachel Carson EcoVillage at Providence Heights as a model to inspire their own communities. They also offered a few links for those who want to learn more about cohousing communities and the development of this one. Like anything done well, a good deal of effort needs to go into making these kinds of plans, but the idea of living more harmoniously with the natural world and with one another, is powerful and appealing to many. Rachel Carson EcoVillage at Providence Heights, once finished, should help interested people see this ideal way of living as more than a passing daydream, but a vibrant reality that they can consider in their neck of the woods.

Follow up:

The Cohousing Association of the United States: (Hover and click below)

https://www.cohousing.org/

North American Passive House Network:

Passive House Institute of the United States: (Hover and click below)

https://www.phius.org/

Pittsburgh-based Building Consultant, Auros Group: (Hover and click below)

https://www.aurosgroup.com/

Website for Rachel Carson EcoVillage: (Hover and click below)

http://www.rachelcarsonecovillage.org/

(you can sign up for a zoom introduction)

Email:(Hover and click to the right) rachelcarsonecovillage@gmail.com