Saint Thomas Aquinas Seminary

Commonwealth Architects is currently working on the design of a new college campus for the Society of Pope Pius X outside of Charlottesville, Virginia. The college is currently located in Minnesota and has out-grown its existing facilities. It will relocate to Buckingham County on a peaceful, 1,000 acre rural parcel overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The new campus will include classrooms, dormitory, chapel, library, dining facility and administrative offices to accommodate 120 seminarians and 12 faculty members. The architectural language of the seminary is based on 12th Century French monasteries such as Cluny and Silvacane Abbey. Cloisters will be used within the dormitory, the classroom area and at the church entry, providing enclosed courtyards surrounded by cloister aisles on all four sides. The cloister aisles will serve as the passages between the church, the dormitory and other parts of the seminary. Special emphasis will be placed on making the seminary as self-sustaining as possible by the use of geothermal heating/cooling, operable windows, cisterns and the use of local, natural materials.