The story of the Conservancy's headquarters
A vision takes shape
Since its inception in 1989, the Conservancy operated around kitchen tables and in rented office space. As the organization grew, both in terms of staff and the amount of land conserved and monitored, it became harder to manage the growing team and materials needed to do quality conservation work in spaces that were not built for purpose. The Conservancy's last rented space, at Eagle Court in Keene, served the work well to a point, but as with any rented space, this office was not set up to meet the needs of a growing organization, was lacking in terms of accessibility, and wasn't a space that reflected our organizational values in terms of energy conservation.
In 2024, the Conservancy's Board of Trustees began investigating the possibility of building a headquarters that would be a permanent home for the Conservancy. After receiving a donation of a plot of land adjacent to Ashuelot River Park, the Board believed this would be a perfect place for this new headquarters. The Board tasked the Conservancy's team with raising money for this project, no small task. Led by development director Lindsay Taflas, the Conservancy launched the Building a Resilient Future Campaign in 2025.
Over the following months, the Conservancy saw an outpouring of support from people across the region who believed in the Conservancy's mission and vision for the building. In the end, Building a Resilient Future raised over $7.3 million dollars, which was allocated both to the construction of the headquarters and to hiring four staff members to help the Conservancy protect more, and more impactful, land.
The construction team
After securing the funding from hundreds of donations, big and small, the Conservancy then looked for a construction team to complete the project. This began with hiring an architect who could incorporate the Conservancy's values into the design. Sheldon Pennoyer, of SP Architects was a perfect choice. Sheldon's firm had recently completed a similar project for the Southeastern Land Trust (SELT) and brought decades of experience in sustainable design to the table. Sheldon had this to say about his approach to the design process:
"We aimed to create a simple and elegant design that both staff and the community want to work in and visit, and a design that aims to reduce the amount of embodied energy and operating energy. Also, very important to us was creating a building that uses as many local healthy materials, and predominantly wood fiber materials for structure, insulation, and finishes that embody carbon throughout the life of the building". - Sheldon Pennoyer
With the design in place, the Conservancy then looked for the best option to make the design a reality. Walpole-based Bensonwood Homes offered a unique process to reduce the carbon footprint of the building, both in design and operation. Bensonwood's Director of Business Development, Seth Clarke explained the process this way:
“Unlike conventional site-built construction, Bensonwood uses an offsite, precision-engineered approach. Our building components are fabricated in a controlled environment, which dramatically reduces material waste and improves quality. This process also shortens on-site construction time, minimizing disruption and lowering the carbon footprint associated with transportation and staging. By integrating advanced modeling and high-performance materials from the start, sustainability isn’t an afterthought—it’s embedded in every step.” - Seth Clarke
With Sheldon and Bensonwood in place, the Conservancy turned to Chapman Construction to bring their decades of experience to the building process. Chapman incorporated many sustainable techniques and materials into the construction of the building, including Pozzotive concrete, made from recycled post-consumer glass (this was the first project in New Hampshire to use it), Glavel subslab insulation, material made of foamed glass that replaces rigid foam and gravel, and used locally sourced wood (sourced from Architect Sheldon Pennoyer's land) wherever possible.
Once the building was designed and constructed in a way to maximize energy efficiency, the Conservancy worked with ReVision Energy to install a 108-panel solar array which will completely power the building and produce excess power which will then flow into the City of Keene’s power grid. The annual generation from the array will equal roughly 59,088 kilowatt-hours (kWhs) of electricity, offsetting the equivalent of over 73,974 miles driven in a gas-powered car, and keeping more than 57,965 lbs of carbon out of the atmosphere every year. You can track our solar power in real time here!
The future of conservation
From the initial vision to the Conservancy's grand opening in October of 2026, it took less than two years to design, raise funds, and build the Conservancy's new headquarters. We are eternally indebted to the many individuals who stepped forward and gave generously to this project or provided other support. Due to your generosity, we feel a great responsibility to continue to conserve more land in this region and make this headquarters a hub for conservation. In addition to giving our Land Protection and Stewardship teams a place to call home (and store all the materials needed for this work), this new space will host educational events and be a place for all members of our community to learn about, and development a passion for, land conservation.