In the summer of 2015 the Ecology School of Saco Maine purchased a historic farm along the Saco river five miles inland from their current location on Ferry Beach. The School has run, seasonal residential education programs for twenty years and the chance to purchase a beautiful riverfront farm bound by conservation lands was one they could not pass up. Understanding the logistic involved with renovating the 1800’s farm buildings, developing the site, and designing the new building they set about the process of selecting a design team. The school sought out a shortlist of high qualified firms, all with deep green building experience. Briburn, Kaplan Thompson Architects, and Simons Architects were each brought into interview as part of the process. Each firm had deep sustainable design qualifications, unique values, and a distinctive approach toward design. The school felt positively about each yet saw the possibility for an even greater value in hiring all three. They were convinced that the design process, like a health ecosystem, would flourish with greater diversity. While each of the three firms had extensive experience with sustainable design and had completed a significant number of LEED and Passivehaus projects, none of them had any Living Building Challenge experience. This panel will explore the process of developing a Living Building Challenge project, and provide a candid insight into this unexpected collaboration, the lessons learned, the challenges, and the rewards. Some of the specific topics covered will be; the value of communication, the importance of trust, appreciating of individual approaches, as well as the pragmatic beauty of slowing down to go fast. At times this process was overwhelming but, it was able to realize the added organic value the client had envisioned.