The 2026 Environments for Aging Conference + Expo heads to Phoenix on March 16-18, bringing a variety of keynote and educational sessions for attendees.
Environments for Aging is previewing some of the upcoming educational sessions in a series of Q+As with speakers, sharing what they plan to discuss and key takeaways they’ll offer attendees.
Session: “Master Planning: Creating the Path to a Successful Senior Living Project”
Tuesday, March 17, 3-4 p.m.
Speakers: Jeffrey Anderzhon, principal, Crepidoma Consulting, LLC (Clive, Iowa); Melissa Pritchard, partner, Design4Age Strategic Advisors (Glenside, Pa.)
Meaningful master planning aligns operational functions, financial realities, and market needs to support a resident-oriented and staff-efficient model.
This session will explore the roadmap to a successful senior living project, emphasizing the importance of thoughtful goal setting and intensive programming before design begins. Attendees will also hear a discussion on the critical role of intuitive design in daily operations and the value of post-occupancy evaluations in refining future projects.
Environments for Aging: What is the essential first step in master planning in senior living?
Jeffrey Anderzhon (Credit: Courtesy of Jeffrey Anderzhon)
Jeffrey Anderzhon: It’s important that the master/strategic planner, as well as all team members, have a firm foundation of understanding of the physical environment and the financial and operational aspects of the client community, as well as the landscape of the client’s competition in the market.
With this foundational understanding, the team can establish accomplishable goals for the project process and utilize these goals as benchmarks to achieve during the process.
The most important path to accomplishing this is asking the right questions and acute listening to the client and other team members.
EFA: How does the master planning process help align team members and stakeholders on project goals?
Melissa Pritchard (Credit: design4age strategic advisors)
Melissa Pritchard: A critical element for a successful master planning process is for all participants and stakeholders to come together with an open mind.
While at the kickoff of the process, stakeholders may have individual goals in mind, it is necessary for the entire master planning committee to work together to establish the overarching goals. This creates buy-in and a shared commitment to successful outcomes. The entire master planning process is one of defining goals, constraints, and direction and creating alignment.
The best analogy that demonstrates the master planning process is to imagine standing on a beach ball along with others. If they ask you what the world looks like and you are standing on the blue stripe, your world is blue. If they are standing on the green stripe, their world is green.
Master planning is about getting everyone to rise above the colors of their world and see the entire picture.
The key is to focus on the good of the client and their residents and to ensure good communication with stakeholders by the client and the professional team.
EFA: When does design come into play during master planning?
Anderzhon: While it is common for most team members to want to focus on design first during pre-design, concepts, and master/strategic planning, this should only follow once a true foundation of shared knowledge, data, and baseline information has been established.
Often the nonenvironmental constraints are much more important drivers than the physical environment constraints. Our experience has proven that there is never just one solution to solve a client’s needs and that each solution put forth during the process needs to be thoroughly analyzed with the project goals as a guide.
The process of master/strategic planning is about defining the project, while the subsequent process of design is about developing the project.
EFA: What are some benchmarks throughout the master plan process for evaluating its success?
Pritchard: A successful master planning process runs like a well-oiled machine—all of the necessary parts are involved; when there are bumps in the road, the team makes adjustments and corrections; and the end goal is always kept in sight.
The biggest danger, and what we see most often, is when these difficult decisions and challenges are not adequately addressed early in master planning, they always reappear—often much later during the project and at much greater negative impact and cost to the organization.
Goals and guiding principles should be established, and the team should be constantly evaluating the master plan progress and direction in keeping with these goals and principles.
The master plan process should include team members and stakeholders representing areas of expertise and should result in added financial sustainability for the organization, ensure resident quality of life and satisfaction, and meet current and future market demand and expectations.
EFA: What are some warning signs that it’s heading in the wrong direction?
Anderzhon: The master/strategic planning process can derail when team members who are necessary to the successful process are missing, or team members are unable or unwilling to plan for the future of the client’s project.
Assumptions about the direction of the project and process should be well-established prior to beginning the work. If realistic constraints are not established, the process can go awry.
Also, if any of the team members are not committed to the process and consistency of the process and goals, then the master/strategic planning process can become mired in the unwavering divergent viewpoints. When these elements are recognized, it is important to address them so the end result can achieve the established goals.
EFA: How can a post-occupancy evaluation (POE) help refine master planning strategies?
Pritchard: In my opinion, POEs are one of the most underutilized tools that yield tremendous benefits for the client, residents, staff, operations, and overall organization in addition to the professional master planning team.
The post‑occupancy evaluation process helps to refine master planning techniques by:
- Validating or correcting planning assumptions
- Aligning future plans with real behavior and operations
- Improving flexibility, phasing, adjacency, and scale decisions
- Reducing long‑term costs, disruption, and user dissatisfaction
Every master planning process has unique aspects. POEs provide a library of shared knowledge to draw upon, thus supporting a continuous cycle of learning and improvement.
Check out the latest news, updates, and all you need to know for the 2026 EFA Conference + Expo here.
