The EFA Design Showcase Honorable Mention-winning projects present impressive responses to unique challenges.
Baptist Community Services Community Center, Amarillo, Texas
Submitted by: Pi Architects
This unbuilt/conceptual design serves as the final phase of a years-long master plan for Baptist Community Services in Amarillo, Texas, to deliver a community center at the heart of campus. The vision is for the center to serve as the gathering place for all residents, including independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing, and memory care, with a transportation system in place to ensure all can enjoy the environment. Design highlights include solutions to provide plenty of outdoor exposure despite the Texas Panhandle’s extreme climate. For example, a conservatory space offers protection from the weather but with loads of natural light, a water feature, green walls, canopy trees, and numerous activity and quiet areas. Recognizing the center’s location near historic downtown Amarillo, the project team also worked to establish the building as an extension of the urban core. Rather than demolishing existing structures, the buildings were expanded and remade to accommodate storefronts, sidewalk cafés, and pedestrian areas to maintain the downtown feel. An existing clocktower was preserved as a landmark feature, as well.
Praise from the jury
• “Very nice job integrating into the existing campus while updating and modernizing interior spaces; excellent outdoor spaces. I can imagine the farmers market spilling in and out of the space.”
• “This is a handsome project that serves as a connection hub between different portions of the campus and larger community. The quality of each interior and exterior space is high.”
• “Love the idea of a centralized activity hub where all residents can interact (transportation there is a plus, too). Cool reuse of structures to blend with urban downtown feel. Beautiful renderings.”
Menno Haven Rehabilitation Center, Chambersburg, Pa.
Submitted by: RDG Planning and Design
Focused on whole-person healing, the Menno Haven Rehabilitation Center takes that goal to the next level as the first WELL-certified skilled nursing building in the world. To that end, it incorporates research-based elements that promote the physical, emotional, and spiritual growth of its patients. For example, patient rooms are designed to reinforce healthy sleep patterns and help speed up recovery times by allowing plenty of natural daylight during daytime hours. Additionally, patient room walls, ceilings, and furniture were designed with light reflectance values appropriate for the aging eye, reducing glare and facilitating color perception, with nighttime safety lighting an amber hue to ensure minimal impact on sleep. High ceilings and full-height windows are used in gathering spaces, as well, to establish a physical connection to the outdoors.
Collaborating with the International WELL Building Institute, the team also developed a custom scorecard for the building to identify features that were intended for office, multifamily, restaurant, and other building types but modified to be appropriate for skilled nursing. To achieve the vision, numerous stakeholders were brought into the design process, too, including residents, family, staff, food service, local healthcare providers, therapy providers, and life safety officials.
Praise from the jury
• “We applaud the determination to do WELL and what was needed to commit to this.”
• “WELL Building certification is outstanding. Impressed that they created a custom scorecard to allow this to be replicated in future projects. We like that they incorporated wellness features specific to other industries and included them into this project type.”
• “Extreme collaboration with so many players. The Menno Haven team seems really tight and committed to the project from all angles, and we like that it flows to the staff and really addresses staff needs and retention.”
Friendship Village, Schaumburg, Ill.
Submitted by: Merlino Design Partnership Inc., Spiezle Architectural Group, and Scopos Hospitality Group
Like many senior living providers, Friendship Village recognized the need to up its dining game to answer residents’ desires for an upscale, full-service dining venue on campus. The result is Mosaic Restaurant, a 6,500-square-foot renovation of existing commons space at the continuing care retirement community. That renovation was no easy task, though, challenging the team to achieve the vision in an aging building with several unusual architectural details. Working within the existing volumes and design vocabulary, the team was still able to transform the space to include a hospitality-inspired environment that houses a 360-degree open kitchen with no walls or doors as well as an adjacent teaching kitchen that offers hands-on learning to residents and their families. Another big difference-maker was the addition of a new acoustic wood ceiling that delivers a more contemporary look and a more comfortable setting for residents.
Praise from the jury
• “We love the teaching kitchen, and it looks like it is very central to what they are doing. Having true options depending on your mood or desire is allowing choice.”
• “We thought it was an innovative solution, considering the existing special constraints—not unseen before, but innovation is found in the solution. It likely rocked these residents’ world as it is so different.”
• “We liked the planning. They answered a lot of challenges and hit on consumer preference.”
• “This created a beautiful dining experience that will be the focal point of this community.”
Ventana by Buckner, Dallas
Submitted by: D2 Architecture and Interior Design Associates Inc.
A 12-story high-rise in Dallas, Ventana by Buckner offers residents a continuing care retirement community in an urban infill project. Transforming a tight 3-acre site tucked between two of the city’s main thoroughfares, the community’s twin towers deliver a modern exterior reminiscent of multifamily housing, while inside a hospitality feel offers notes of warmth with neutral colors and wood finishes. An added touch of sophistication is found in the project’s art package that was curated to inspire conversation among residents, visitors, and staff. Ventana’s twin towers also provide numerous opportunities to enjoy dramatic views of the city that can be enjoyed through floor-to-ceiling windows in most of the resident units and a three-story light well in the lower levels of a connector building. A blending of the indoors and outdoors was another project objective achieved through the addition of multiple roof terraces and gardens to help compensate for the tight site itself.
Praise from the jury
• “Interiors are exquisitely crafted and evoke a level of luxury that screams Dallas. The interiors and exterior speak well to each other; artwork is unique and well integrated.”
• “Great urban infill. Extremely luxurious. Interiors are beautifully executed.”
• “A stunning contemporary high-rise with simple forms and refined urban interior spaces makes this sophisticated project stand out as a landmark in Dallas.”
Jennifer Kovacs Silvis is editor-in-chief of Environments for Aging. She can be reached at [email protected].
