EFA Honors Top Senior Living Dining Spaces In Annual Competition

Announcing the winners of EFA’s 2nd Annual Dining Competition, a special awards program honoring the best dining spaces in senior living.

Food. It’s essential to our physical well-being and part of our day-to-day routine. When choosing a senior living community, the food—and, specifically, the venue options supporting it—can be a driving factor in the decision-making process.

Experience. More than just eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner, dining is an experience. It’s a time for residents to connect and enjoy one another’s company. Providing residents with a variety of options to choose from is essential, from high-end dining to casual bistros and pubs.

Design. Creating spaces for senior living dining requires thoughtful planning and collaboration. Delivering spaces that feel unique and branded offers diversity in experiences, while specifying the right materials and finishes is essential to achieving a cohesive look and feel. Meanwhile, making sure spaces have proper flow, accessibility, and effective front- and back-of-house functionality is critical.

EFA asked participants to submit their best dining space designs:
– Projects that offer a variety of venues and choices in settings for residents, families, and staff
– Spaces that promote resident engagement and contribute to an exceptional dining experience
– Dining venues that offer a high-design aesthetic while being appropriate for the population served
– Effective space design and planning to support dining operations in both front- and back-of-house function and flow

We received 31 submissions, and our jury (eleven experts including architects, interior designers, providers, and industry consultants) narrowed submissions down to three winners and five finalists:

Platinum Winner (First Place): Inspirata Pointe at Royal Oaks (Sun City, Ariz.), submitted by Perkins Eastman
Gold Winner (Second Place): Friendship Village Tempe (Tempe, Ariz.), submitted by Spellman Brady & Company
Silver Winner (Third Place): The Hacienda at Georgetown (Georgetown, Texas), submitted by StudioSIX5

Download EFA’s Dining Competition Special Supplement

A special EFA Dining Competition Special Supplement features a Q+A with members of the Platinum award project team, profiles of the top winning projects, and a gallery of all submitted projects to the program.

Fill out the form below to download the supplement:

2024 Dining Competition details

This year’s competition received 31 submissions. In addition to the three winners, the jury (11 industry experts listed below) named five projects as finalists, including:

Finalists:
The Mather (Tysons, Va.) submitted by The Mather
Army Residence Community (San Antonio), submitted by RLPS Architects and CJMW Interiors
The Mayflower (Winter Park, Fla.), submitted by SFCS Inc.
Presbyterian Village North (Dallas), submitted by three Architecture
The Tower at Cardinal North Hills (Raleigh, N.C.), submitted by THW Design

For more information, contact Donna Hidalgo, at [email protected] or 210.419.9017.

View last year’s Dining Competition Supplement here.

MEET THE JURY:
A standout jury of industry experts reviewed this year’s submissions and selected the winners. Meet them below: