The EFA Design Showcase jury assessed how well each project answered judging criteria of community/team collaboration, innovation, aesthetics, and operational performance. Our program finalists include those that excelled in one or more of those areas. Here, we explore a few of the standout design elements that helped these senior living projects rise to the top.

Community/team collaboration

Warwick Woodlands, A Moravian Manor Community, Lititz, Pa.
Submitted by: RLPS Architects and RLPS Interiors

A foundational goal for Moravian Manor is to blend seamlessly into the town surrounding its senior living communities, rather than creating an insular environment. To that end, this latest project offers a network of pedestrian-friendly streets and sidewalks and limited on-site amenities so that its active adults will take advantage of nearby resources, including a recreation center. Additionally, the design team met extensively with local officials to support objectives including maintaining the historical integrity of the town, by creating a diverse mix of housing types with no duplicate materials, varied façades, and minimal signage. Focus groups with prospective residents also guided design solutions, including lots of views and hidden accessibility features to support aging in place, based on consumer expectations for an upscale, active adult option..


The Lodge, Heber City, Utah
Submitted by: TSA Architects

To minimize scope creep, stay on schedule, and create an end product that the entire staff would take ownership of, the design team for The Lodge involved all stakeholders—from the executive chef to the nursing director—in every meeting and at every point in the design process. This effort began by identifying the strengths and primary focus of all individuals and inviting them to champion their part, a solution used to express to stakeholders that what they found important would be addressed in the design. The team also conducted site visits to existing locations to speak with staff there to gain feedback on barriers in design and what they’d like to achieve at the new site. Finally, residents were surveyed to learn what they appreciated and desired to see improved. That same integrated approach was then applied to construction of the project, as well, with the design team on site before and during construction to work directly with contractors and subcontractors.

Innovation

Encore Mid-City, Huntsville, Ala.
Submitted by: Hord Coplan Macht

The unbuilt prototype Encore Mid-City was developed as a sustainable, intergenerational, mixed-used independent living community with a goal of allowing seniors to age in place. The community itself is anchored at each end with brick buildings that resemble local warehouses, while between them is a more modern-looking wing that connects the two at an angle, creating a more contemporary context. That angle also resulted in the creation of a funnel-shaped plaza on the ground level that serves as a gateway for residents and welcomes in the surrounding community with public-accessible amenities. Numerous roof decks offer varied opportunities for social interaction, as well. Together, these approaches help to deliver spaces reminiscent of market-rate urban apartments. Inside, an art gallery is programmed to display pieces from local artists, traveling exhibits, and artists-in-residence. Also included are four distinct dining components, including a fine dining restaurant featuring produce and seafood harvested from a 5,000-square-foot aquaponic farm adjacent to the kitchen.

Anthology of the Plaza, Kansas City, Mo.
Submitted by: Faulkner Design Group, Rosemann & Associates, and ARCO

An adaptive reuse of a five-story 1980s commercial office building, Anthology of the Plaza presented the design team with numerous challenges. For starters, the original building exterior was defined by a monolithic brick aesthetic with heavily tinted windows and a concealed main entry. The design was updated to blend with the Moorish architecture of Kansas City’s nearby Country Club Plaza by reconstructing the fenestration and adding white residential-style windows, lightening the brick color, and adding a porte cochere. Community decks and balconies were also added to provide views and access to the outdoors, even for dining. Finally, to address the structure’s unique building shape, deep footprint, existing interior columns, and segmented floors from its original office use, the team created more than 40 different layouts for its 83 apartments. Utilizing the available space while staying within the programmed unit sizes, long and narrow Southern-style shotgun homes were created. Due to those restricted unit layouts, entries from the corridors couldn’t be recessed, so designers also added wall coverings and moldings around each door for visual interest and cueing.

Aesthetics

The Lodge, Heber City, Utah
Submitted by: TSA Architects

With the intention of introducing “resort-style healthcare” to Utah’s Heber Valley, the design team used a design language at one with the region. On the exterior, a boulder and stone-strewn creek bed at the entry gives rise to stone walls and pillars supporting a porte cochere. A lit colonnade featuring locally sourced materials then guides visitors across the creek by bridge, ending at the lobby entrance. The exterior aesthetic further communicates the feel of mountain cabins set among wildflowers, aspen, and spruce. Inside, cedar beams and planks continue the lodge aesthetic, with bronze accents, stone, and other natural materials used in finishes. Transparency is another key feature of the design, taking advantage of the mountain scenery outside and providing access and views to the site’s beautiful gardens.

CC Young, The Vista, Dallas
Submitted by: D2 Architecture and Faulkner Design Group

Located in an urban high-rise setting, the design team for CC Young, The Vista was challenged to create an environment that fits with the locale while establishing the feeling of home. To that end, each household features cozy living and dining areas with a variety of seating options, fireplaces, and custom millwork, while the lobby and other public spaces are more hospitality-inspired (including a dynamic art installation along the lobby’s main corridor). Additionally, a connection to the outdoors was an important piece to a biophilic approach used on the interiors, with nature-inspired artwork and natural materials used throughout. Skilled nursing and memory care sunrooms add another natural touch with abundant daylight and views, while the adult day stay space offers an outdoor courtyard, and all residents have access to a landscaped therapy garden.

Operational performance

CC Young, The Vista, Dallas
Submitted by: D2 Architecture and Faulkner Design Group

Currently housing 59 assisted living, 32 assisted living memory care, 96 skilled nursing, and 32 rehabilitation apartments, CC Young, The Vista is also built for flexibility. The floors and households are designed to comply with the highest skilled nursing licensing requirements so they can be transitioned, as needed, to best serve the community as demographics change—even if not licensed for that use today. The infrastructure, corridor widths, door sizes, communication systems, fire protection systems, and so on are all in place. Additionally, some requirements that differ for less intensive uses were also included, even in skilled nursing settings, in case those areas are eventually “downgraded.” For example, three floors currently used for skilled nursing also include terraced garden spaces to meet memory care licensing requirements for outdoor space. In order to accommodate skilled nursing throughout a high-rise model, the team consolidated services in a discreet core to support small house-style living environments with two households on each floor.

Warwick Woodlands, A Moravian Manor Community, Lititz, Pa.
Submitted by: RLPS Architects and RLPS Interiors

The first phase of this project includes 10 freestanding, two-story townhomes; 70 duplex carriage homes; and The Woods Building comprising 56 apartments, a bistro, lounge, and game room. And that’s the extent of the on-site amenities, because this “community within a community” is so integrated with the surrounding town that residents can easily walk to a network of shops, restaurants, services, and local events. Even the rooftop amenity space at Warwick Woodlands offers views to a park about a half-mile away so residents can view performances and fireworks displays. Additionally, services like dining and house cleaning are à la carte so residents can choose what fits their lifestyle. The approach will be continued through two additional phases to further integrate the community within the town. EFA

Jennifer Kovacs Silvis is editor-in-chief of Environments for Aging. She can be reached at jennifer.silvis@emeraldx.com.