Built on 22 acres in Johnston, Iowa, Brio, a WesleyLife Community for Healthy Living, serves residents age 55+ through all stages of care, including end of life and late-stage memory care. However, it’s a focus on healthy living that defines it, with wellness at the heart of the community and a design that sought to improve quality of life at every turn. One major way that was accomplished was by emulating the features of the provider’s higher-end continuing-care retirement communities but at a price point more appropriate for its Midwest locale.

At 175,000 square feet and a cost of $25.6 million, the project opened in January 2019 and houses 51 independent living, 36 assisted living, 16 memory support, 13 long-term skilled nursing, and seven short-term rehab/transitional care units. To keep rents reasonable, some traditional components like a pool and theater weren’t included, while core offerings like its wellness center and dining offerings were amplified—each decision made by determining what would have the greatest impact on resident quality of life and fit within budget.

The wellness center itself is a standout element that at 4,750 square feet houses a hospitality-based fitness club for independent and assisted living that’s integrated with space used for skilled care therapy in an open and visually connected environment. Inclusiveness doesn’t stop there, either, with the community’s apartment wings, households, and units each designed to be aesthetically similar so that residents feel they belong anywhere in the community regardless of income level or need for assistance. Finally, the overall look and feel of Brio further answer goals for quality of life by using a neighborhood scale and agricultural context in the design that’s inspired by a modern farmhouse style.

The project was submitted by Pope Architects (St. Paul, Minn.). Jill Schroeder, senior planner/senior interior designer at Pope Architects, shares her perspective on how some of the jury’s favorite elements were achieved.


Environments for Aging: The jury celebrated this as a breakthrough example of what can be accomplished for the middle market (and at $146/sq. ft.). What drove the decision to deliver an affordable senior housing option?

Jill Schroeder: It was truly a mission-driven decision to create a model that was financially feasible for as many residents as possible, even though it was a large financial risk. Right now, there aren’t very many communities that offer both a lease and buy-in setup. We decided that we wanted to create a living space that felt beautiful and full of opportunity for residents from all financial backgrounds. To achieve this, we approached the project from the perspective of affordability for the resident (for both leasing and buy-in) and for the provider, WesleyLife. Certain amenities like a large pool, a full-service bar, a theater with sloped floor, and a full-service spa were eliminated in exchange for increasing flexibility through multipurpose rooms. For example to offer a “bar” environment, an additional room was added to the planning of the main dining room that is outfitted with TVs, its own patio entry, and adjacency to the kitchen to give residents the ability to host events like a football party with beer and food, even without the specialized back bar or liquor storage within the space.

Tell us more about some of the ways that cost was controlled via design.

All rooms throughout the community are designed to be flexible so that any event or meeting can take place there. The spaces support the full range of activities—yoga, small group worship, calligraphy classes, happy hours, robotics club, etc.—creating a community centered on friendship and relationships, which is critical for senior living. This allows for reduced operational costs, as well, because there aren’t entire rooms programmed for one use that sit empty for long periods of time … [It also] eliminates the need to have a full-time employee who’s programming activities for each space on a continuous basis while also minimizes building square footage that’s left unused for long periods of time. To be impactful, flexibility was a goal from the project kickoff, inspiring many decisions made at the outset of the design process. Through a deep dive with the provider, we discovered that a lot of the rooms that are standard in the internal program weren’t absolutely necessary, or they could be altered and broken up throughout the community. This is probably the most important thing the design team learned: that we need to be more willing to part with our preconceived program and adapt to a more flexible design.

How/why did wellness become such an important design influence, and how specifically was that delivered?

Wellness was a vision that stemmed from WesleyLife’s organization-wide commitment to support health and wellness. We embraced wellness as a key foundation of the design not only for this reason but also because we understand the importance of prioritizing wellness for aging adults. When residents move out of their homes and into a senior community, they’re adapting to a new daily life and new patterns, and that can be really stressful. Our goal was to develop a design that promotes both physical and mental health. Part of what goes into that is creating fitness spaces that invite and inspire residents from all physical abilities and backgrounds to exercise, which improves mental health, as well. In addition to the fitness spaces, we felt that wellness could and should be incorporated throughout the community building. At no point did we want to give way to age-biased or care-need stigmas, as they are detrimental to mental health and prevent intergenerational socializing. One place we really strived to incorporate wellness while reducing stigmas was in the transitional care units (TCUs). Here, we focused on reducing residents’ feelings of isolation during recovery by making the space more open and accessible, allowing TCU residents to interact outside of their living spaces.

Resident integration is seen throughout the community. How did design help achieve this?

We tried to create spaces that blended independent and assisted living. The wellness center was designed using all the criteria necessary for skilled care and transitional care recovery, but in a way that still feels accessible and invites use from all residents. A great example of this from the wellness center is the bathrooms … [They] are designed to support skilled care residents’ use during recovery, with the help of staff, and in a hospitality-like fitness club setting that’s appealing to more independent residents. This helped promote feelings of unity and mitigate the separation of different care levels that’s so common in senior living design. The fitness spaces were designed with all residents in mind, as well, and we pushed ourselves to integrate fitness in a way that would inspire residents to participate and use the center. The spaces are functional for those who need physical therapy, but at the same time are bright and inviting for all residents and their individual fitness goals.

The community is designed throughout to be very inclusive regardless of income level or care needs. How was this supported through the built environment?

In line with WesleyLife’s wellness vision, we tried to break away from what’s expected in the industry—that is, the physical separation of different care levels. We approached the design from the mindset that we wanted to blur those lines more, to engage and incorporate all residents as much as possible so each person felt welcome in each area of the Brio community. We designed with this inclusivity in mind. The team worked hard to eliminate differences between resident groups. Campuses may usually separate assisted and independent in different buildings or place higher-end units on a designated floor. At Brio, apartment wings, households, and units are aesthetically similar and organized organically, so residents feel like they belong anywhere in the community, regardless of their income level or need of assistance. Residents can select a buy-in or lease unit anywhere; these units are sized the same with differing finishes based on what the resident selects and whether they buy-in or lease. This inclusive design means that residents who come to Brio from different careers and economic backgrounds can genuinely develop friendships that aren’t limited by imposed social, financial, or care-level boundaries.

The design team applied lessons learned from a post-occupancy evaluation of a previous project to guide decisions tied, specifically, to person-centered care solutions in the memory support and skilled nursing households. What did you learn on the POE, and what are some examples of how that was applied here?

A foundational cornerstone of Brio was applying the POE lessons learned from our work with WesleyLife’s The Cottages at Hearthstone project in Pella, Iowa, which opened in 2014. There were a lot of features and outcomes we loved from The Cottages that we wanted to incorporate and improve upon. One of the most important takeaways was that ceiling design helped to create a diverse space, something really beneficial for residents and staff who spend most of their time in a single environment. For example, in the dining space of Pella, different ceiling vaulting and designs were used to help separate the open spaces, so residents can have breakfast and lunch in the same space but feel like it’s a different area and that they have options, encouraging residents to be engaged and excited in daily choices.

At Pella, all household kitchen cabinet doors are unlocked, and with Brio, the team wanted to create more flexibility for staff while supporting resident independence and engagement. The cabinets are all lockable with more drawers with loose bale pulls on the lower cabinets. Staff within the household have the flexibility to keep sterilized dishes and cooking tools in locked cabinets that are more inaccessible, while encouraging residents to use the more accessible drawers that are kept unlocked to get out manipulatives, approved-use utensils, and non-breakable dishes. We also learned from Pella that we really needed to incorporate more pantry space for the skilled care household kitchen. This was accomplished at Brio while keeping the same amount of kitchen space.

The design team applied lessons learned from a post-occupancy evaluation of a previous project to guide decisions tied, specifically, to person-centered care solutions in the memory support and skilled nursing households. What did you learn on the POE, and what are some examples of how that was applied here?

A foundational cornerstone of Brio was applying the POE lessons learned from our work with WesleyLife’s The Cottages at Hearthstone project in Pella, Iowa, which opened in 2014. There were a lot of features and outcomes we loved from The Cottages that we wanted to incorporate and improve upon. One of the most important takeaways was that ceiling design helped to create a diverse space, something really beneficial for residents and staff who spend most of their time in a single environment. For example, in the dining space of Pella, different ceiling vaulting and designs were used to help separate the open spaces, so residents can have breakfast and lunch in the same space but feel like it’s a different area and that they have options, encouraging residents to be engaged and excited in daily choices.

At Pella, all household kitchen cabinet doors are unlocked, and with Brio, the team wanted to create more flexibility for staff while supporting resident independence and engagement. The cabinets are all lockable with more drawers with loose bale pulls on the lower cabinets. Staff within the household have the flexibility to keep sterilized dishes and cooking tools in locked cabinets that are more inaccessible, while encouraging residents to use the more accessible drawers that are kept unlocked to get out manipulatives, approved-use utensils, and non-breakable dishes. We also learned from Pella that we really needed to incorporate more pantry space for the skilled care household kitchen. This was accomplished at Brio while keeping the same amount of kitchen space.

We also widened the unit windows to allow more natural light and interaction with the outdoor space so that residents can feel even more connected to the world around them. We wanted to amplify the ceiling volume and window design from Pella. In Brio, we still took the single-story approach but raised the roof slightly to allow for the addition of clerestory windows. Film on the clerestory windows helps blur the sun glare to create soft, up-lit spaces. Additionally, from our study of Pella, we were reminded that acoustics are just as critical to creating daylight and peaceful spaces. To support more residential-level acoustics, the ceilings in Brio are all applied acoustic panels that are carefully designed and constructed to appear like they belong in any residential building.

This project is very integrated with its surroundings and geographic location. How did you approach the overall look and feel of Brio?

We wanted to give a nod to the surrounding community by taking some features of the farm life, but we also wanted to break away a bit from traditional farmhouse design. We wanted it to be unique, fun, and playful while exuding its own character. We also wanted it to be transitional, with our own touch of design flair, so that it could really cater to residents from all backgrounds but still feel like home to them. In Iowa and the Midwest, farmhouse modern is a popular trend in residential design. We wanted to use a farmhouse modern style to fit the area’s desired context, but also dial it up with creative applications. We incorporated playful industrial-like elements—exposed pipe and rustic hardware—and mixed it with elegant Amish-built furniture, glulam timber, modernized lighting, and rich colors. One farm feature that we evolved is the two-story “grain bin,” which is a common sight on local farms. This space is designed on the outside like a grain bin, and we played off the industrial style to push interest in the space, which is a unique conference/gathering room featuring a wedged wood Amish-made circular table and a modernized pendant lighting fixture.

One final element the jury loved was the addition of a guest unit for housing college students. How did this idea develop and what have you learned from delivering it?

WesleyLife wanted to include housing for college students because it encourages intergenerational relationships with countless benefits for the residents. When student interns live in the same community they are working in, they can grow stronger connections and relationships with senior residents, which helps them feel more at home in their career. This was an idea that WesleyLife really wanted to try. Brio includes a two-bedroom student apartment unit on the third floor in place of a typical guest unit. Providing housing for college students in this way helps young adults grow interest in building relationships while also helping engage and retain staff for the long term. WesleyLife felt it made sense to create a comfortable living oasis for the students, in the form of these apartments, which helped reduce any commute time or stress in finding temporary housing during an internship, while building invaluable connections. Finally, including student housing only furthered the feeling of unity the team strived for in this design.

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