Choice has been a driving theme in discussions about dining in senior living communities to support seniors’ desire for autonomy as well as appeal to a range of residents, including those seeking new experiences and social engagement opportunities.
But more communities and the project teams they work with are recognizing a desire to do more. “To me, designing for resident choice is sort of an expectation … it’s a baseline” says Janet Meyer, principal at BCT Design Group (Baltimore).
To raise the bar, today’s communities are delivering tailored experiences and dining environments replete with distinctive character and features designed to encourage interaction between residents and the staff to “create that amazing experience,” says Meyer, who served as a juror for Environments for Aging’s second annual Dining Competition.
Dustin Julius, partner at RLPS Architects (Lancaster, Pa.), agrees that expectations are growing for dining environments that integrate residents, staff, and family members into an experience, “not just into the act of eating.”
Environments for Aging recently talked with Meyer and Julius, who also served as a competition juror, to discuss what stood out to them in this year’s winning projects, how dining strategies are evolving, and what opportunities they think the industry should tackle next.
Also, find details on the Dining Competition Special Supplement that’s available for download at efamagazine.com.
Residents’ needs, preferences are key
As the industry seeks to deliver more engaging dining experiences, Julius and Meyer say the key is choosing themes or concepts that make sense to the location and communities being served.
For example, Starfire Restaurant + Brewhouse at Friendship Village Tempe in Tempe, Ariz., which took home a Gold award in the 2024 Dining Competition, incorporates a variety of settings, including a restaurant, patio, and rooftop brewery, which offers craft beers brewed on-site by a local brewmaster.
“That’s not to say every community should have a brewery,” Meyer says, but rather each community should focus on what sets it apart or is specific to a place.
In looking for the right offering, project teams shouldn’t assume that formal dining in senior living has gone by the wayside and that the industry is exclusively shifting to more casual options, the jurors noted. “I don’t think that’s consistent with what we’re hearing from our clients,” Julius says. “There are regions [in the U.S.] where having a space that is more formal is critical to their residents.”
Instead, he says, discussions should be framed to consider the experience and what meets the needs of residents. For example, residents may want the option of a rooftop dining setting one night and a bistro experience another night.
“I don’t think it comes down to this dichotomy between formal and casual dining,” he says. “Instead, it’s the choice and the type of experience that I can have in a multitude of different settings.”
Meyer adds that communities shouldn’t try to be everything to all people. “Focus on the group of residents that you’re trying to draw and serve,” she says. “Be the absolute best for them.”
Furthermore, Julius says that the trend in more experiential dining benefits residents as well as staff members by providing depth of meaning to the work employees are contributing to and being a part of. “We’re seeing that as an objective coming forward early in programming,” he says. “Aside from wanting to have a really great design to these spaces, communities are wanting to have an amazing space that attracts talent.”
Delivering character in dining settings
Diversity in senior living dining offerings and venue experiences means more than just having the latest pizza oven or brewery equipment on hand, the designers say. Equally important are architectural and interior design features that give the space its own voice and character.
“One of the consistent things we saw on all the dining submissions was the branding component,” Julius says.
For example, this year’s top Platinum award winner is Inspirata Pointe at Royal Oaks, which created three new dining venues for its Sun City, Ariz., campus. Each has its own refined restaurant experience that includes branded menus and separate table setting designs that fit within the interior design approach.
Julius says environments that illustrated a synergy between the architectural components, such as the ceilings treatments, materials palette, and lighting designs, also stood out in this year’s competition. A lot of what creates a dining experience “is this beautifully curated and carefully designed synergy of everything that goes into the space, the architecture, and the interior design,” he says.
Interior design features matter
For example, Inspirata Pointe’s Copper Skye bar and restaurant incorporates copper-colored pendant lights with discreet lighting above the bar and under the countertop. “Those sorts of layers of lighting give a depth and vibrancy to the space,” he says, adding that the strategy also helped highlight some of the materiality in the space, including an intricate screen wall.
The winning projects in this year’s Dining Competition also illustrated a move away from large dining rooms with furniture that’s easily rearranged to more permanent furniture arrangements and layouts that better support curated experiences, such as using banquettes with tall backings to divide up a room into more intimate areas.
Inside the Starfire Restaurant + Brewhouse, lighting and acoustic levels were evaluated, and appropriate fixtures were selected for the aging population such as acoustic ceiling baffles and light fixtures that counterbalance the hard surfaces.
These design features not only help control sound but also add visual interest to the space. “You’re being mindful about not only curating zones of space for groups of individuals to gather but also separating their conversations from the person who might be sitting next to them,” Julius says.
Equity in dining across care
Looking to the future of dining in senior living, Meyer says she’d like to see more focus on creating equity across the care continuum. Referring to submissions to the Dining Competition, she says the bar’s been raised on dining venues for independent living, and “it’s fabulous.”
The next challenge, she adds, is figuring out how to deliver the same level of experience in assisted living and memory care. For example, Meyer says, it’s not uncommon to see fewer ceiling treatments or intricate lighting strategies in dining environments for more care-based senior living environments.
Instead, she’d like to see the industry push itself to do better. “How do we still create an environment that doesn’t seem like a lesser environment than what’s being offered in independent living?” she says.
Anne DiNardo is editor-in-chief of Environments for Aging. She can be reached at [email protected].
(Image credit: One Pixel Studio – stock.adobe.com)
