Environments for Aging - Spring 2021 - 22

erry College in Rome,
Ga., was founded in 1902 as the Boys Industrial School. It was built on the concept that
in exchange for education, students would
work to maintain the school. The college
and its campus have evolved over the years,
growing to more than 2,000 students (including women) and 27,000 acres, making it the
world's largest contiguous college campus.
However, the original emphasis on learning,
practical work experience, and community
22

service has remained. In fact, it inspired the
college's newest addition: The Spires at Berry
College, a 400,000-square-foot continuing
care retirement community (CCRC), which
opened in June 2020. " Part of the reason this
whole project came about was [the college]
needed more jobs for their students and
wanted them to have real-life experiences, "
says Laurie Steber, executive director at The
Spires at Berry College. " You cannot get any
more real life than what we've got going on. "
In 2014, the project team, including THW
Design, Faulkner Design Group, owner
Lavender Mountain Senior Living (a nonprofit
company formed by Berry College to own and
operate The Spires), and Greenbrier Development, came together to deliver a destination
retirement community that would attract
alumni as well as area residents while supporting work-study options for Berry College
students. " The overriding goal of the project
was a marriage between Berry College and
all that it has stood for, its long tradition [of
service], and their desire to attract a senior
living community on their enormous campus, "
says Ken Kite, architect and senior project
manager at THW Design (Atlanta).
With 48 acres on campus designated by

the Berry College board for the CCRC, the
first step was finding the right site. " They really
wanted the community to be a feature [on
campus], " Kite says.
Several locations were considered, but
the one that offered the greatest potential for
views and proximity to nature as well as Berry
College also presented the biggest challenge:
a brownfield site near the west side of campus that had been an active limestone quarry
until 2000. Past efforts to pump in 6 billion
gallons of water had helped stabilize the water
table beneath Berry College, but the addition
of The Spires would require intensive drilling
and blasting to remove more material. The
effort was worth it, though, and made way
for an 88-acre manmade lake, called Eagle
Lake, with views to Lavender Mountain in the
distance, creating a picturesque setting for
the senior living community. " Our goal was
to take advantage of the siting, where you
could see the lake and the mountain, and the
natural features on campus, " he says.

View finder
With such an abundance of natural features,
including woodlands, meadows, and streams,
at the CCRC's doorstep, Kite says maximizing

EFAmagazine.com * Spring 2021

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Environments for Aging - Spring 2021

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