Women in Design 2018 - 24

24

Cypress Garden Senior Living, Hangzhou, China

Jane Rohde
Principal
JSR Associates, Catonsville, Maryland

Blocks, Tinkertoys, and Lincoln Logs: Jane Rohde played with them
all growing up outside Buffalo, New York. From there, it was an art
teacher in seventh grade who encouraged a new love for perspective
drawing and scultpure, which later morphed into an interest in
mechanical drawing and chemistry, culminating in an independent
study in architecture during her senior year in high school.
Rohde studied at Virginia Tech "because of its interdisciplinary
approach to interior design," she says. "We had integrative
programming with graphics, printing, pottery, and textiles. It was
like the Bauhaus." Rohde's thesis explored Germany's fascinating
medieval-era community the Fuggerei, one of the earliest known
retirement communities where widows and widowers went to live,
eat, and wander through gardens when they were no longer able to
work.
This communal living concept informed her passion for caring
for vulnerable populations, something she first explored at Erickson
Retirement Communities as vice president of design. Eight years
later, she founded her own firm, JSR Associates in Catonsville,
Maryland.

"There was a huge gap between function and design [in senior
living communities] because no one was speaking to operations,"
Rohde says. "So I would go to operations meetings and try to
understand the needs from [the residents'] perspectives."
Guided by how to make things better for people, she chose to
work on innovative design projects like Cypress Garden Senior
Living, China's first resident-centered care facility in Hangzhou.
She also contributed to the Wharton Care Center in Pleasant Hill,
Tennessee, the first to adopt the Eden Alternative, a program that
focuses on improving quality of life for residents and their care
partners.
An advocate as much as a designer and consultant, Rohde helps
shift attitudes on senior living by bringing awareness to concepts
like sustainability and wellness, which she addresses in the Senior
Living Sustainability Guide she created. Rohde also encourages such
elements as small houses and multigenerational living embedded
in communities. "We're still seeing 30-year-old models replicated,
but people are now seeking alternative models that don't segregate
generations," she says.
Affordability is another big factor for seniors. To keep costs
down, Rohde embraces popular Millennial approaches to housing,
like pairing small, private rooms with shared common spaces to
conjure a convivial atmosphere akin to The Golden Girls.
Although many senior living communities are well appointed,
Rhode says, they are not always programmed to meet residents'
needs or treat them as unique individuals. "The quality of life there
could be so much more," says Rohde, and she is determined to make
that elevated version the standard.
Women in Design 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Women in Design 2018
