Environments for Aging - Spring 2015 - 40

EFA DESIGN SHOWCASE

Others, however, stressed that some progress
has been made. "Last year the amount of collaboration was minimal," Perini says, "but this
year, communities are taking it to a higher level
that's more structured and involved."
This year's Award of Merit-winning project,
Brickstone by St. John's (see page 42), earned
considerable praise from the jury for this very reason, with concerted effort all through its planning
and development to both involve the community
directly being served and welcome the rest of the
neighborhood in.
And efforts by other project teams to engage
residents, families, and the neighborhood across
generations were similarly appreciated by the
jury. BJ Miller, president of The Vision Group
Studios (Asheville, N.C.), cited the "creeping in"
of intergenerational components in a number of

see incorporated into future design, it would be
the elimination of windowless corridors." Walking
distances, lighting, color contrast, lack of seating,
and dead ends were other negative notes struck as
the jurors considered corridors in the submission
materials. Whittington pointed to some attempts to
decrease hall lengths, but overall, there was much
disappointment.

projects, such as the inclusion of retail offerings,
cultural events, interconnected walking paths,
and a "tot lot" to appeal to visiting grandkids.
Teresa Whittington, vice president of clinical and
continuum operations for owner C.C. Young
(Dallas), found great promise in the "attempts
to make environments for seniors that are truly
intergenerational or part of the whole community
and not just inside 'four walls'-[senior living] is
not an island!"

many other creative ways to configure the floorplan
to make it more residential in scale."
Through the discussions of both negative and
positive elements in the many projects considered
for this year's Showcase, the call to arms for the
industry was clear. "The stigma is strong for senior
environments because modern design concepts
and technology seem to lag behind the other housing and healthcare industries," says Tu-Anh Bui
Johnson, project manager at Horty Elving + Wold
(Minneapolis). "What I've seen in the last two years
[of judging] has been that designers are slowly trying
to break out of the box on the traditional language
of senior living environments."
But we're not there yet. "There is so much more
that can be done to enhance the quality of life for
our seniors," says Stassi. "I'm waiting to see the
owners make the leap to the extraordinary." EFA

Room for improvement
Only one design element was near-universally
lamented by the jury members who assembled
in person in January for the final stage of award
judging. That element: long corridors. "The
industry has yet to strike a balance on the
perfect corridor," says Miller, while Stassi takes
a harder stance: "If there's one thing I'd like to

Efforts by project teams to engage
residents, families, and the neighborhood
across generations were appreciated.
"I really wish we didn't see long, double-barreled
hallways in 2016," Andrews says. "There are so

Kristin D. Zeit is editor-in-chief of Environments for
Aging. She can be reached at kristin.zeit@emerald
expo.com.

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