Environments for Aging - Fall 2017 - 23

Welcome

to the 20th anniversary issue of
Environments for Aging
"A design competition with a difference." That's how the magazine you hold in your hands got
its start 20 years ago. Design '97, as it was called, was launched by the former Nursing Homes magazine in
partnership with SAGE (Society for the Advancement of Gerontological Environments) to recognize senior
living environments that were themselves making a difference.
The magazine compiled the results of that competition, juried by members of SAGE. As founding editor
Richard L. Peck shared with me recently, it was an idea that had percolated over time. Nursing Homes
published its first design-related article in June 1991, a profile of a new memory care center designed by
industry icon Margaret Calkins (today executive director of The Mayer-Rothschild Foundation), which was
complemented by a few other design stories. And, from there, an annual tradition was born. Each year in
June, Nursing Homes would publish a design issue. And then in 1997, Peck turned to Calkins, an officer of
SAGE, to help launch Design and that first design competition.
"[SAGE] set the standards of judgment, focusing particularly on resident-centered design and the neighborhood concept just coming into vogue. Every move away from the extremely dated mini-hospital approach
to nursing home design was applauded, and the creation of the newly established assisted living environment was welcomed. SAGE judges also established the tradition, from Design '97 onwards, of never being
satisfied with the pace of innovation in the field," Peck says.
Much has happened since that time. The magazine changed ownership twice and names once-
officially becoming Environments for Aging in 2012. The design competition still exists today as the EFA
Design Showcase, published every spring (and managed since 1998 by Special Projects Director Donna
Paglia). The jury is now appointed by additional partner organizations, including SAGE, The Center for Health
Design, the International Interior Design Association, and the American Society of Interior Designers. From
this, we've partnered with SAGE to launch the annual Remodel/Renovation Competition, as well (see page
52). Peck retired in 2009, and several editors have taken the helm of EFA since. The content of our magazine
has evolved, too-beginning primarily as competition coverage and today delivering insight and inspiration
tied to all aspects of the senior living design industry. We're now published three times a year in print, with
additional news stories and articles posted regularly at EFAmagazine.com. We also now have the annual
EFA Expo & Conference, where industry members gather each year (April 21-24, 2018, Savannah, Ga.).
But one thing hasn't changed since 1997: Our mission is to encourage and celebrate the advancement
of innovative and effective senior living environments that support residents and staff in person-centered,
cost-effective spaces. And delivering those spaces has remained your mission.
To celebrate how far we've all come, we put together a special 20th anniversary section on the following
pages that includes a retrospective piece based on the insight shared by members of our impressive new
Editorial Advisory Board, a timeline detailing award-winning projects over the past two decades, and an
inside look from Perkins Eastman on the project that won Best in Show in that very first issue of Design.
I hope you enjoy it. We're excited to cover the ways our readers will surely continue to transform senior
living over the next 20 years.-Jennifer Kovacs Silvis, editor-in-chief

Fall 2017 * EFAmagazine.com

http://www.EFAmagazine.com

Environments for Aging - Fall 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Environments for Aging - Fall 2017