Environments for Aging - Spring 2017 - 38

EFA DESIGN SHOWCASE
AWARD OF MERIT

A reinvention
Rose Villa's ambitious replacement of its dated buildings results in a bold pocket
neighborhood concept with over/under cottages and a pedestrian-friendly Town Center
that earned it an Award of Merit in the EFA Design Showcase BY SARA O. MARBERRY

Top: Addressing the site's significant grade change, Rose Villa's pocket neighborhoods are organized to create
a low slope and accessible walking/cart path from the bottom of the hill up to the Main Street and Town Center.
The neighborhood gardens are themed and have various amenities such as arbors, boulder-seating walls, rose
gardens, fire pits, and pet drinking fountains. Above: The Town Center has resident amenities at street level and
other shared spaces, as well as loft apartments on the upper floors. A bistro grill, garden center, art studio, and
wellness and performing arts center are directly accessible from both the street and internal building corridors.
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EFAmagazine.com * Spring 2017

unfriendly for mobility."
The solution, which contributed to the project earning an Award of Merit in this year's EFA
Design Showcase, was to design five pocket
neighborhoods, each with five to seven cottage
residences that are organized around gardens
and connected by a landscaped sidewalk that
traverses down the hill at a grade that's less
than an accessible ramp. The project also uses
an over/under cottage plan that stacks two
apartments on one another, with the structures
built into the sloped terrain to act as retaining
walls, all while keeping each neighborhood and
its respective garden level.
Each cottage in the pocket neighborhoods
has a front and back door-an idea that came
from focus group discussions with senior
management, staff members, independent living residents, and family members who felt that
most houses have more than one entrance, so
the cottages should, too. The bright exterior
colors of the cottages keep with the northwest
architectural aesthetic. "It adds a vibrancy to
the community," McRoberts says. Furthering
that idea, each garden in the pocket neighborhoods is designed around a theme using
different landscaping and paving elements. For
example, there's a fire pit garden, a sculptural
garden, a hummingbird garden, and a gathering place garden. Residents take care of the
gardens and can customize the plots near their
front doors.
Another key element to the plan is that parking for cars is located outside of the pedestrian/pocket neighborhoods. "The car is often the
driving factor for convenience in senior living,"
McRoberts says. But at Rose Villa, residents

NATHAN COX PHOTOGRAPHY

opography often drives design. In the
case of Rose Villa in Portland, Ore., it
was the design driver, leading to innovative solutions for the revamp of this garden
community that had grown old and tired.
"From the top of the site, where it's level, down
toward the river, the grade drops 50 feet," says
Eric McRoberts, partner at RLPS Architects
(Lancaster, Pa.). "That can be very senior

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Environments for Aging - Spring 2017

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