Design for All

BY DEBORAH PADDISON

Senior Living: A "Booming" Market

Leave it to the Baby Boomers to redefine retirement, just like they've redefined most everything else. As they search for living arrangements for their aging parents, Boomers are injecting their own desires into the mix. Today, retirement doesn't have to be strictly Sun City. Why not a senior-living high-rise in downtown Chicago, or lifelong learning near a university campus?

"Even though they're not ready to retire themselves, Baby Boomers are already influencing the senior-living market because they're helping their parents move into facilities now," says Jeffrey Shera, AIA, of Lantz-Boggio Architects in Englewood, Colorado. Shera heads up the firm's Senior Care Studio, which specializes in designing senior environments across the country. "The children are often the decision-makers for the parents, imposing their ideas of what they want in a senior living facility."

So what do they want?

• More choices in living spaces
• More social spaces
• A wide variety of indoor and outdoor activities

What they don't ask about specifically are universal design features. "People just expect that any new environment designed today will automatically have universal design features to support the needs of the residents," Shera says.

And so it is at MacKenzie Place Oakridge, a senior-living campus in Fort Collins, Colorado and one of Lantz-Boggio's projects. MacKenzie Place is a fully barrier-free community of independent-living (The Terrace) and assisted-living (The Arbours) apartments, as well as 83 single-family and duplex Cottages which residents have the chance to own-a rarity in senior-living settings. The Cottages have full ground-floor accessibility; there are virtually no steps throughout the entire community, and no sidewalks or pathways exceed a 5 percent grade.

"Many people are living in homes designed decades ago when they gave little thought to the steps leading up to the front porch, having the washer and dryer in the basement, or how wide the doorways were," says Ron Vaughn, executive vice president of MacKenzie House, LLC in Englewood, the developer of MacKenzie Place Oakridge. "As they age, they encounter illnesses or surgeries and find that they're returning to a home that no longer works for them."

Practical Housing for All

That's what happened to Mark Beck. After a skiing accident, he found that, literally, he couldn't go home again. As a person with quadriplegia who gets around in a wheelchair, today he lives in a home that sports custom features to allow him to live independently.

In the 1990s, Beck approached the City of Fort Collins with an idea that eventually became the Practical Housing for All initiative, instituted by the city's Commission on Disability several years ago. PHA is an effort to educate and encourage homebuilders about incorporating five basic features in new-home construction that will help make the homes practical for residents and visitors of all abilities:

1. At least one no-step entry on an accessible route
2. A first-floor kitchen, bathroom and bedroom
3. Maneuvering space requirements: 32-inch clear opening at doorways, 36-inch clear passage, 42-inch-wide hallways, and a 30-by-48-inch clear space adjacent to the bathroom sink, tub/shower and toilet
4. Blocking in bathroom walls to accommodate grab bars
5. Reachable plugs and switches: light switches and thermostat no higher than 48 inches above the floor, and electrical outlets at least 15 inches above the floor

"These five basic features result in livable homes with barrier-free access to everyone, regardless of age or physical limitations," Beck says. "It's not a mandate, it's simply a way of encouraging new-home builders to consider basic universal design principles."

Above: MacKenzie Place Oakridge, a senior-living campus in Fort Collins, Colorado, features The Cottages, 83 barrier-free homes incorporating a variety of universal design features (see floorplan, right). The development also voluntarily complies with the city's Practical Housing for All initiative.

MacKenzie House was on board from the beginning. "As we began evaluating what it means to build a well-designed, visitable, accessible campus, we found out about the Fort Collins PHA initiative, and we worked with Mark and the city to make sure we were 100 percent compliant with it," Vaughn says.

"It doesn't scream 'accessibility'; to the layman's eye it appears simply as a very gracious environment, whether you're pushing your grandchild in a stroller, riding a bicycle around the campus, or using your walker or wheelchair to go visit your neighbor," he adds.

Location, Location, Location

In addition to physical accessibility, a project's location within a city is also important, Shera says. "Seniors today are focused on health and wellness and prefer to remain part of the community, so a major trend in senior living is integration of projects into active urban centers," he notes. Residents then may have access to additional resources nearby. Is the project in a neighborhood where you can easily walk down the street and go to the store? Can residents access different shopping choices, arts and cultural facilities, sports and social events?

MacKenzie Place residents can enjoy the lifestyle of Fort Collins—named one of the best places to live in the country—including the Fort Collins Symphony, museums, Colorado State University and plenty of outdoor recreation. Back on campus, a 200,000-square-foot center offers an indoor pool, a theater, a ballroom, a bistro with wireless Internet, a fine-dining restaurant, the PrimeFit fitness program and even a "brain lab" with challenging computer games and science classes.

The goal of senior living is to help people stay as independent as possible for as long as possible in an environment that meets their needs not only physically, but also mentally and spiritually.

Vaughn says, "What we've tried to accomplish with The Cottages at MacKenzie Place Oakridge is to give seniors the ability to continue home ownership, in a home that will allow for aging in place, while they enjoy a lifestyle campus that offers the amenities and activities they are looking for."