The architectural and planning firm KTGY Group recently created Los Angeles 55+ Studio, specifically for the design of active-adult and seniors housing. Heading up that studio is Douglas Ahlstrom, a 35-year industry vet and a Certified Active Adult Specialist in Housing through the National Association of Home Builders. Previously, Ahlstrom was Director of Seniors Housing for the community planner KEPHART, and a principal with Professional Design Consultants.
The following are excerpts from an email interview BD+C conducted with Ahlstrom about the Studio and the seniors housing market:
BD+C: What prompted KTGY to launch Studio 55+, and what is KTGY bringing to the table that's unique?
Ahlstrom: KTGY has always been in the 55+ market sector. What KTGY is doing now is collaborating and consolidating all of our offices’ expertise so that our creative team can focus exclusively on what is cutting edge in the area of 55+ housing. With access to the industry’s leading research firms as well as collaboration with experts in Universal Design, we are able to help clients across the spectrum of age-qualified housing develop communities that will not only meet residents’ needs today but their needs long into the future.
What design features do you think are essential to active-adult/retirement living, and do you think those needs are currently being met?
Universal Design is unquestionably the essential feature in all active-adult and retirement living environments. Elements like Kohler’s new shower and bath accessories that look like a decorative shampoo and soap tray, but actually work as a grab bar supporting 300 pounds of pressure, are great examples where we need to be heading.
The trick is still, as it has always been, not to be obvious with these design elements and create a comfortable and tasteful atmosphere. Wide hallways, lots of natural light without glare, fully accessible garages with ease of entry into the home, and ease-of-reach items in the bath and kitchen, can easily be incorporated into the home if thought out completely during the conceptual design. Additionally, the planning of the overall community is important to ensure a successful design.
'Today’s 55+ buyers are looking for more opportunities to socialize outside the home. The large clubhouse is becoming a thing of the past, replaced with smaller, more intimate, buildings that cater to special functions like health and wellness. Walking and riding trails that interconnect smaller neighborhoods and lead to larger central shopping or recreational nodes are becoming more popular, as is the elimination of multiple vehicular access points entering these neighborhoods.' — Douglas Ahlstrom, KTGY Group
Today’s 55+ buyers are looking for more opportunities to socialize outside the home. The large clubhouse is becoming a thing of the past, replaced with smaller, more intimate, buildings that cater to special functions like health and wellness. Walking and riding trails that interconnect smaller neighborhoods and lead to larger central shopping or recreational nodes are becoming more popular, as is the elimination of multiple vehicular access points entering these neighborhoods. The walled community is gone and has been replaced with the living wall of vegetation, or with more pedestrian access points promoting a healthier alternative to reach areas outside the community.
Builders and developers already in this space are always talking about multigenerational living. But there are relatively few examples of communities that include housing that accommodates the needs of Millennials, families, and retirees (including assisted living and hospice care).
This is an area that’s growing, and a few developers are incorporating designs that promote multigenerational living. Pew Research Center analysis of the latest U.S. Census Bureau data approximates 51 million Americans, or 16.7% of the population, live in a house with at least two adult generations, or a grandparent and at least one other generation, under one roof. A 2012 survey by the national builder PulteGroup found that 32 percent of adult children expect to eventually share their house with a parent.
It’s not just the graduating college kids moving back with the parents to get their bearings; it’s also the older kids who lost their homes during the economic downturn. In some cases, these kids are bringing their kids with them. All of these changes are occurring at a time when the 55+ buyer is having to bring his or her parent(s) into the home to assist them with their difficulties, whether they be financial or health.
How would the ideal multigenerational community be designed?
Developers need to concentrate on how to achieve the design of a multigenerational home that makes sense in providing separation and privacy while promoting family interaction and nurturing. For the elder resident in the mix, the main concern is providing a safe environment to live in. All of this needs to be accomplished while jumping through jurisdictional hoops of creating, essentially, more than one residence on a lot that may not be zoned for multiple residences. The communities that these homes are designed within would probably be only a few in the overall number of residences offered. But the community space needs to cater to multiple generations. The smaller, more intimate buildings that have replaced the larger clubhouse may include adult daycare to assist the family having a safe place for mom or dad to be while the rest of the family is at work.
Can you envision senior living as being an element in a larger multifamily project like a high-rise tower?
Yes, there are great examples of mid-rise and high-rise projects that cater to the needs of the 55+ buyer. There is a new exodus of seniors leaving the suburbs and moving back into the city center. The 55+ resident is looking for more social experiences, flexibility in living, and convenience that the city center has to offer. It is appealing to be able to leave their residence for a vacation and not have to worry about the yard, and have the safe feeling that their home will be secure.
Good examples of 55+ Master Plans today include Gavilan in Rancho Mission Viejo, and the Victory District at Verrado in Buckeye, Ariz., where age-qualified communities are part of larger, all ages Master Plans, and the residents love that idea. If there was ever any doubt that an urban environment was desired by today’s seniors, you don’t need to look any farther than Angelus Plaza, the country’s largest affordable age-qualified community, whose renovation we are overseeing. It has a waiting list of more than 2,400 seniors.
KTGY says that service is an important part of what Los Angeles Studio 55+ Studio. What services are you emphasizing, and how will they be marketed?
Today’s active adult and senior homeowners are more diverse than ever. KTGY knows that there is not a one size fits all solution. KTGY’s design services include master planning, single family and multifamily, and encompass both market rate and affordable developments, for rent and for sale.
Our commitment to senior living includes a full continuum of care from independent living, assisted living, memory support and skilled nursing to Continuing Care Residential Communities (CCRC). KTGY understands that great design must promote independence, wellness and a sense of community, while providing a safe environment to care for the residents as their needs change.
Where does KTGY see growth for its 55+ Studio?
With 10,000 individuals turning 65 every day and the last of the Boomers turning 65 in 2029, the market will encompass the design needs of the most wealthy, affluent and healthy buyer ever seen. Boomers are picky, not only for themselves but for their parents’ needs. With the overall population living longer, Boomers expect more out of independent living, assisted living and memory support communities where they may bring their parents, perhaps with the an eye towards the day when they, too, eventually become end users of those communities.
Related Stories
| Mar 22, 2011
Mayor Bloomberg unveils plans for New York City’s largest new affordable housing complex since the ’70s
Plans for Hunter’s Point South, the largest new affordable housing complex to be built in New York City since the 1970s, include new residences for 5,000 families, with more than 900 in this first phase. A development team consisting of Phipps Houses, Related Companies, and Monadnock Construction has been selected to build the residential portion of the first phase of the Queens waterfront complex, which includes two mixed-use buildings comprising more than 900 housing units and roughly 20,000 square feet of new retail space.
| Mar 17, 2011
Perkins Eastman launches The Green House prototype design package
Design and architecture firm Perkins Eastman is pleased to join The Green House project and NCB Capital Impact in announcing the launch of The Green House Prototype Design Package. The Prototype will help providers develop small home senior living communities with greater efficiency and cost savings—all to the standards of care developed by The Green House project.
| Mar 11, 2011
Renovation energizes retirement community in Massachusetts
The 12-year-old Edgewood Retirement Community in Andover, Mass., underwent a major 40,000-sf expansion and renovation that added 60 patient care beds in the long-term care unit, a new 17,000-sf, 40-bed cognitive impairment unit, and an 80-seat informal dining bistro.
| Mar 11, 2011
Mixed-income retirement community in Maryland based on holistic care
The Green House Residences at Stadium Place in Waverly, Md., is a five-story, 40,600-sf, mixed-income retirement community based on a holistic continuum of care concept developed by Dr. Bill Thomas. Each of the four residential floors houses a self-contained home for 12 residents that includes 12 bedrooms/baths organized around a common living/social area called the “hearth,” which includes a kitchen, living room with fireplace, and dining area.
| Mar 11, 2011
Texas A&M mixed-use community will focus on green living
HOK, Realty Appreciation, and Texas A&M University are working on the Urban Living Laboratory, a 1.2-million-sf mixed-use project owned by the university. The five-phase, live-work-play project will include offices, retail, multifamily apartments, and two hotels.
| Mar 1, 2011
How to make rentals more attractive as the American dream evolves, adapts
Roger K. Lewis, architect and professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Maryland, writes in the Washington Post about the rising market demand for rental housing and how Building Teams can make these properties a desirable choice for consumer, not just an economically prudent and necessary one.
| Feb 15, 2011
New Orleans' rebuilt public housing architecture gets mixed reviews
The architecture of New Orleans’ new public housing is awash with optimism about how urban-design will improve residents' lives—but the changes are based on the idealism of an earlier era that’s being erased and revised.
| Feb 11, 2011
Chicago high-rise mixes condos with classrooms for Art Institute students
The Legacy at Millennium Park is a 72-story, mixed-use complex that rises high above Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. The glass tower, designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz, is mostly residential, but also includes 41,000 sf of classroom space for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and another 7,400 sf of retail space. The building’s 355 one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom condominiums range from 875 sf to 9,300 sf, and there are seven levels of parking. Sky patios on the 15th, 42nd, and 60th floors give owners outdoor access and views of Lake Michigan.
| Feb 11, 2011
Sustainable community center to serve Angelinos in need
Harbor Interfaith Services, a nonprofit serving the homeless and working poor in the Harbor Area and South Bay communities of Los Angeles, engaged Withee Malcolm Architects to design a new 15,000-sf family resource center. The architects, who are working pro bono for the initial phase, created a family-centered design that consolidates all programs into a single building. The new three-story space will house a resource center, food pantry, nursery and pre-school, and administrative offices, plus indoor and outdoor play spaces and underground parking. The building’s scale and setbacks will help it blend with its residential neighbors, while its low-flow fixtures, low-VOC and recycled materials, and energy-efficient mechanical equipment and appliances will help it earn LEED certification.
| Feb 11, 2011
Apartment complex caters to University of Minnesota students
Twin Cities firm Elness Swenson Graham Architects designed the new Stadium Village Flats, in the University of Minnesota’s East Bank Campus, with students in mind. The $30 million, six-story residential/retail complex will include 120 furnished apartments with fitness rooms and lounges on each floor. More than 5,000 sf of first-floor retail space and two levels of below-ground parking will complete the complex. Opus AE Group Inc., based in Minneapolis, will provide structural engineering services.
