Housing and Community for Aging Baby Boomers
Research Report by:
College of DAAP
University of Cincinnati
May 25, 2007
For:
Steed Hammond Paul
Center For Design Research & Innovation
College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning
Project Team:
John E. Hancock, Professor of Architecture
Principal Investigator
Elizabeth Bartley and Dawn Spring
Research Associates
David Saile, Menalaos Trinatafillou, Frank Russell, Craig M. Vogel
Faculty Team Members
Lindsey Guinther and Florentina Popescu
Graduate Assistants
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Presentation Format / Outline in Ten Parts:
Part One :
Who are the Boomers?
Part Two:
The Big Trends
Part Three:
New Marketing Approaches
Part Four:
Trends in Environments for Aging
Part Five:
The Baltimore Experience
Part Six:
Destination Marketing
Part Seven:
Assisted / Nursing Facility Design
Part Eight:
Resources and Organizations
Part Nine:
Interviews
Part Ten:
Some Conclusions
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Slides of 10 types:
Trends
Key Themes
Opportunities
Books
Resources
Organizations
Thought Leaders
Firm Profiles
Exemplars
Misc.
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Part One : Who are the Boomers?
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Resource: Focalyst Executive Forum
Focalyst Executive Forum
September 28-29, 2006
New York, NY
This will be an annual event: a good place to “position” in this field.
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Organization: American Association of Retired Persons
AARP is a membership organization dedicated to enhancing the
experience of aging through advocacy, information, and services. As
America’s largest and most powerful lobby group, it has focused on
initiatives to improve the lives of older Americans, to effect positive
social change, and to overcome stereotypes about aging populations.
http://www.aarp.org
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Resource: AARP Services, Inc.
AARP Services Inc is a new, for-profit entity that is able to design
products and services, in line with AARP’s goals, that are too risky for
traditional companies: an innovative extension of free-market services,
to address underserved markets, and to return profits to the goals of
social change.
Dawn Sweeny, President and
CEO, AARP Services, Inc
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Resource: AARP’s Ten Year Agenda:
AARP seeks to focus all its political, entrepreneurial, and partnershipbuilding skills, and its resources, to address four key, fundamental
social goals:
-access to health and health care
-livable navigable communities
-sustainable lifestyles
-financial security
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Resource: Focalist Inc
Formed by AARP, with The Kantar Group, to make good research
available to businesses wanting to serve the aging population markets.
Focalyst is the research arm that can mine AARP’s vast databases
of 50+ individuals.
Focalyst’s new research study was previewed
at the conference, and is being published.
Focalyst offers customized research access
to their database of 30,000 respondents.
Mike Irwin, President
and CEO, Focalyst
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Key Insight: The Impact of a Generation
Boomers will spend $2 trillion/year.
They are the best-educated, most innovative, most skeptical
generation in history. They are very open to change. They will do
research, experiment, change brands, and use the web.
They are re-conceptualizing “Retirement” as an opening up to a
multiplicity of opportunities and life-fulfilling directions; it is a revolution.
Boomers change everything they touch (and have since Gerber Baby
Food in the 1950s): They’re hunting for new products, services,
solutions, and experiences.
Nearly all current marketing is missing the mark and is insulting to
boomers.
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Key Insight: Boomer Core Values
Their Core Values, in broad strokes, are:
Health and Well-Being
Sense of Community
Giving Service, and
Recreation
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Opportunity: Core Values into Environments?
Health:
Places that promote fitness and healthy lifestyles
Places for better care, throughout all stages
of medical need
Community:
Places that foster easy social interaction and
involvement
Places that instill pride and satisfaction
Service:
Places connected to the larger world, its needs
and issues
Places with authentic social and institutional networks
Recreation:
Places to enjoy a well-rounded way of life
Places reflecting qualities from sought-after
“experiences” (like travel)
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Opportunity: More Core Values into Environments?
Self-reliance:
Places that promote independence and choice
Places integrated into authentic, multigenerational
communities
Entitlement:
Places with high quality of design and “experience”
Places that function seamlessly and with high
level “service”
Idealism:
Places that innovate toward social justice and public trust
Places supporting ecological and social sustainability
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Key Insight: The Major Problems About Aging Now
1. Fear of the Financial Future: This affects many, and undermines key
needs, such as community, self-worth, health and wellness, and
passion. It is not a fear “dying too soon” and leaving loved ones
left behind without resources (the market for life insurance). It is
now about fear of “living too long” beyond our resources.
2. Our Medical Care Delivery System is Broken: People are
disenchanted and frustrated with its complexity and dysfunction, and
fearful that its exorbitant costs will lead to financial ruin.
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Key Insight: The Major Problems About Aging Now
3. Our Cities and Communities Breed Isolation: Urban problems and
failed infrastructure create social and environmental isolation. So do
suburban and rural dispersion, sprawl, and lack of transportation
options. So do the breakdowns in traditional family and social
institutional structures.
4. Demographics and the Sandwich Generation: Many boomers end
up caring for both the old and young at the same time: Aging parents
plus their offspring (either late born or “failing to launch twentysomethings” – or sometimes grandchildren)
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Part Two: The Big Trends
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Trends: The Big Market Trends Worldwide:
-The Experience Economy.
- New Types of Communities (including virtual).
- Changing Relations with the Natural World.
- Permanent Urbanization.
Dynamic Futurist Andrew Zolli,
Z-Plus Partners
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Trend (Zolli 3): Up the chain of Meaning
“The Experience Economy”
The “Experience Business” uses design and technology to humanize
capitalism and increase value. Take the coffee example:
- from a sack of wholesale beans,
- to a can Folgers at the supermarket,
- to a traditional Coffee Shop,
- to Starbucks.
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Key Insight: At Starbucks it’s the “Experience”
“McDonaldization” was about standardizing basic levels of quality
and efficiency.
Now we are on to:
“Starbuckification”: adding in on top of quality and efficiency:
An integrated emotional appeal; a multi-sensory experience; a
relaxed atmosphere, good, strong, evocative design;
authenticity; and resonant cultural / social / historical
connections.
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Opportunity: Franchising an Experience
What if we “starbuckified” an environment for aging?
Many market needs, including this one, have not yet been
approached in this way.
On top of reliably delivered quality and efficiency, an integrated
emotional appeal; a multi-sensory experience; good, strong,
evocative design; authenticity; and resonant cultural / social /
historical connections.
Deliver it in such a comprehensive, reliable, and convincing
package that, like Starbuck’s, it would not even need to be
advertised!
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Trend (Zolli 6): Green is Going Mainstream
Both older and younger generations now are green-committed:
the ambivalent middle generation is shrinking. Both most developed and
least developed countries (Finland and Nigeria, for example) are now
green-committed. The ambivalent middle group of countries (France and
United States, for example) is shrinking.
Boomers are committed to LOHAS: Lifestyles of Health and
Sustainability: Boomers will spend 20% more on products that
support this. The trend: within 10 years, 43% more people will do so.
In religious trends, there’s the fast-growing evangelically-based
“creation care” movement. They’re joining mainline and secular “liberals”
on this issue, for a large majority
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Trend (Focalyst / Values 3): Making a Difference
Boomers and their grandkids are bonding over a shared commitment
to ethical behavior on critical global issues. This is enabled by
ubiquitous information, and is less shared by the intermediate generation:
The “Scrutiny Culture”: they will expose problems in blogs and boycotts,
so corporate ethics is now a must.
The “Life Legacy Audit”: boomers reflecting on what will they leave behind
- they want to be plugged into issues and causes
- they want to make the world better, and help solve problems
- they seek community and volunteer work, civic engagement
- high-profile examples: Clinton, Buffett, Gates, Gore
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Part Three: New Marketing
Approaches
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Opportunities: Align with Emerging Value Trends
To align with these Values Trends, companies should provide products
and services that offer customers opportunities to:
- maintain/enhance health and fitness
- participate in vivid experiences
- help their communities and ethical causes
It’s not about “products and services” any more, it is about:
Experiences and Solutions.
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Trend (Coughlin 1): Beyond Products and Services
Innovative organizations are blurring the lines between product
and service delivery. Boomers, especially the women, want
“solutions.”
Key features:
(integrated, well-designed, simplified, proven)
Thought process:
(identify the “problem” more broadly, in a
“holistic experience” context)
Joseph Coughlin,
MIT AgeLab
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Trend (Coughlin 2): Leverage Nostalgia
Nostalgia Factor:
create products that boomers wanted when they were growing up but
maybe could not afford (Nissan Z-car, for example, or retro design)
1950s and 1960s Television culture, images, and environments:
(Television is important to this TV generation, to give relief from a
complicated life, and emotionally it recalls the times when they were
growing up.)
Environmental “Nostalgia” cues:
- Small town, neighborhood, or early suburban life
- Special experiences: college, travel, camp, etc
- “Nostalgia” means “homesickness”, a need for something
familiar and secure
- Nostalgia drives appeal of the New Urbanist TNDs
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Trend (Coughlin 3): Segments and Customization
Boomers are diverse and should not be seen as “one group” for
marketing. There is not one boomer profile, or even many: It’s all the way
down to individual customization.
(GAP tried to be clothing for anybody and everybody, but
gave it up for the new “Forth and Towne” brand, to begin to
capture the market in segments.)
They want a lot of choices. But they’re busy and demanding, and so
want “editing” or guidance in approaching a product choice.
Brand consciousness filters choice. A trusted brand is especially
important for women. People “design themselves” through brand
consciousness. There’s an increase of “aspirational brands” like Viking
Ranges.
Extreme Personalization: Nike has customizable running shoes, Sleep
Comfort mattresses are adjustable even on each side, and how many
ways can you get your coffee at Starbuck’s?
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Resource: The Focalyst View
The Focalyst View, is an in-depth inaugural study based on a
nationwide population of 30,000 50+ persons. Surveys were followed
up by focus groups across the country.
- Data analysis has produced general profiles of 6
lifestyle segments.
- The 30,000 can also be mined for specific, client-driven
topics.
In segmentation of the data, age is not the primary factor, instead it’s
the trigger Key Life Events and how each individual responds to them:
these are what change life values.
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Key Insight: It’s about Key Life Events / Changes
These drive segmentations and behaviors. There are 42 such events,
across the categories of:
- Family, Health, Financial, Career and Home.
- Both positive and negative
- Both beginnings and endings
- Both predictable and disruptive
- Involving preparedness, adjustments, and outcomes
Life Values are mostly stable throughout life. Over time the Life
Values & Life Events will mutually influence each other.
Key events are: empty-nest, retirement, death of spouse, moving, remarriage, etc.
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Key Insight: American Segments on the Model
Across these axes there are 9 profiles from the American
survey data, with %’s:
Experiencers, 8
Independents, 11
Utopian Idealists,
15
Motivated
Acomplishers, 6
Materialist
Consumers, 6
Comfort Zone
Dwellers, 9
Virtuous, 20
Balanced Neutrality,
8
Traditionalists, 17
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Key Insight: American Segments and Percentages
Adventure
Experiencers, 8
40%
Independents, 11
Self Interest
Safety
Conscience
29%
52%
Utopian Idealists,
15
Motivated
Acomplishers, 6
Materialist
Consumers, 6
Comfort Zone
Dwellers, 9
63%
Virtuous, 20
Balanced Neutrality,
8
Traditionalists, 17
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Part Four: Trends in
Environments for Aging
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Trend: Boomers Moving to Small Towns to Retire
Real estate costs less, generally friendly, and life style is simpler.
Especially attractive are small towns near metropolitan areas, with
top-rate airports, medical facilities, arts and culture, and recreation
nearby.
Towns with colleges in particular, have a convergence of these qualities,
plus an intellectual culture appealing to many.
For the towns, seniors can be an alternative to industry as a way to boost
their local economies. Some (Nacogdoches, Texas) have targeted
marketing campaigns and dedicated retiree marketing committees.
(More on this in “Part Five: Destination Marketing”, and in Longino’s
book, Retirement Migration in America, profiled there.)
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Trend: Boomers Retire in Major Urban Centers
Many boomers are responding to the lure of convenience, cultural
life, shopping, good public transportation, and an exciting lifestyle
that was perhaps deferred “while the kids were growing up”.
Major urban centers are seeking to attract affluent, culture-conscious
retirees. They provide stable, durable support for commercial, cultural,
transportation, and other infrastructure.
(More on this in Sections below on “Aging in Place” and “NORCs”, with
examples from Boston, New York, and Baltimore.)
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Exemplar: The Clare at Water Tower, Chicago
A CCRC (Continuing Care Retirement
Center) in downtown Chicago, where
seniors can live an active, urban lifestyle,
and then remain in place throughout their
needs for increasing levels of care.
Slogan:
“An Extraordinary Lifestyle
In The Heart Of It All”
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The Clare at Water Tower
The Franciscan Sisters partnered
with Loyola University to maximize
the use of an urban site on Loyola's
downtown campus. Located one block
off of Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, at
Rush and Pearson Streets, The Clare
offers both housing for seniors and
classroom space for Loyola University.
The project allows Loyola to expand its
academic facilities while allowing the
Franciscan Sisters to fulfill their mission
of providing much-needed housing for
senior citizens.
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The Clare at Water Tower
The first three floors house Loyola
classrooms. Forty-one levels contain
250 independent living units. There
are three floors of skilled nursing and
3 floors with 52 units of assisted
living. Other levels include a spa and
fitness center and public amenities such
as dining, libraries, kitchens, and
administration space. The design
maximizes views of Chicago’s Water
Tower District and Lake Michigan.
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Trend: College-Affiliated Retirement Centers
Colleges and Universities are marketing to their staff, faculty, and alumni, even
in multiple cities. It’s an opportunity to extend their “brand”:
For the colleges, there are many advantages:
- economic boost to near-campus neighborhoods
- build deeper alumni loyalties toward “planned giving”
- lab setting for may relevant research disciplines
- pool of smart volunteers, academics, emeriti, etc
These are very attractive for retirees, since they generally mean:
- high quality medical facilities
- intergenerational, cosmopolitan community
- access to volunteer opportunities
- walkable shopping amenities and a town-like neighborhood
- arts, culture, and lifelong learning
- lively and diverse social and intellectual life
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College-Affiliated Thought Leaders
The Kendal Company, Kennet Square, PA
“Welcome to KENDAL, a system of communities and services for older adults
integrating Quaker values in its work by fostering continued learning, outreach
programs in the field of aging, and a culture of giving. The Kendal idea fosters the
integration of continuing learning in all aspects of community life and work for
residents, staff, and board members. The relationships of Kendal retirement
communities with colleges and universities have grown steadily over the past 30
years. Following Kendal at Hanover's opening in 1991, Kendal at Oberlin, Kendal at
Ithaca, Kendal at Lexington, and Kendal at Granville all benefited from significant
participation with institutions of higher learning in their individual locations. College
alumni and faculty have become Founders, board members, or both; in several
instances, interaction with the institutions themselves has led to the generous
contribution of venture capital, land, and the numerous areas of expertise so
important to the developing communities.”
http://www.kendal.org/
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Exemplar: Oak Hammock CARC and CCRC
At the University of Florida, Gainesville
Marketing Brochure (provided) features key phrases:
- An innovative Life Fulfilling Community® for the 21st
Century
- A picturesque resort-style environment enhanced by
intellectual stimulation
- Values that matter to today’s older adults – lifelong
personal growth, choices, involvement and well-being.
- Resort-style service… regular transportation to the
University, shopping, and entertainment
- Life Care (medical coverage)… providing extraordinary value,
security and asset protection through our flexible refund plans.”
Entry Fees are $100-500k.
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Oak Hammock:
Building plan shows interior “village like” layout of multiple
amenities.Site plan shows extensive scale, in a meandering,
surburban style.
http://www.oakhammock.org
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Exemplar: Village at Penn State CARC CCRC
Residency here offers priority access to
Penn State football and basketball
tickets, fitness centers, libraries, computers,
golf and tennis facilities, and free
enrollment in campus courses when
available.
Images from:
http://www.villageatpennstate.com
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Exemplar: Lasell Village CCRC at Lasell College
Slogan: The Unique Living and Learning Community
Located at Lasell College in Newton, Mass:
“Lasell Village invites you to think of retirement
in a whole new way – with an emphasis on
active, intellectually enriched living. The
Village combines the convenience and security
of a not-for-profit continuing care retirement
community with hotel-quality hospitality – and
the personal, cultural, and social opportunities
of lifelong learning at one of Greater Boston's
oldest educational institutions.”
Image from:
http://www.lasellvillage.com/
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Exemplar: Kendal at Hanover CARC CCRC
Located at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH:
Two and a half miles north of the Dartmouth
campus, Kendal provides 250 residences, and
state-of-the-art health facilities that share staff
with the Darthmouth-Hitchcock Medical
Center. Residents have access to area and
campus cultural events and facilities, including
peer-taught non-credit courses.
Image from:
http://kah.kendal.org/
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Exemplar: Campus-Oriented NORC at MIT
University Residential Communities LLC in Cambridge MA, was founded by a
group of 8 faculty including former MIT president Paul Gray. The project is to
network 150 apartments in Cambridge, so that residents would share communal
spaces, library, and business center, plus key services like food shopping and
transport, cleaning. Access to MIT classes and amenities is included. An
“integrated, intergenerational” approach and developed in a more urban situation.
Charles W. Harris, Prof of Landscape Arch Emeritus expects increasing demand
for these integrated urban approaches. The problem with many campus-related
CCRC‘s is they are too far apart and estranged from the under-55 communities.
MIT affiliated retirees are encouraged to invest their capital-gains proceeds in the
campus area and re-connect with the campus community.
Source:Nell Porter Brown, “Back to School” (harvardmagazine.com, 5/19/2006)
http:// web.mit.edu/ir/urc/may2004/Prospectus_5_20_04.pdf
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Trend: Cohousing
Boomers who witnessed (or even lived) the commune craze of the 1960s and 70s
went on to live the most un-communal lives in American history. Uprooted, fastpaced, alienated, fragmented lives; statistically having fewer and fewer close
friends, or contact-time with neighbors.
The cohousing movement, imported from Scandinavia in the 1980s, reflects an
upsurge of interest in communal living, generally around some shared theme like
religious, political, or ecological values.
The original motives were better daycare, a safer neighborhood, and closer friendship
and community ties.
Facilities generally include modest private dwellings, tightly clustered around wellplanned,useable public spaces, and extensive communal facilities that support
shared cooking, dining, socializing, recreation, child-care, and other activities.
There are currently 80 cohousing communities in the US, with more than 100 more in
the planning stages.
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Exemplar: Wild Sage Cohousing, Boulder, CO
The cohousing is set within a larger neighborhood consisting of condos, lofts,
single-family homes, apartments, retail, parks, gardens, orchards, walking paths, and
employment, all built within the re-claimed “Holiday Drive-In Theater” site.
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Wild Sage
Wild Sage situates 34 homes on 1.5 acres, around and along walkways and
small courtyards. Parking is at the periphery, requiring human contact on the
way to each dwelling. Design and use of spaces between buildings is key to
defining community life.
Circulation converges on the Common
House, containing a central dining room
and large “gourmet” kitchen, plus lounges,
children’s areas, and decks. Shared
evening meals are planned and served by
rotating resident teams three times a week.
Wild Sage was developed on the “lot”
method, by Wonderland Hill Development
Company (Jim Leach, contact), the largest
developer of cohousing facilities in the US.
They have done 16.
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Trend: TND’s and “New Urbanism”
Trends in Boomer desires align with core concepts in the NU-TND Movement.
‘New Urbanism” is the design wing of the “Smart Growth” Movement.
Boomer’s openness to innovation could cause a reinvention of an intergenerational civic
and community life, and the physical places needed to foster it. Boomers are a prime
opportunity target for social and planning innovations:
Core principles of TNDs (Traditional Neighborhood Developments) are essentially the
same as the needs for existing neighborhoods to be retrofitted, or new ones built, to better
meet the needs of older adults:
-Zoning laws to allow more mixed-use, and intergenerational development.
-Shops and amenities reachable on foot
-Public transportation options
-Mixed housing types, use types, and densities
-Access to a vital social life
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Trend: TND’s and “New Urbanism”
The appeal, the “Nostalgia” Factor:
The appeal of places we go on vacation, like historic towns here or in Europe,
comes from well-proven design principles, and their ability to support an engaging,
compact, well-balanced, and walkable way of life.
TND Economics:
These planning principles seem to sell: units in TNDs (and “New Urbanist”
developments) sell for 10-20% more than comparables in nearby ordinary
developments.
The story of property valued at Seaside (told in Boomer Nation) shows the effect of
high quality and short supply on prices, for (the first) innovative development using
these principles.
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Opportunity: Innovation Around Nostalgia
New Urbanism resonates with what elders need in town design,
imagery that plays to the sense of home and community,
compactness and walkability among mixed use facilities, and a level
of visual / proportional / traditional quality that has mass to highend appeal.
Compare with the “Starbucks” example of “designed experience”
that resonates on multiple levels.
Search innovation space for how to exploit this direction (“town” as
“experience”?) creatively.
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Opportunity: Post-Suburban Boomer Communities
So, if they live in suburbia now, boomers may want something more,
or different, when the kids are gone. It will need to be a hybrid of
what is good about the suburbs, offer solutions to their critical agingrelated problems, and provide vivid life-enhancing “experiences.”
For boomers to be able to “age in place” in suburbia, there will be big
obstacles, requiring highly innovative infrastructural and institutional
changes: transportation, walking, third places, etc.
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Trend: NORCs: Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities
NORC’s are towns or neighborhoods where “aging in place” is occurring
to such an extent that organized infrastructure is created to support it.
From buildings, to whole towns or neighborhoods, residents are
organizing to “age in place”. Governmental and other agencies are
moving to support this, as in Baltimore’s push to become “America’s most
aging-friendly city”.
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Trend: NORC-Based Services
Support services organized for NORC residents, allowing them to “age in place”
well in their homes and familiar town / neighborhood surroundings:
-social services
-dental and medical care
-mental health services
-adult day care and personal care
-meals
-housekeeping
-legal / financial services
-home maintenance or remodeling
-recreation
-wellness programs
-education / cultural activities
-volunteer opportunities
-intergenerational opportunities
-transportation
-access to commerce
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NORC Values and Virtues:
NORCs are the most attractive alternative to moving, leaving family and friends, or
losing ties to community organizations and amenities. Here are the general values
that people want / need, as shown in multiple sample surveys conducted by NORC
services agencies in multiple cities:
-companionship
-religious / spiritual community
-helpful neighbors
-sense of contribution to others and community
-commerce: goods and services
-exercise / walking
-safety
-control of one’s own life
-financial security
-social life
-leisure and cultural life
-intergenerational contacts
-civic engagement
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Trend: Neighborhood / Village Downtowns as NORCs
Many older neighborhoods and small towns have both aging populations,
and town centers with a manageable scale, and many important amenties
and services. They may already be the more attractive locations for folks
to “age in place”, both for their current residents and potential new ones.
The big advantages are that the residents can:
- walk to everyday needs,
- stay near church (etc), family, and friends,
- use public transportation easily
What’s usually needed to turn these neighborhoods into fully-functioning
NORCs, is:
- revisions to infrastructure (walkability)
- organized services, cooperatives, etc.
- new (infill) facilities as needed to cover the range of needs.
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Trend: “First Suburbs” as NORCs
Early suburbs, with their better densities and housing options, are best
positioned as NORCs. Immediate issues for folks staying in their houses are
utility and tax costs, and home maintenance. For those willing to move, or move
in, it’s the availability of alternative housing types and convenient senior services.
New services can be based in neighborhood-based CCRCs (Continuing Care
Retirement Communities), like Smith Village, a redevelopment in Chicago’s
Beverly Hills area, 112th at South Western Avenue. Both neighborhood and
CCRC residents are close to both the town’s amenities, and increased levels of
care through the new facility.
http://www.smithvillage.org/
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Opportunity: Infill facilities/services to enhance NORCs
Depending on what already exists in a NORC community, infilling commercial,
mixed-use, new residential, CCRCs, and senior centers, can become economic
catalysts and provide key services to support this transformation.
Senior Suites of Chatham (8300 S Cottage Grove Ave; Chicago Dept on Aging)
provides services to residents and neighborhood elders alike, and so helps integrate
the building and its residents into the life of the community.
Image from: http://www.cityofchicago.org/Aging/ Chicago Dept on Aging
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Exemplar: Penn South Cooperative NORC, New York City
“Penn South” is a limited equity housing
cooperative set up in Chelsea in 1957 by the
garment workers’ unions. It has been
supported with city tax abatements, and
maintains affordable housing costs. It
remains an affordable, integrated, selfgoverning community. “Social innovation”
is actively supported within the community,
such as frameworks for intergenerational
functions and activities. Gardens, various
services, and a variety of activities are
cooperatively organized. Penn South is
called a “village within a city”.
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http://www.pennsouth.coop
Opportunity: Seeking NORCs in Cincinnati
Local examples?
Mariemont (less successful without its grocery or cheap café)
Oakley
(best multi-functional, walkable town center)
Clifton
(best density and diversity, losing on safety)
How well supported, by agencies and institutions, are neighborhoods in
Cincinnati with concentrations of aging persons?
What facilities and services could be infilled to consolidate key needs,
densities, uses, and systems?
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Opportunity: Hamilton County’s Aging Populations
(from CAGIS data, Spring 2007)
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Trend: Aging In Place
This is the more general trend / preference behind NORCs: Most people want to
stay where the are as long as possible, even to the end.
Local governments and businesses are positioning themselves to support this
trend, since a large majority of the aging boomers prefer this option to re-locating.
Towns and cities are forming task forces to assess their readiness. (“Triple
A’s” – see Organization: n4a)
Lexington, KY, has an initiative to evaluate its 125 neighborhood groups in terms
of suitability for Aging in Place. Baltimore’s comprehensive approach is discussed
below.
Wells Fargo Bank is positioning itself as the preferred lender for AIP housing
options.
With AARP involvement, NAHB has created its “CAPS” program: “Certified Aging
in Place Specialists.”
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Exemplar: Beacon Hill Village, Boston
Aging in Place Infrastructure:
Beacon Hill Village, Boston, is a non-profit
membership organization of older residents
who live independently in neighborhood
houses, but contract as a group for
services such as cleaning, transportation,
shopping, and home-health care.
Source: Nell Porter Brown,
“Back to School”
(harvardmagazine.com, 5/19/2006)
http://www.beaconhillvillage.org/
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Organization: Nat’l Assoc. of Area Agencies on Aging
“The National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a) is the umbrella
organization for the 655 area agencies on aging (AAAs) and more than 230 Title VI
Native American aging programs in the U.S. Through its presence in Washington,
D.C., n4a advocates on behalf of the local aging agencies to ensure that needed
resources and support services are available to older Americans. The fundamental
mission of the AAAs and Title VI programs is to provide services which make it
possible for older individuals to remain in their home, thereby preserving their
independence and dignity. These agencies coordinate and support a wide range
of home- and community-based services, including information and referral, homedelivered and congregate meals, transportation, employment services, senior
centers, adult day care and a long-term care ombudsman program.
http://www.n4a.org/
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Resource / Event: Environments for Aging Conference
April 22-23, 2007, Baltimore, MD
Sponsored by The Vendome Group
http://www.vendomegrp.com/healthcare.html
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Part Five:
The Baltimore Experience
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Shiela Dixon, Mayor of Baltimore
It required mayoral leadership, and her
background in aging-related issues and social
service policies, in order to organize the huge
effort of collaboration to launch Baltimore’s
initiatives. A guiding principle is:
“What’s better for the aging population is
better for all.”
Baltimore’s aspiration is to be: “The most elder
friendly city in the country.”
This means, specifically:
- best care models
- best aging in place infrastructure
- best housing diversity
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Baltimore: Partnerships are Essential for Success
Baltimore’s collaborative effort attracted representation from 91 major
institutions, including: academic, medical, faith-based (consortia
and alliances), 26 government agencies and departments, service
providers, consumers, and others.
Keys were:
- Tie in to city and regional governments is a must
- Tie in to community and neighborhood groups,
and institutions is also a must
- Prepare for and serve aging, diverse population
- Including those with special needs, in poverty, or at-risk
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Baltimore Blueprint: The Problems
Groups that are aging in the city and have special issues or needs:
- low income, at risk
- empty nesters
- older homeowners
- those with chronic illnesses and disabilities
- grandparents raising grandchildren
- aging gays and lesbians
- ethnically and culturally diverse communities
- baby boomers, the “new aging”
Isolation is a primary problem:
- In urban areas it is social isolation
- In rural and suburban areas it is geographic isolation
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Baltimore Blueprint: The Problems
Basic Needs:
- Life necessities available and accessible to all
- Safety in homes and communities
Environmental Needs:
- Affordable and age-appropriate housing
- Multi-mode, safe transportation, including walking
- Older citizens empowered to shape their lives
- Neighborhoods navigable for differently-abled
Health and Wellness Needs:
- Continuum of medical, mental, preventive, and social support
services
- Age-friendly physical fitness and recreation
- Reform of health care and long-term care
- Emergency preparedness and response
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Baltimore Blueprint: The Solutions
1. Develop local solutions:
- federal government will not support needs or set policy
- cities (and even neighborhoods) have unique profiles and
challenges
2. Empower people:
- help them do what they need to do
- identify and remove barriers
3. Social and Civic Engagement:
- Neighborhoods and Institutions welcome involvement by
all ages
- Increased employment, volunteer, education,
intergenerational opportunities
- Retirement education and financial planning services for
all
- “Foster Grandparents” and “Experience Corps” (see Marc
Freedman) are key, exemplary solutions to isolation
problem
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Baltimore Blueprint: The Solutions
4. Quality of the City and of Civic Life:
- What aging need will help all citizens and the city as a whole.
- Empty-nesters seeking urban amenities will help make the city safer
- Developers are doing urban housing and condos in all price ranges
- Position The City as an attractor
5. Keys to the Successful Retrofit / Infill of Older Neighborhoods:
- Tie it to Economic Development, make the financial case
- Get corporate and chain commerce to see the economic benefits
- Develop “livable community” plans, per neighborhood
- Include the Public Works and Transportation Departments
- Aging advocates attend all City and Neighborhood Planning meetings
- Strive for TOD’s, “Transit Oriented Developments”
Interview with John Stewart for Nursing Homes, August 2006, available at:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3830/is_8_55/ai_n16740971
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Baltimore Master Plan and TOD’s
The key concept for retrofitting Baltimore’s urban neighborhoods for “aging in
place” is transit-oriented development.
Definition: “A place of relatively higher density that includes a mixture of
residential, employment, shopping, and civic uses and types, located within
an easy walk of a bus or transit center.” (State of Maryland’s TOD Task Force,
2000)
These compact, pedestrian friendly activity zones near transit stations:
- create amenities for existing transit riders
- increase desireable densities and varieties of housing / use types
- generate new ridership through nearby housing and destinations
- leverage transit investments to achieve community goals
- enhancing livability through infrastructure investments and use mixes
- reduce auto dependency by enabling transit or pedestrian access to
amenities.
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Exemplar: Stadium Place, Baltimore
The Stadium Place NORC is regarded as one of the best senior urban neighborhood
projects in the US, particularly in its solutions to the “affordability” problem through
novel business models. It was created by a coalition of a developer (GEDCO) with
a group of 7 churches. It won the support of the local surrounding communities (who
were opposing big developer plans that called for “office parks” and the like). Its
attractiveness was as a re-weaving of the urban fabric.
Investment in such environments to support health
and well-being (sense of community, healthful
lifestyles, aging in place, social engagement)
will produce economic benefits for communities,
and will save millions of dollars in health care,
support and social services, and
problem-solving needs. Again: make the
long-term, overall economic case.
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Stadium Place: Specifics
“Stadium Place is a new vision for Baltimore's seniors – an attractive mixed
income campus providing apartments, home ownership and assisted living
facilities with no entrance fee. Residents' changing needs will be met with a
range of health, wellness and personal services. There is subsidized housing
and services for those in need.”
Plans include assisted living, condos and apartments, sub- and marketrate, retail and office spaces, and up to 255 units with 500 residents on the
30 acre site. There are 70 units so far, with 2000 households on the wait list.
Existing pre-civil-war hotel was rehabbed as a part of the complex. The new
Central Baltimore YMCA is on the property, providing intergenerational social
and recreational opportunities: day care, a pool, ball fields, and play spaces.
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Stadium Place: Financials
Condos average $200,000 each, folks buy in with “Bite Size” funds.
Overall there are $1.8m in 0% government loans, and $1.5m in
government grants also in the project. Besides HUD section 8 grants,
there are Weinberg Foundation grants.
There are now 18 faith-based institutions involved.
http://www.habitatamerica.com/apt_stadium_place.html
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Exemplar: Govans Ecumenical Dev. Corp. (GEDCO)
A 501 (e) (3) entity, they are the developer of Stadium Place, Baltimore.
"In partnership with faith communities, GEDCO provides affordable housing with
supportive services and assists in meeting emergency needs of area residents.
“GEDCO is a thriving, forward-looking nonprofit organization that addresses some of the most
complex challenges facing America's urban communities in the 21st century. Every day, we strive
to meet the needs of some of Baltimore's neediest citizens. We do this by providing a sense of
home through our housing programs. We do this by fostering a sense of encouragement and a
sense of hope through our food pantry and emergency financial assistance center. We invite you
to learn more about us and the exciting work we are doing.”
http://www.gedco.org/
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The Café Plus Model: An Ageless Approach
Mather LifeWays is a non-profit philanthropic group interested in ways to age
well, especially supporting “aging in place” in lower-to-middle income districts
where older folks are often house-secure, but cash-poor.
“Research shows that 95% of today's independent and active older adults prefer to remain in
their homes and communities as they age. Mather LifeWays' Community Initiatives help
neighborhoods become better places for older adults to live, work, learn, contribute, and play.
Our programs include Mather's—More Than a Café locations, the Mather Edgewater
outreach program, and Info Plus.”
The “Café-Plus” format is storefront that they rent and renovate on a short-term
(5-year) basis, and set up a restaurant that doubles as a social environment.
They provide breakfast and lunch at low prices for neighborhood residents, not
necessarily dinner. Steady staff are trained to perform a social guidance and
monitoring role.
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Café-Plus: Design and Retail Concept
The spaces are about 5,000 square feet, with tables and chairs, including
computer labs. Areas can be cleared for exercise and fitness, or for special
events. Space is wide open, all can see what others are doing. The design is
“cool” like a Starbucks: clean, bright, fun, perky. Tables are large, deep
shadowboxes that the folks fill with their mementos and things to share.
The goal is to attract those who reject other social environments, and to keep
people socially connected. The approach is a “retail” concept, where the folks
are “customers”. It’s also open to all ages; and the food is cheap. Food brings
people together, creating a “stealth” support system / network. Customers help
with the menu planning, and can contribute recipes.
Mathers subsidizes “Café Plus” through its LifeWay Program, at about
$250,000 / year,
http://www.matherlifeways.com/iyc_inyourcommunity.asp
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Opportunity: Blended Function “Agora”
“Café Plus” illustrates a bigger principle: In both aging-in-place
communities (NORCs), or stand-alone senior villages or facilities, there
is a consensus that social engagement happens best when everydaylife needs and functions are closely arranged and blended, and
participation is an “authentic” part of normal, daily living:
- multiple functions in one place
- preserving choice and independence
- everyday life needs are the attractors
- convenience and ease of use
- resembles long-term cultural traditions
(agora, street, coffee-shop, etc)
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50+ Igniting a Revolution
Bill Novelli, CEO of AARP provides another staggering statistic: 2/3 of
all persons over 65 since the dawn of humanity are alive today.
What do people want? The fundamental, key things are:
- community
- mobility
- choices and control
- services
People want to stay in their communities and in their homes (over 80%),
and also stay independent as they age and as their needs increase. It’s
about improving lives for these folks but also harnessing the power of
these older Americans to improve our society.
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50+ Igniting a Revolution
Barriers to people staying in their homes and communities:
- lack of universal design features in houses
- lack of mobility outside the house, car dependence
Streetcar suburbs and towns that have commercial amenities are much
more amenable to “aging in place” than post-1950s suburbs designed for
cars only, with no sidewalks, spread-out distances, no public transport.
Predominance of these latter environments lead to problems for their aging
residents:
- social isolation and depression, alcoholism
- lack of exercise, obesity
- physical and mental deterioration
Mobility for the aging population is essential; it’s the key to “choice and
control”.
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Novelli’s Exemplar: “King Farm Development”
Cited by Bill Novelli as “a town not a tract”, King Farm near Rockville,
MD, is a New Urbanist and TOD inspired development: linked to
quality public transit, pedestrian-friendly, and higher density.
A shuttle bus serving the Metro
station near King Farm
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King Farm Development
In a compact planning approach, the density increases from single
family homes, to townhouses, to apartments closest to the Metro station.
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King Farm Development
The original farm buildings have been preserved on the site to provide
educational and recreation opportunities for residents of Rockville.
http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/case/kingfarm.htm
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Part Six:
Destination Marketing
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Marketing Non-metropolitan Destinations
As an economic development strategy, governments are investing in marketing their
locations as destinations for retirees, and assisting in organizing retiree-attraction
programs.
Compared to the old push by small towns and rural areas have to attract manufacturing, this
has many advantages:
- Fastest growth (both population and per-capita income) in non-metropolitan
counties was from tourism and retirement
- Generally can evolve successfully from areas with tourist draw or potential
- Steady incomes (pensions, annuities, etc) not dependent on economic
downturns
- Increase number of “positive tax payers” (pay more than they use)
- Less pollution than manufacturing
- Increases “social capital” pool of volunteerism, talent, expertise, and
philanthropy
- Builds a more service-based economy: real estate, insurance, financials, health
care
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Book: Retirement Migration in America
Charles F. Longino, Jr (Professor at Wake Forest), Houston: Vacation
Publications, 1995
Though aging in place is preferred by a large majority of retirees, a sizable
group are seeking to change their lifestyles by re-locating. The environments
they are in no longer meet their changing expectations.
Images of retirement lifestyles often come from vacation experiences, places
that attract tourists, because of climate, amenities, cultural heritage, scenery,
way-of-life, or other factors. (There’s an important analogy between “vacation”
lifestyle and “retirement” lifestyle.)
Those who move long distances in retirement are the more affluent: They have
both the means and the life-experiences to pre-dispose them to this choice.
And, they have the funds to invest in new property.
Baby boomer cohort is more polarized economically, with a smaller “middle
class” segment and more households in the upper (those who will migrate) and
lower income brackets.
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Retirement Migration: Amenities Sought
- Low crime
- Good hospitals
- Low overall cost of living
- Mild climate
- Low overall taxes
- Low housing costs
- Friendly neighbors
- Major city nearby
- No state income tax
- Active social and cultural environment
A Gallup Poll around 1990 asked people 50+ to name their ideal place to live, and 60%
idealized small towns or rural areas. A better place to live economically and also to
get in touch with important values. But being near to city amenities was still valued.
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Retirement Migration: Location Trends
Eastern US: major destinations as of early 1990s
Sub-trends:
- Return Migration (to one’s home state)
- Snowbirds (affluent retirees moving seasonally)
- Favored Regional Destinations:
Coastal New England and New Jersey,
Sub-regions of Appalachian chain
The Ozarks
Southwestern desert resorts
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Destination Marketing: AARP’s Ten Attractors
1. Availability of jobs (many retirees will want to work)
2. Affordable housing (relative to the national average)
3. Culture and entertainment (arts, sports, shopping)
4. Outdoor recreation (diverse: not just golf any more)
5. Safety (personal, property, general security)
6. College or university (lifelong learning, intergenerational)
7. Sense of community (vital walkable town center, strong social groups)
8. Health care (close to high-end facilities)
9. Public high schools (for kids still at home)
10. Good transportation (low traffic, good airport)
Important Sub-trends:
- to stay near family, or near economic opportunity
- to make an “aesthetic choice” for lifestyle appeal, then seek other values
- to seek opportunities for what they didn’t have time for while working.
Source: http://www.aarpmagazine.org/travel/Articles/a2003-03-27-mag-bestplaces.html
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Destination Marketing: Best Places for Retirement
Re-curring in the survey ratings, from AARP, Fortune, CNN / Money, Kiplinger:
Sarasota, FL
Ashland (and Astoria), OR
Iowa City, IA
Athens, GA
Fort Collins (etc), CO
Beaufort (etc), SC
Portsmouth, NH (and Brunswick, ME)
Hendersonville (etc), NC
Ithaca, NY
Chicago
Baltimore
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Opportunity: Marketing the Central Ohio Valley?
Developing places and amenities in our region would involve:
- Convincing area residents to stay put.
- Convincing residents from other areas (throughout the Midwest?) to relocate.
- Emphasizing “tourist” amenities: culture, scenery, history, nice towns, etc.
- Leveraging those as “place rating” amenities.
- Emphasizing issues from the “Ten Attractors” and other amenity lists.
- Implementing the NORC and AIP strategies in specific towns and districts.
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Destination Marketing: Key Values and Virtues
From a private developers advertising, typical of the industry:
www.retirementplacesreport.com
We can analyze the key phrases used in marketing their new developments:
historic center
classic design
secure privacy
medical access
moderate seasons
water sports
rural charm
porches and sidewalks
nostalgic neighborhood
walkable streets
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gated community
lakefront sites
wooded enclave
centralized location
easy access
park-like setting
quaint village
mountain vistas
pedestrian-oriented
Opportunity: Innovation Space across Two Main Types
These marketing phrases reflect deeply-underlying ideals that sort
into two main types. This offers the opportunity to focus, clarify,
analyze, and innovatively strengthen or re-blend these ideals:
Town / Village / Neighborhood Type
vs.
Resort / Recreational / Activity Type
If these are the predominant images, or archetypes, how is the
industry using or mis-using their primary, fundamental, culturallyrooted features? What is still being missed?
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Opportunity: Who Invests in Destination Marketing?
Efforts to market destinations (existing towns and cities) for
retirement living are spearheaded through Chambers of
Commerce, Economic Development Councils, Area Agencies
on Aging, City and County Governments, Regional or Local
Tourism Councils, sometimes with the collaboration of key
private interests.
The Baltimore example best illustrates the immense breadth
of collaboration, and top-level leadership, needed to be
successful across all phases of design and implementation.
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Exemplar: The Villages, Central Florida
The top-selling master-planned community in the US, and the largest
single-site developer in the US. Full build-out will be 100,000
residents.
Multiple clustered town squares, recreation centers, charter
schools, mixed housing types, and amenities. Over 300 scheduled
recreational activities and cultural events weekly, involving multiple
social clubs from croquet to harmonica. Even multiple “Red Hat”
chapters!
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The Villages
“The Villages Florida is an active 55+ adult community.
“Enjoy the convenience and security of “Hometown Living” where all the comforts of
home are just a golf car ride away! We’ve designed The Villages with your enjoyment,
security and convenience in mind. By utilizing the latest concepts in neighborhood and
community planning, The Villages has been able to better serve its residents’ needs without
sacrificing its small town charm and intimacy. Virtually every convenience our residents need
on a day-to-day basis can be found in The Village and all are a golf car ride away.”
Images from:http://www.thevillages.com/
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The Villages: Advertising Analysis
Informal, folksy, scrapbook look.
Emphasis on active outdoor
recreation, and romantic couples.
Public and commercial spaces a
reasonable facsimile of town-like
environment. Houses (villas) are
very 1960s, not attractive, and not
reflective of current trends
toward walkability. Principal
transport option seems to be golfcarts.
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Part Seven:
Assisted / Nursing Facility Design
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Thought Leader: Lorraine Hiatt, Design Trends
Hiatt runs a NYC Consulting Firm, offering “planning, research, and design for
aging.”
1. We need to re-think how people can manage their “stuff” (Elders are
concerned with how many possessions to bring into new simplified life. Clean
and clever storage or “stuff management” solutions are a key opportunity.)
2. We need to offer the diverse boomer market “choice, control, and
customization” (Niche markets and preferences will predominate, increasingly
people will want to retain control and individuality)
3. We need to get and stay in front on Green, Sustainable Design (This is the
fastest-rising differentiator on the “values” scale, and boomers want this.)
4. We need to develop creative intergenerational living formats (The
overwhelming preference is to not be isolated from real communities or social
groups, from family or friends, from commerce and daily needs.)
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Hiatt on Design Specifics for Dwellings
1. “Kitchens Without Borders”: spatially open, central to the life of the unit,
positionable islands, smaller (modular) appliances, and innovative storage.
Examples from Carolinakitchens.com; allkitchencarts.com; adjust-a-shelf; E-Z shelf.
2. “Creative Storage” or “Stuff Management”: learn from vertical living precedents
(New York-ization), emphasize simplicity and clean design, the California Closets
model.
3. “Split Plan Dwelling”: bedrooms move to opposite sides of living area, allowing
for dual master bedrooms and / or dual home-office-studios.
4. “Open Plans and Longer Views”: diagonals, for example, help to increase vistas
and perceived dimensions; diagonals and other techniques can decrease circulation
space by minimizing hallways.
5. “Zero-Entry Showers and Tubs”: these are the number one assisted living
need. Examples at Bestbath.com; aquabath.com.
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Hiatt on Design Specifics for Communities
1. Create an “Agora”: commons areas that weave through the building or campus, linking
shared amenities, and combining functions: for example, cocktails by the pool:
2. In setting “character”, learn from resorts, spas, and cruises, and how they provide integrated,
“vivid sensory experiences” in public spaces and activities.
3. The Wellness Fitness Center should also include the “Memory Gym”: social and mental
workouts are central to well being, and long life avoiding dementia.
4. The “Sensation of Food”: in place of discreet food preparation, trend is toward bistro or
casual dining, with the ability in the space to “touch, feel, see, and smell the food” while it’s
cooking, and to participate in the choice of food.
5. Amenities that “Crossover with the Outside World”: trend is toward spas, shops, daycare,
galleries, etc, that blend with the outside community and integrate user groups, public
audiences, and generations.
6. Hobbies Going Professional: sports, crafts, woodshops, art studios, for use (or rental) by
the residents; then the works go on sale at galleries open to the outside community.
7. Big House or “Cluster Cottages”: 3-4 floors including garages that incorporate 8-10 units in
a “large house” but retain a residential character.
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Thought Leader: Bill Thomas & The Eden Alternative
Led by Bill Thomas, MD (Gerontology), The Eden Alternative is a movement to enrich
and enliven cold, hospital-like long-term-care residences:
“The Eden Alternative™ has the potential of remaking the experience of aging
and disability across America and around the world. It is a powerful tool for
improving quality of life. To make that happen, however, we need to teach others
about what The Eden Alternative™ is and how they can use it to transform the
communities in which they work. We create coalitions of people and
organizations that are committed to creating better social and physical
environments for people. We are dedicated to helping others create
enlivening environments and the elimination of the plagues of Loneliness,
Helplessness, and Boredom. We are dedicated to helping people grow.
“The core concept of The Eden Alternative™ is strikingly simple. We must teach
ourselves to see the environments as habitats for human beings rather than
facilities for the frail and elderly. We must learn what Mother Nature has to teach
us about the creation of vibrant, vigorous habitats
http://www.edenalt.com/
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Organization: SAGE
Society for the Advancement of Gerontological Environments
Since 1999, SAGE has partnered with AAHSA (The American Association of
Homes and Services for the Aging) to present a Post Occupancy Evaluation
session at the AAHSA annual meeting.
SAGE holds these values related to geronotological environments:
Physical safety and psychological security: Provide appropriate safe guards
and enhance perception of security.
Environment as a therapeutic resource: Utilize all aspects of the environment
(physical, programmatic and organizational) as a resource for healing and
improved functioning.
Holism and well-being: Focus on needs and desires of the whole person social,
emotional, spiritual and physical, vocational and intellectual.
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“Evidence Based Design” by SAGE and CHD
Amy Carpenter and Anjali Joseph, SAGE and CHD (Center for Health Design), presenting at
Baltimore “Environments for Aging” Conference:
A research-driven approach to the design of long-term care facilities, tracking “Post
Occupancy Evaluation” literature on the building type. Led by Dr. Joseph, Research Director
for CHD, the team surveyed 250 peer-reviewed journal articles covering key areas such as: social
interaction spaces, homelike qualities, wayfinding, safety issues, and staff satisfaction and morale.
Here’s their list of problems, with the “best practices” solutions:
1. insomnia: a problem for 70% of residents. Solve with more physical activity, and more daylight
during daytime; reduction of noise and light levels at night.
2. disorientation: articulate circulation spaces with landmarks and reference nodes, event
spaces, destinations, and personalized memorabilia features (“Memory Boxes”). Good signage,
quiet, color differentiation, windows, and benches are also helpful.
3. disruptive agitation (with dementia especially): exposure to bright light and natural daylighting
during the day, smaller sized units, privacy, music at meals and in commons spaces, secure
outdoor areas. Familiar elements (like fireplaces) help prompt normal behavior.
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Evidence Based Design
4. low physical activity: include features to encourage safe walking, like destination
amenities, covered connections, indoor routes, looped outdoor routes, multiple nodes.
5. social isolation: private rooms help by giving control, furniture groups of the right size
and shape, smaller is better for reduced abilities.
6. falling (accounts for 71% of total cost consequences among 60+ population): more light,
removing hazards and barriers, handrails for leaning not just grabbing, floors not shiny or
rough.
7. unsafe exiting or getting lost (dementia): provide access to a safe outdoors, looped
paths and circulation, disguise some exits.
The Pebble Project, a collaborative research initiative through the CHD now involves over 30
providers who are engaged in building up a sharable database of “evidence-based design”
research.
Contact: Anjali Joseph, director of research for CHD
ajoseph@healthdesign.org
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Exemplar: Cypress Glen, Greenville, SC
DESIGN magazine, Citation winner, 2006
1. Cypress Glen, Greenville, SC: by AG Architecture
Reflecting the trend to a “domestic” model of care and environmental
character, as opposed to a “healthcare” model. Effective and prominent use
of “iconic” home features, such as porches, fireplaces, central kitchens.
A new section is designed specially for memory care.
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Exemplar: Marywood Center, Grand Rapids (MI)
DESIGN magazine, Citation winner, 2006
2. Marywood Center for Dominican Sisters, Perkins Eastman Architects
The Dominican Sisters were interested in both their own needs plus an
appeal to the market for the remainder, and built 51 units of assisted, skilled,
and dementia care. Clean contemporary forms and free plans are used,
avoiding the “cold” feeling of modern (or “institutional”) design by the
“authentic” look rendered in simple natural materials. Units also feature
good built-ins for the management of “stuff”.
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Exemplar: Friendship Haven, Fort Dodge, IA
DESIGN magazine, Citation winner, 2006
3. Friendship Haven, Fort Dodge, IA: Tremain Architects St Paul MN
Interior styles intended to reflect an “active and vital lifestyle” and not the staid
old club room, nor even the “soft, homey” feeling. Features a contemporary look,
with natural materials. Not condescending but recognizes the sophistication of
the next generation of retirees. Strong use of natural light and multiple access
points to nature and gardens. http://www.dodgenet.com/~fhaven/
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Exemplar: Shaller Family Sholom East Campus, St Paul
Featured in: DESIGN magazine, 2006
4. Shaller Family Sholom By Nelson Tremain Partnership, Minneapolis
Fits an urban block in an old, reclaimed urban brownfield site. Activity areas
front the street, including fitness room, pool, delicatessen, and adult day care
center. Replaces a “medical model” nursing home with a CCRC full continuum
care facility. Contains 45 “HUD-202” independent living units, 45 assisted living
units, 18 memory care units, 80 resident skilled nursing beds in 8 “household”
clusters, each with a kitchen, and 12 patient hospice beds. Five stories of
“urban contemporary” over parking; rooftop gardens have views of the
Mississippi River.
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Exemplar: Wakefield Overlook, Westminster, MD
DESIGN magazine, Citation winner, 2006
5. Wakefield Overlook at Carroll Lutheran Village, CSD Architects, Baltimore
New Urbanist approach to the site planning creates a community building as a
“town square”, surrounded by mixed sizes, densities, and types of housing,
apartments, and village homes. Small yards, porches and balconies, traditional
compact street plans, alleys, commercial center. Contrasts with the older
(suburban) parts of the campus, becoming more “town-like”. On the square
(“Mission Square”) is a hospitality center with sidewalk café, fine dining, bistro,
convenience retail, and Wellness Center. Walkable and sociable, based on the
“village” or “small town” model.
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Firm Profile: CSD Design, Baltimore
Duncan Walker and Janet Reynolds, Principals
Critiquing the traditional suburban approach to
Residential and Care Facility design (sprawling buildings on
“campuses” among free-form parking lots and tract-like
housing):
Since the original “suburban dream” of the 1950s, cars and
our car-dependent culture and urban patterns have created
an alienation of the pedestrian and an erosion of a
“sense of place”, through decreased density, seas of
parking, loss of sidewalks, loss of figural or useable open
spaces, dilution of regional architectural vocabularies, decline
of walkable commercial districts, and the wasting of
commuting time.
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Duncan Walker
CSD Architects: Post-suburban Retirement Centers
The New Urbanist Movement offers counter-strategies: mixed uses, mixed
densities, mixed incomes, mixed cars with pedestrians, and clustering of
neighbors among shared amenities and open spaces.
The firm adapts these and related strategies and principles to give retirement
facilities a greater sense of “community” and “sense of place”:
- More “town-like” planning for retirement centers
- More integration of people and facilities with surrounding
communities
- More compact plans improve pedestrian experiences and
amenities
- Precision in traditions of architectural vocabularies, not
generic pastiche
- Centers that better resemble normal town living will attract
residents
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CSD Architects: St James Place, Baton Rouge, LA
As an example of the integration of CCRC’s into the fabrics of existing
neighborhoods, towns, and cities, St. James Place shares its public
clinic building with the outside community, though a fence is
required otherwise, since the area is not safe.
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St. James Place
The “Big House” model incorporates multiple units clustered into a
building which still retains the proportions and character of a large
house, in the distinctive Lower Mississippi regional vernacular.
http://www.csdarch.com/portfolio/senior.cfm
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CSD Architects: The Summit, at Lynchburg, VA
A CCRC built adjacent to Wyndhurst Town Center (a new mixed use and shopping
district), that allows residents to walk across the street for coffee, shopping,
café’s, and professional services. The facility has its own “town square” and
street fronts. Ages mix as people make use of open access back and forth.
Economic benefits of this sharing with an adjacent community: because of
the location, the facility can actually provide fewer services, and can share its own
facilities with the community, providing a source of income. And the facility’s
residents help provide a reliable economic market for the Town Center’s
commerce, while enjoying an intergenerational environment.
http://www.summitlynchburg.com/
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CSD Architects: Harbor’s Edge, Norfolk, VA
On an urban brownfields area near the prestigious Ghent neighborhood and
the Norfolk harbor, this high-density urban living complex has a 16-story tower
with 163 independent living apartments. This was extremely successful: the
high-rise units sold out in about eight weeks.
http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=118705&ran=47305
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Exemplar: Warwick Grove, Warwick, NY
Warwick Grove is a TND design for active 55+
adults, situated on the edge of the town of Warwick,
NY, in the Hudson Valley region, just 55 minutes
from New York City. It offers a mix of housing types:
townhouses, single-family homes, condominiums,
and live / work spaces.
It has its own Neighborhood Center, and squares,
greens, parks, sidewalks, and front porches,
encouraging walking and interactions among
neighbors, and community involvement.
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Warwick Grove
“The historic Village of Warwick is a short walk away,
with a vibrant main Street (80 shops, galleries, and
restaurants), historic buildings, and thriving arts
community.
“Return to Village Life: Have your lunch on the
Village Green, sip tea at a downtown café, browse the
shops, or visit the Sunday Farmers’ Market. You’ll be
one of the locals in no time.”
Advertises in AARP Newsletter, and Newsweek
“Generations” section.
http://www.warwick-grove.com
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Exemplar CCRC: The Cedars of Chapel Hill, NC
CCRC that is connected to a mixed-use,
mixed-density development: “Meadowmont,
Chapel Hill’s new neighborhood of the future”.
The new “town plan” is clustered around an
open air “Lifestyle Mall” (Meadowmont Village)
at the bottom center on the map.
The Cedars” is the section to the lower right on
the map, and includes the usual variety of
CCRC housing types: villas, apartments,
assisted, and nursing care “households”.
Residents are able to walk across the street
to the shopping district and parks.
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The Cedars: Advertising Analysis
Marketing packet (included) emphasizes memberownership, freedom and choice within an active
lifestyle, the dynamic thriving region, the
convenience of the town-like “Meadowmont”
development, the “Cedars Club” as a social focal
point, and quality architecture aligned with regional
traditions.
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The Cedars
Operations are handled by “Life Care Services LLC” of
Des Moines, IA, one of the leaders in CCRC
administration.
Image from: http://www.cedarsofchapelhill.com/
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Trend: Why should facilities for aging be “Green”?
In line with major social and attitude shifts in the boomer market,
sustainability will be a “must” in future marketability of environments.
Developers and designers of facilities for aging will need to master this
trend, in order to take full advantage of:
1. Brand Value and Market Positioning
2. Long Term Economic Value
3. Reduced Energy and Resource Consumption
4. Improved Quality of Life (natural light, ventilation, indoor
air quality
5. Support of Local Economies, Traditions, Materials
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Trend: Sustainable (Green) Design
“Sustainability means “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs”
-- World Commission on Environment and Development
Sustainable design is the creation of plans for built works that minimally impact or impose upon
existing resources and the natural environment in which they are located.”
-- Mike Jerabek, Worn Jerabek Architects
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Trend: Sustainable (Green) Design
“Sustainable design is the effort to sustain, as much as possible, what is naturally occurring on a
building site, to minimize the amount of energy, as well as natural and human resources that
are exhausted in the process of building and in materials, and to account for the conservation of
energies throughout the building's life cycle.”
-- Ryan Giblin
-- http://www.wwapc.com/sustainability.html
“Green building starts off with the premise that the inhabitants’ well being, health, and comfort
come first, and incorporates this idea into the design process. It then looks for ways to reduce the
burden on the environment in terms of resource and land use and air and water quality.”
-- http://www.greenhomenyc.org/
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Trend: Sustainable (Green) Design
Sustainable Design Principles are applicable across all aspects and scales of projects:
- regional planning
- town and neighborhood planning
- landscape planning
- transportation
- building orientation and design
- building materials and systems
- finishes and furnishings
- building and staff operations
- remodeling
- recycling all waste
- life-cycle cost / value
Increasingly these considerations have significant economic as well as social,
environmental, and ethical benefits.
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Trend: Innovations in Horticultural Therapy
“Horticultural Therapy” uses plants, gardens, and courtyards in therapeutic programming for
seniors, not just to look at or walk through.
“The American Horticultural Therapy Association (AHTA) is a champion of barrier-free, therapeutic
gardens that enable everyone to work, learn, and relax in the garden. Horticultural therapists are
skilled at creating garden spaces that accommodate people with a wide range of abilities. People
with physical or mental disabilities benefit from gardening experiences as part of HT programs,
and they learn skills, adaptations, and gardening methods that allow for continued participation at
home.”
Possibilities include:
- wide, gentle wheelchair entrances and paths.
- easily reachable raised beds and containers
- adapting tool designs to turn a disability into an ability
- sensory-stimulation environments (plants for fragrance texture and color)
- accessible greenhouses for year-round garden enjoyment.”
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Trend: Innovations In Pet Therapy
Pets improve the quality of life for aging persons in all environments.
Specifically, evidence shows that up to 95% of skilled nursing home residents
cared for pets at a younger age, and that time spent with pets in the home is
therapeutic. The animals foster:
- Emotional well being
- Social contacts
- Companionship
- Happiness
- “Humanized” environment
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Part Eight:
Resources and Organizations
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Organization: Am. Ass’n of Homes & Services for Aging
“The members of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging
(AAHSA) serve two million people every day through mission-driven, not-forprofit organizations dedicated to providing the services people need, when
they need them, in the place they call home. Our members offer the continuum
of aging services: adult day services, home health, community services, senior
housing, assisted living residences, continuing care retirement communities, and
nursing homes. AAHSA's commitment is to create the future of aging services
through quality people can trust.”
Committed to the advancement of six consumer-centered ideals on aging
services, initially advanced by the founders in 1961:
Dignity, Services, Quality, Mission-Driven, Advocacy, and Leadership
http://www.aahsa.org/
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Organization: National Aging in Place Council (NAIPC)
“The National Aging in Place Council is a membership organization founded on the
belief that an overwhelming majority of older Americans want to remain in their
homes for as long as possible, but lack awareness of home and community-based
services that make independent living possible. NAIPC has created a national forum
for individuals from the aging, healthcare, financial services, legal, design and
building sectors to work together to help meet the needs of our growing aging
population, so they can continue living in the housing of their choice.
“The primary mission of the National Aging In Place Council is to foster an ongoing
forum between individual professionals (from the private, public and non-profit
sectors) and corporations to work together to promote aging in place.
Secondly, we hope to encourage senior citizens, recent retirees, and Baby Boomers
to be proactive in planning for their future housing and care needs, and provide ideas
and information to help them do so.”
http://www.naipc.org/
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Resource: Dementia Design Information
“This site was created to help designers, providers, and others
interested in creating supportive shared residential care settings
for people with dementia. It is based on an extensive review of the
literature, and organizes the information into an easily searchable
compendium of practical information. The site is still under
construction. At this time, it only contains information about bedrooms,
toilet rooms and bathing areas, with just over 300 records in it. Other
spaces will be added in the future.”
http://www.dementiadesigninfo.org
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Resource: The Age Lab at MIT
“Aging is today’s most profound socio-economic force shaping the future of
business strategy and public policy. View a snapshot of the work we're doing
in: Driving and Personal Mobility, Wellness and Self-Empowered Health,
Independent Living and Caregiving, and Business Strategy and Innovation. For
example:
“AgeLab researchers, in collaboration with the MIT Department of Civil &
Environmental Engineering and the MIT Department of Urban Studies and
Planning, are conducting an assessment of available services to baby
boomers and older adults in suburban areas. Using geographical
information systems (GIS), researchers are identifying the disconnect of where
we live and the access we have to stores, doctors, recreation, and related
activity centers.”
http://web.mit.edu/agelab/
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Resource: The Mature Market Website
Run by an international consortium of senior-oriented marketing firms called
the Senior Strategic Network, this site is a clearinghouse for news,
demographics, marketing strategies, conferences, and other resources
on aging consumers worldwide:
http://www.thematuremarket.com
Including a section on housing-related features, drawn from news outlets
worldwide:
http://www.thematuremarket.com/SeniorStrategic/seniorhousing_elderly63.html
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Resource: Current Awareness in Aging Research
CAAR (Current Awareness in Aging Research) is a weekly email report
produced by the Center for Demography of Health and Aging at the University of
Wisconsin at Madison (Department of Sociology) that helps researchers keep
up to date with the latest developments in the field. For more information,
including an archive of back issues and how to subscribe, go to:
http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/cdha/caar.html
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Resource: Technology for Long Term Care
“Technology for Long-Term Care is a free government funded resource
containing information on hundreds of technology products to improve
quality of life and care for people in long-term care settings such as
nursing homes, assisted living, boarding care, and adult day care programs.
Technology for Long-Term Care focuses on products related to important
care issues including assistance / nurse call, falls, wandering, incontinence,
bathing, medication management, and resident lifts and transfers. As
funding and resources permit, Technology for Long-Term Care will add more
categories or "Care Issues", expand existing categories by including more
products, and provide supplemental resources. Examples of future care
issue categories may include mobility, assistive cognition, eating, dressing,
and leisure to name a few.”
http://www.techforltc.org/ltc.cfm
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Organization: The American Society on Aging
“The ASA is the largest organization of professionals in the field of
aging. Our resources, publications, and educational opportunities are
geared to enhance the knowledge and skills of people working with older
adults and their families.”
http://asaging.org
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Resource: The Gerontological Society of America
“The Gerontological Society of America is a non-profit professional
organization with more than 5000 members in the field of aging. GSA
provides researchers, educators, practitioners, and policy makers with
opportunities to understand, advance, integrate, and use basic and
applied research on aging to improve the quality of life as one ages.”
http://www.geron.org
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Organization: Am. Acad. of Healthcare Int. Designers
“The vision of the American Academy of Healthcare Interior Designers (AAHID) is
to be recognized by the healthcare industry as the certification board of choice
in assessing and qualifying the knowledge, skills and abilities of healthcare
interior designers. Board Certified Healthcare Interior Design certificants are
distinguished and qualified by education, examination, work experience to
practice healthcare interior design, distinguished from other architects, designers,
decorators, and interior designers.”
http://aahid.org/en-us/default.aspx
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Resource: Environment and Gerontology Network
“As the oldest and largest school of gerontology in the world, the Davis
School (at the University of Southern California) has a long tradition of
forging new pathways in the field of aging. A multidisciplinary
institution from its inception in 1975, the Davis School was built on the
bedrock of excellence in aging research. Research in molecular
biology, neuroscience, demography, psychology, sociology and
public policy is conducted under the auspices of the Andrus
Gerontology Center, founded in 1964.”
http://www.usc.edu/dept/gero
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Organization: Envir. Design Research Association
“The Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) is an
international, interdisciplinary organization founded in 1968 by design
professionals, social scientists, students, educators, and facility
managers. The purpose of EDRA is the advancement and
dissemination of environmental design research, thereby improving
understanding of the interrelationships between people, their built and
natural surroundings, and helping to create environments responsive to
human needs.”
http://www.edra.org
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Resource: The Academy of Architecture for Health
“The Academy of Architecture for Health (AAH) improves the quality of healthcare
through design by developing, documenting, and disseminating knowledge;
educating healthcare architects and other related constituencies; advancing
the practice of healthcare architecture; improving the design of healthcare
environments; affiliating and advocating with others that share our vision and
promoting research.”
http://www/aoa/prg/aah_default
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Resource: Center for Universal Design
“The Center for Universal Design (CUD, at the North Carolina Institute on
Aging) is a national information, technical assistance, and research center
that evaluates, develops, and promotes accessible and universal
design in housing, commercial and public facilities, outdoor
environments, and products. Our mission is to improve environments and
products through design innovation, research, education and design
assistance.”
http://www.design.ncsu.edu/cud/
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Resource: Institute on Aging & Environment
“The Institute (located at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at
University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee) was funded by the Helen Daniels-Bader
Charitable Trust in 1990 to promote research, scholarship, and service concerning
environments for older persons, particularly those suffering from cognitive
impairments. The mission of the Institute on Aging & Environment is the
enhancement of the quality of life of older persons in our society through
improvement of, and innovation in housing, institutional, and service
settings. This mission is to be advanced through facilitation and conduct of
aging-environment research, university and community education focused on
issues of aging and environment, and innovative environmental planning,
programming, and design practice. Special initiatives including the organization of
conferences, workshops and publications also support the mission of the Institute.
http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/IAE
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Organization: National Association of Homebuilders
“NAHB is a trade association that helps promote policies that make housing a
national priority. Its mission is to “represent the building industry by serving its
members and affiliated state and local builders associations. NAHB
concentrates on the following goals: balanced national legislative, regulatory, and
judicial public policy; public appreciation for the importance of housing and those
who provide it; the premier resource for industry information, education, research,
and technical expertise; improved business performance of its members and
affiliates; effective management of staff, financial, and physical resources to satisfy
the association’s needs.
http://www.nahb.org/page.aspx/landing/sectionID=5
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Part Nine: Interviews
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Interview Goals
- To augment the national trends and literature research
- To test the appeal of both familiar and innovative environmental
concepts
- To expose “values” and “life events” across a demographic and
regional cross-section
- To explore the origins of environmental preference, in both “values”
and “experience”
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Interviews: Underlying Personal Values Revealed
1. People
Healthy Relationships
Friends
Family
Comfort
Support
2. Involvement
World Involvement
Community Involvement
Contribution
Traveling
Entertainment
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Interviews: Underlying Personal Values Revealed
4. Goals or Achievements
3. Self
Healthy Lifestyle
Organization
Independence
Solitude
Peacefulness
Success
Balance
Security
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Financial Comfort
Making a Difference
Looking for Solutions
Interviews: Important Community Features Revealed
1. Convenience
3. Physical Attributes
Availability of Jobs
Attractive
Access to Transportation
Manageable
Continuing Education
Comfortable
Quality Health Care
Safe
Affordable Housing
Navigable Communities
2. Activities
4. Social Involvement
Sense of Community
Variety of Age Groups
Culture and Entertainment
Various Economic Integration
Shared Activities
People Their Own Age
Outdoor Recreation
New Experiences
Employment
Shopping
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Interviews: Important Residential Features Revealed
1. Overall Ambiance
3. Design Specifics
Attractive
Walk in Shower
Warm
Private Bath
Comfortable
Fireplace
Work / Office Space
2. Layout
Independent Home
Good Storage
Single Floor Plan
Windows / Light / Views
Open Feeling
Plants (Interior and / or Exterior)
Large Kitchen
Yard
Large Living Area
Pets Allowed
Low Maintenance
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Interview Quotes: Goals and Aspirations
On personal goals or ambitions for the next few years:
“I’m interested in having a nice balance of fun relaxing stuff, and meaningful contribution… a nice combination of
work and play”
“Oh yes. There is a couple that we are pretty close to and we would want them to be near us or us to be near them
or to be coordinating our lives in some way. We’ve talked about things like going together to one of the national
parks and hiking and spending time together.”
“Well I think I should get more exercise.”
On how their aging experience or care should differ from their parents:
“I thoroughly believe in the extended family. If you stick an older person in a nursing home, nobody needs them
anymore, and they know that. The thing that keeps people going is the thought that you’re needed. And, I mean, I
don’t want to be a burden on somebody physically, where they’ll have to try to carry me or try to administer care to
me that they are not capable to give. Just because you’re old and sick and can’t move around doesn’t mean that
you still don’t have things to offer.”
“I want to have a larger scope to my life, a small town life had its benefits for my parents because of these friends
and this familiarity, but it was also very insular, I would say. They didn’t see much of the world or see much of
anything, and so I guess all of my life I’ve thought I needed a bigger canvas.”
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Interview Quotes: Community Features
On the definition of community:
“Community to me is also about having people to call up and, you know, visit and cry on a shoulder, get a bit
of advice; and so basically, to me, community is about a comfortable, manageable place where it can extend
into my family and friendships.”
“A definition of community: well, I don’t know if that depends so much on where you live, as it does with how
much you’re willing to be active.”
“I want it to be in a community that has children. You know, I don’t want to move to Sun City, Arizona, I don’t
want to retire in a retirement community. Maybe when I’m independently wealthy I could have a place in the
winter in Florida and my grandchildren could come down and stay with me for spring break, but I’ll always, I
have to have four seasons.”
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Interview Quotes: Community Features
On a “senior citizen” community:
“I could do a townhouse community. I don’t have to have a freestanding home. I think Gary would still like that. I
wouldn’t want to live in a condo, but I could do (do they have a name for those villas?) those kinds of places that
have a lot of opportunity. I still think that I would like, though, not to live in a senior citizens community, because I
think it’s important to have a mix of ages of people.”
“Eventually there will come a point where he and I will no longer be able to maintain this house. This is not an easy
place to cut grass… But there will probably come a day where we’ll have to move back closer and go into a
community type of setting. You know, and when that day comes we will both be ready to do it. He’ll have fellows
that he can talk fishing with, and maybe go fishing, and I’ll have girls that will maybe like to play bridge or do the
things that I like to do.”
“Can my grandchildren come and stay with me for a week there? I hate those places with big signs: No Children
Allowed.”
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Interview Quotes: Community Features
On a small town or established neighborhood setting:
“That’s more our speed. And this is only when we get to the point where we can no longer maintain (this
home).”
“Now I think that would be really nice.”
“I think that (a walkable neighborhood) would be wonderful, mainly for the exercise, that it would make it
simple to get your exercise: To say, I’m going to the store to pick up four items that I can carry back.”
“Well I like the fact that we are close to stores, pharmacies, libraries…and not far from the mall.”
“(I want to age in) my own house. (I would not want to move) unless we get to the point where we can’t do
the stairs, and then I don’t know. I think we’d like to stay in an urban neighborhood.”
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Interview Quotes: Community Features
On a university affiliated retirement community:
“Oh God, I’d love it, oh I’d love it. Now that would be my first choice. Or indeed even better: What do you call
that crowd where seniors travel all over the world and they do things together – Elder Hostel. But they’re turning
out to be very expensive. See, I’m not interested in paying a load of money at this stage for a house, and that’s
my concern for a lot of those.”
“(The university-affilated and all the rest) sound pretty great, but I would really just still like to be kind of by
myself. I like people; I just don’t want to live with them. As far as medical things they’re available most
anywhere you go, cultural things, they’re pretty much available anywhere you go. If I was forced into some kind
of other living arrangement, I would rather live somewhere where there was grass and green, as opposed to like
Penn State. I would be more interested in a rural type.”
On cohousing:
“If we could ever afford to do that here that would be way better, but that’s not gonna happen with older
people.”
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Interview Quotes: Residence Features
On moving through the stages of retirement, and changing residence needs:
“I think probably the next place would probably be, probably the kids will put me
in a condominium. You know, one story, before I go into assisted living, just kind of keep scaling down. I think
they’ll help me decide when it is time that I need to go to the next place, because I’ll become more dependent
on others where I am and I don’t want to do that either, so I’ll know when the time comes.”
On important features in a residence:
“Well I don’t need a golf course; I don’t need a tennis court. I would like to be able to have a cat, you know, a
companion. I have to have room for my piano.”
“The only reason I would want to move would be for something more convenient for me: if I had a bathroom
on this floor. I would like a ground floor or a building with an elevator with a single floor plan. A wooden floor:
I love a clean floor. And just room for a few things, see we grew up with so little, and then in the convent you
have so little, and so, you know, I was 30 before I saw other options: So “things” are not that big of a deal to
me. I have no need for stuff, but I do love a fire. Oh, and by the way, I always love loads of light and fresh air.
I always want to see out.”
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Part Ten:
Some Conclusions:
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Book: Prime Time
How Baby Boomers will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America
Marc Freedman, New York: Public Affairs, 1999
Social Entrepreneurship: seeing and filling the gaps between
the changing nature of the aging population (their abilities,
values, desires, situations), and the institutions that exist to
enable them to continue contributing to society.
Those institutions need to adapt, and new ones need to be
invented.
We need to re-envision the meaning of “The Third Age” (a
British term) in Society.
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Key Insight: Del Webb’s Invention of “Sun City”
Freedman tells the story of the Del Webb Company’s compete transforming
vision of retirement in America. It was very well timed, and very successful.
Their goal was to create a new vision more affirming of older people than the mere
“neglect” which had been the norm from the dawn of the Industrial Revolution until
the 1950s.
The 19th century had marginalized the old: age was seen as a tragic disease.
Yet by the mid-20th century, improved health and economic independence from
family (via social security) had set the stage for a new vision.
At “Sun City” they created a new kind of environment that invented and defined
that vision, offering a new lifestyle of “activity, economy, and individuality” to
replace the mere neglect.
Ten times the expected crowds (100,000 people) came to Sun City, Arizona’s
opening day in 1960:
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Sun City as a Vision for Later Life
The lesson here: corporate interests and leisure / social entrepreneurs
created a new model to match powerfully converging social forces. Their
vision of “an active new way of life” for retirees was a complete package:
“activity, friendliness, and independence”, and also segregation: older folks
were no longer subject to being pushed aside by society.
Sun City succeeded because it arrived just ahead of trends in society, and gave
reality to a needed new vision of retirement.
Sun City combined affordability with luxury: golf was a symbol of an aristocratic
lifestyle, and also made the cheap tract houses look better.
Leisure activities (like golf) feed “the busy ethic” for work-ethic-conditioned
people without any real role in life anymore (in those days). This view of
retirement as “active leisure” is a recent invention.
We are ready for the next one, building off of (or in front of) the emerging
boomer trends.
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Opportunity: A “Center for the Third Age”
Freedman’s vision of a novel, entrepreneurial social institution / facility:
Comparable to the “Café Plus or NORC / AIP Infill projects. Envisioning the
fabric that would hold together neighborhoods, through the continuum of life
stages:
- Full Service Experience Corps: Volunteer Opportunities
- Institute for Learning: compare to Elderhostel
- Center for Un-retirement: Mentor folks in second careers
- Mid-lifer Retreats: preparing folks for the transitions
- Social Entrepreneurship Training
- Corporate Transition Sabbaticals: service to civic entities
- Health and Wellness: physical, mental, levels of care
- Art and Craft Galleries: both fulfillment and commerce
- Coffee Pot / Café: the “third place” for social gathering
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Incentives for Towns and Cities to Invest
Freedman: investing in the physical and social infrastructure for Aging
in Place, will allow communities to keep their retirees, retaining and
enabling access to a vast store of
- Social capital and entrepreneurial creativity
- Economic value, activity, and growth
Like John Stewart argued, we need to make the economic case, in
the large and long-term contexts it will help our cities and economies.
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Some Mega-Trends and Issues
John Stewart, Baltimore Conference Wrap-Up:
1. Demand in China will be huge. They built its first nursing home in 1996.
They can learn a lot from us, although on the other hand we can learn a lot from
the Scandinavians.
2. Current federal policies foster a “segmented” approach to different levels
of care: this creates problems for aging in place and for innovative types of
communities.
3. Zoning regulations still block good neighborhood solutions to single-use
sprawl and car-dependent isolation. We need to lobby city councils with agingin-place interests.
4. Innovative local solutions and partnerships are what’s needed for the
“Continuum of Living” rather than “Aging” per se. Places where people will want
to be, can retain choice and control, and can stay with home and community.
Solving that will achieve this will enable quality of life for all.
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Key Hunches: What do we Aging Boomers Crave?
1. Authentic Community: supportive friends, shared activities, a way of life
that puts us in everyday contact with like-minded (or diverse) others in
pleasant, relaxed circumstances
2. Continuous Carefree Quality Medical Care: free of hassles and financial
fears, without the need to abandon friends (or family) to get next levels of care
3. Convenience Variety Choice: proximity without car-dependence, via feet
or public transport, to educational, religious, cultural, and everyday commercial
needs
4. Safety Security Serenity Vistas: peacefulness, simplicity, beauty, no
maintenance, access to views and experiences of nature, changing light and
seasons
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Key Insight: Shifting Archetypes
Models for Environments (or “Experiences” for Aging are changing:
1. We see the shift from the “Healthcare” model to the “Home” model,
emphasizing a familiar domestic environment and iconic symbols and
favored styles of dwelling. Symbol: the fireplace or the kitchen.
2. Then, also, from the “Home” model to “Hospitality” model,
anticipating the boomers and their desire for services / experiences, and
emphasizing guest hospitality. Symbol: the concierge or the spa.
3. Then, also, from the surbuban to the “Town / Village” model,
emphasizing a variety of activities, more participation, closer proximity,
integration with larger community. Symbol: the square or the agora (market
and meeting place, a civic realm).
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Shifting Archetypes
Plus, bigger trends are at work offering other opportunities:
5. Rise of NORC’s and Aging in Place: emphasizing innovative family,
neighborhood, cooperative, and civic arrangements, and a need for
collaboration, with changing physical as well as social infrastructure
requirements
6. Rise of “sustainable design”, LOHAS and Ecological Consciousness:
offering opportunities to refresh design on all levels, and to engage people
more deeply on how design affects their lives and the world
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The Overall Opportunity
How will new facilities, their developers, and their
designers, compete in the booming, boomerdriven market, to create Active Adult Communities,
CCRC’s, CARC’s, NORC’s, and Aging in Place
neighborhoods, in light of all these shifts?
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