Our upcoming Senior Living LIVE is taking a bit of a new direction--giving you a behind-the-scenes look of what goes into creating a senior living community. Host Melissa Lee, sits down with Shannon from Meyer Design to walk through the process behind building a community from the blueprint to a beautiful new home.
Video Transcript
- Hello, everyone, and welcome into "Senior Living LIVE." My name is Melissa. I have a very special guest joining me here today, Shannon Remaley, principal with Meyer Design. She will be joining us October 22nd at 10:00 a.m., for a very rare opportunity in a webinar, where you can understand what goes into the design process of a senior living community, and something we have not done before, and it is going to be fantastic. Shannon, how are you today?
- I'm wonderful, thank you so much. I'm happy to be here.
- Yeah, and we're really excited for this webinar. Again, we haven't done anything like this before, but we had quite a few people sign up already, wanting to be a part of this, and get that behind-the-scenes look into the creation of a senior living community. So can you take us through that process, from the blueprint phase, to construction, to the final product that we will see? What goes into all of that, Shannon, and how does the initial vision continue to evolve over that time?
- Yeah, great. Yeah, I think we'll dig more into it on the webinar next week, but just to give you an idea, we certainly pull from the local community. That's a major element that we pull from, from our inspiration, but also what residents and their families are looking for. What is the market looking to have in a senior living community? And so, you know, it all starts with how the building presents itself on a site. Then we move inside to the interior layout, and what are residents really gonna be looking to do inside of a community. And then you really start to get into the details from there and what it's gonna look like and how it's gonna feel, and really capturing the essence of our design intent with every detail.
- Now, you are, of course, tasked with the bringing to life, if you will, of a community that will be new to the Arbor family, that is Arbor Terrace Exton in Pennsylvania, and you mentioned pulling from the local area, What were some of the key characteristics that you did take from the community that you are incorporating into this senior living residence?
- Yeah, with Chester County we're very fortunate. The site is actually about 30 to 45 minutes from our office, but we're very fortunate, and Chester County offers much inspiration for us really. It's rich and traditional history, and detailing, and architecture, and design. So you'll see a lot of that Chester County farmhouse inspiration brought in, and much more of a modern and fresh take on it, but you can definitely see that inspiration with stone materials, on the exterior stucco. You'll see some archways, and some of the molding details in the interior really looking from the local buildings in the area.
- Yeah, well, you have touched about 100 different communities, senior living communities, and you really specialize in the human experience. What makes Meyer different on that end?
- Yeah, so I mean, the human experience is so important to us. It's really looking at how we, as people, interact with our built environment. It's much more than just making beautiful spaces, right? That's the easy part, but how are the insides of our buildings really gonna help people optimally exist and benefit their health and well-being? It's very, we look at it very holistically, from your physical, mental, social health. And so, that's really what we're talking about when we say the human experience. It's not enough to just be in a beautiful space, but really is how is it gonna help people live better lives?
- Yeah, and you do that with independent living communities all the way to memory care communities. How challenging is that when you have a community, as Arbor does have many, that have the different tiers, from independent living, assisted living, into memory care?
- Yeah, I think what's benefited us most in understanding that is spending time with people like Arbor and our operators that we work with, and spending time inside buildings, so not just to hear how it's worked, but actually see how it's worked. We've done sleepovers in buildings, and that's really how we've grown, and able to make spaces better for people is to really experience it with them.
- Yeah, so that was going to lead me to my next question, which is how do you keep your senior living designs fresh? And staying on site and having boots on the ground, it's certainly one way to do that. But what is the latest and greatest right now in senior living?
- Yes, I think one of the great things about senior living design right now is that it incorporates so many different markets, right? There's a ton of hospitality in senior living. There's a ton of residential. There's some healthcare. So we're really able to pull in inspiration from different markets to make what senior living is today. There's also so much excitement right now around technology, and how it helps the caregivers, but also helps residents, and so, really looking at what is out there as far as technology to incorporate as well.
- Now, all of these designs, as you mentioned, certainly come with with people in mind. What is some of the feedback that you actually get from people who call your communities home?
- Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think that's, that that's the best part of it, right, is when you go into a community after it's open, which we do, and see how it's working. And I, at one of our Arbor communities where we did do a sleepover, we had dinner with about eight residents, and they tell you stories of the birthday party they had in the sports lounge, or they also might you tell you stories about what didn't really work for them, or what was challenging for them with the physical environment. And so, all of it is just wonderful feedback.
- And then the final question, because it's top of mind, COVID. I know that there are a couple of little details that you've added for Arbor Terrace Exton with COVID in mind. Can you talk about that?
- Yeah, absolutely. You know, a major component that we've been seeing in designs that were changing is access to outdoors. So not just on the first level, but throughout the community, access to outdoors, but also connection to outdoors, perhaps four-season rooms for residents that it might be more difficult for them to get outside every day, and really feel that connection to the outdoors. You'll see more touchless elements to buildings, such as elevators or plumbing fixtures, switches, doors. So there's even some components getting into the details of the furniture. We're looking at less seating for multiple people, more individual seating, more flexibility in spaces. So all those elements play into it.
- Shannon Remaley, excellent information, and our seniors, and maybe those, their loved ones will have an opportunity to ask you some questions about, again, the ever-evolving state of senior living. So October 22nd, we will see you then at 10:00 a.m. Eastern. Thanks so much for joining me today.
- Thank you.
