Creativity on a budget.

Affordable seniors housing can look great with budget-conscious designs that support a long-range vision, say design professionals

In the design world, everyone has an opinion. If there's one thing that architecture and planning experts agree on, however, it's the notion that long term care building costs amortized over 20 or even 30 years may appear insignificant compared with the owner or provider's debt service and labor costs. With a greater appreciation for budgets, today's design professionals can guide farsighted owners on how to get the best bang for the buck in any circumstance--and how to foster even greater savings with proper planning. Designing for energy efficiency, maintenance reduction, durability, and program flexibility can add up to significant cost savings in the long run. (See "A new breed of energy savers," page 35.)

At Mithun, a Seattle architecture firm, principal Jerry McDevitt sums up construction affordability in two words: value engineering." Foremost, McDevitt says projects must follow owner requirements with an emphasis on improving quality of life for residents. A correlation between affordable construction and affordable housing depends on the owner, he says. Affordability doesn't mean a cheap building; affordability for residents may rather mean an owner has funding in place to offer subsidies," he says.

Case-in-point is Mithun's recently completed project, HOPE VI senior village, located at New Holly, also in Seattle. The client, Retirement Housing Foundation, is one of the largest developers of low-income seniors housing in the country. (It houses more than 14,000 people in more than 130 facilities, consisting of 11,000 apartments, 775 assisted living units, and 930 skilled nursing beds in 23 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.) To ensure affordability in its most recent effort, Retirement Housing Foundation relied on an alphabet soup of agencies and programs. According to Leslie Moldow, a Mithun principal, "putting these projects together is a real art."

Its newest campus will include 154 assisted living units in its Park Place Building; nearly two-thirds of the units will provide affordable housing and services through the cooperative efforts of Medicaid subsidies and the Seattle Housing Authority's Housing and Urban Development Section 8 rent subsidies. Also within the village, an 84-unit affordable seniors housing complex called Esperanza Apartments was made possible by the equity raised through the sale of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits to the National Equity Fund in a syndication arranged by the National Affordable Housing Trust. Both Park Place and Esperanza are financed through the sale of Washington State Tax-Exempt Bonds issued by the Housing Authority, as well as credit enhanced by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance.

Mithun kept costs down as well--less than $85 per square foot for construction. Yet amenities include a clubhouse to be shared by Park Place and Esperanza residents, which contains a dining facility; three-story, skylit atrium cafe; an exercise studio; craft rooms; library/parlor; activity and meeting rooms; and a wellness center.

The material sends a message

In affordable housing projects, the medium is often the message. Explains McDevitt, "You can't appear to be ostentatious or frivolous [in design]." In Mithun's value-engineering toolbox are ways to make projects look great on the strictest of budgets. For starters, materials that mimic higher-priced alternatives, good lighting, and great paint schemes go a long way in upgrading affordable housing. "We consider it a challenge," he says.

For the Kitsap County Consolidated Housing Authority in Silverdale, Wash., Mithun completed Golden Tides, a three-phase senior-living project that, once again, involved multi-source funding. According to McDevitt, the project combines local, state, federal, and private monies to realize housing for seniors 62 years and older who earn well below the median income in this logging community, a ferry ride from Seattle. (In fact, 15 percent of Golden Tides' units are intended for residents who make less than 25 percent of the area's median income.)

Built over four years with the first-phase residential structure located above a parking garage, Golden Tides' construction costs ranged from just $46 per square foot to $83 per square foot. The architects initiated the idea of a multi-source senior facility in joint partnership with the local Council on Aging, which landed Golden Tides the designation of neighborhood senior center and local Meals on Wheels' hub.

The tight construction budget resulted in the design team's conscious efforts to specify and detail long-lasting, low-maintenance, and relatively inexpensive materials. Wood-frame construction is, says McDevitt, "heavily value-engineered." Aesthetically, the series of buildings mimics a Cape Cod waterfront carriage hotel with continuous covered porches surrounding large common areas.

One key to keeping costs in line at Golden Tides, according to McDevitt, was limiting common space for independent living units to less than 20 percent of total space. That communal space was more than doubled for assisted living and dementia units where activities are more structured and private residential quarters are primarily small studios. The design team used windows in public areas to capture daylight and dramatic views of Dyes Inlet and the surrounding hills of Silverdale; they also serve to draw residents out of their private quarters and into communal areas.

In Portland, Ore., at St. Anthony Village, construction costs of $81 per square foot netted more than 90,000 square feet of senior care space, ranging from independent and assisted living to Alzheimer's care. Recently lauded in Contemporary Long Term Care's Order of Excellence in Architecture and Interior Design awards program, St. Anthony Village merits mention here for the high degree of creativity that went into developing an affordable project. (See "Senior Living Design," the supplement that accompanied the September 2000 CLTC. For more details on this year's Order of Excellence Awards, please see page 36 in this issue.) According to design principals at Mithun responsible for project architecture and planning, the goal was fourfold: to provide an intergenerational community for those in need, extend a continuum of care for low-income seniors, rebuild a church strapped for cash, and rejuvenate a neighborhood on the fringe of decline.

To realize its potential, the local parish sold underutilized land and gained funding for a new church, parish hail, and childcare building. The church used land adjacent to the church to create affordable senior housing: 17 independent units, 86 assisted living units, and 24 units in Alzheimer's care. Beyond an affordable residence, St. Anthony Village has become a community --intergenerational and multiethnic.

With the church as its cornerstone, St. Anthony Village incorporates parishioner volunteers into the work of the community food bank and the assisted living residence. Residents themselves serve as grandparents to children in day care. The church's parish hail offers space for musical performances, activities, and classes. The assisted living building's commercial kitchen provides outbound meals to neighborhood seniors to help support a home health program. And the St. Anthony Village rose garden is open to all.

It is clearly the creativity of design professionals and dedicated operators that keeps them seeking viable options for growing numbers of consumers requiring care in a range of settings, but unable to afford it completely on their own. Despite setbacks--including resistance from banks reluctant to lend funds for certain project types--this group explores solutions every day for the industry's constant crunches.

For a progressive provider in the southern U.S., architects at Beery Rio & Associates in Springfield, Va., have created plans for adapting roadside motels into workable, affordable models for assisted living. The idea, however, faces significant hurdles: bankers fearful of lending into the market space and potentially low pre-sales for a concept people have not yet seen.

In an era of rethinking status quo, there are noticeable changes. The program Coming Home, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, awards grants to several states making necessary regulatory changes that will foster assisted living for low-income, frail seniors. But just how low can you go? Certain costs related to design should never be compromised, explains Steven Ruiz, a principal at Beery Rio. "You can't afford to make a building less safe."

Rachel Long is a regular contributor to CLTC.

Budget basics: cost-saving tips for great design

What makes a senior living space look great? How can you bring character, sophistication, and residential appearance to a senior care center on the smallest of design budgets?

When Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects and Interiors in Portland, Ore., recently completed the design of 450,000 square feet at the new University Retirement Community at Davis (California) on $89 a square foot for construction costs, we took note. The continuing care retirement community (CCRC) built for Pacific Retirement Services was a dream realized by the Davis Senior Housing and Care Continuum, which lobbied for the project but was demanding of its aesthetic qualities.

Out of focus groups of prospective residents poring over architectural sketches and images came consensus on a decidedly craftsman motif, and the architects went to work. The key to staying within budget was using dramatic detailing where it counted most in highly visible, much-used public spaces. The overall effect in the CCRC's main building, says Ankrom Moisan principal Karen Bowery, is that of a lodge rich in natural materials. Rough-sawn, heavy timber posts and beams and a slate-tile floor distinguish the entrance lobby; a soaring stone-and-copper fireplace anchors a two-story lounge; clerestory windows flood the third-floor community dining room with light.

Given the success of the recent Davis project, we asked Ankrom Moisan associate and project manager Darla Esnard to outline her ideas on how--design wise--minimal budgets can be spent for maximum impact. Here's her take:

* Strive for an image of quality. Combine low-cost products and more expensive materials for a desired aesthetic outcome. For example, where a wood reception desk might take a major chunk out of a design budget, a combination wood/laminate counter provides a similar look for much less money. A rubber baseboard with a wood cap painted for continuity is a viable alternative to a pricier all-wood base along walls. (It takes vacuuming abuse, too.)

* Use a wide range of materials. Low-budget jobs that look low-budget often have a degree of sameness and lack visual punch.

* Look for improved alternatives to higher-priced products. Sheet vinyl that looks like wood, for instance, is long-lasting and has improved aesthetically with recent new generations from a range of manufacturers.

* Consider that custom doesn't always mean more expensive. Ask vendors about customizing product options for unique looks; for large quantities in particular, custom-designed products may be on a par price-wise with catalogued items.

* Use the resources of vendors and manufacturers. Knowledgeable reps are typically happy to provide sketches, samples, and services related to the design products they sell. Using their expertise wisely may save time in fees and custom work.

* Think quality and durability for high-priority areas. For example, high-traffic, high-visibility public spaces and corridors warrant long-lasting carpet or surfacing underfoot.

* Use color wisely, but do use it. Paint is often a design budget's best friend.

* Warm up the lighting. New low-energy-consumption fluorescent bulbs have warmed up in color, benefiting their spaces. But adding an incandescent fixture at eye level is an effective, budget-conscious way to create more attractive, layered lighting throughout a room.

* Be creative--and flexible. Even low-cost poster art can look wonderful if framed properly.

A new breed of energy savers

Eric Naslund knows all about affordable housing. He and his firm, Studio E Architects, were, in fact, hired by the city of Indian Wells, Calif., when the state sued the locality for failure to provide such residences in compliance with state law.

No, the resulting low-cost senior housing for the city of Indian Wells is not long term care housing. It is a 90-unit complex devoted to the able (earning 60 percent or less of the area's median senior income), but its lessons are of a new breed, even prototypical, designed to keep long term costs in check.

From Naslund's perspective--not unlike that of long term care operators--affordability in building types goes beyond initial building costs to encompass energy consumption and operational costs (though this project was constructed for less than $100 a square foot including site prep). On skyrocketing energy costs for air conditioning in Indian Wells' sweltering desert clime, Naslund comments that even "$300 or $400 a month is out of reach for fixed-income seniors."

Taking his cue from an article in Scientific American discussing how cooling towers gather air, cool it, and drop it, Naslund experimented with designs for thermal chimneys, which he positioned in the hallways of living units. He sloped all rooms 20 feet up to a unit's tower and, by fashioning auto-opening windows at its peak, created a chimney that captures prevailing breezes and forms a vacuum--a thermo siphon--to cool living spaces.

By designing grotto-style walls outside units' bedrooms and planting them profusely, the Studio E team ensured a constant evaporative cooling cycle. (Think sweat for a building.) With deeply shaded perimeters, the buildings' air conditioning demands amount to, maybe, a third of traditionally designed structures. What's more, a central, shaded paseo (courtyard) acts as a small-town front porch drawing residents together. The "very social arrangement of spaces," according to Naslund, includes a fun path to the community mailboxes and an unmistakable sense of neighborhood.