Design Center

McCleary: “We did a campus of this size because a marketing study indicated that seniors in this area were underserved across the board.”

Fry: “Also, during our 30 years’ experience in senior living, we found growing trends of late in residents’ aging in place, the number of people with Alzheimer’s needing special care and spouses needing different levels of care and moving from one level to another.

“With three partners having long-term care operational, marketing and financial experience and an experienced architect, we developed this plan incorporating operational needs-probably to an unusual degree, in this field.”

Fry: “We saw a growing problem in assisted living with residents who had mild cognitive impairment knocking on people’s doors at night and venturing outside inappropriately dressed. Naturally, the other residents found this disturbing. Jetson’s experience with special care units showed that by increasing staff and modifying the environment-particularly eliminating overhead pagers, providing lighting to supplement natural light and creating spaces where small groups of residents could gather-the behavior of these residents improved considerably. And it relieved the problems experienced by the other residents of assisted living-in short, a win-win situation.”

Fry: “Residents in the assisted living wings of Sage Harbor who are borderline impaired also can share in the structure and programs of Memory Care. This has worked extremely well, especially in situations involving spouses.”

McCleary: “As for Castle Pointe, our apartment home community for residents who are less frail, we’ve done everything we could to foster independence and promote activity for those residents: a Great Room; a library; the ‘Promenade,’ with a soda shop, gift shop and bank, all with a nautical flair, since we overlook the bay; and even a continental breakfast every morning where residents of the patio homes are invited, too-about half of all our independent residents show up at these.

“All units except those in Memory Care have been prewired for Internet hookup. Use of e-mail has really picked up of late, and soon our intranet capability will give residents another way of visiting with one another. Even if the resident doesn’t have a computer, he or she can use the Harbor Room activity center computer to check for information or messages on the Internet.”

McCleary: “One of our most important programs is a cooperative arrangement we have with the Bay View Family YMCA across the street.”

Fry: “In fact, we have hopes for this becoming a national model. Staff members of the ‘Y’ come to Baywinde to conduct exercise and tai-chi classes for residents, while residents can use the Y’s pool and other facilities as members. This has helped us achieve a real emphasis on resident wellness. There are other advantages to this relationship, too-intergenerational programming and, for our organization, relief from the liability exposure that comes from having an on-site pool.”

Comment by Joseph A. Crestuk, Sr., Architect, Crestuk Group: “Fitting everything in on the site and tying it together, including making the YMCA part of the community, was a challenge, but it has worked out well. Everything flows, everything is visible, and moving about the campus on the walking paths is easy and convenient. Yet there is privacy available for those who want it-for example, for the patio homes, which are still very much a part of the community. In general, I was very pleased with the scale of this campus; in terms of size, walking distances and overall layout, I think we got it right.”