Design Center

Cherry Ridge
WEBSTER, NEW YORK
PROJECT SUMMARY

Type of Facility/Setting: Continuing Care Retirement Community
Owner: St. Ann’s Community (585) 697-6000
Chief Administrator: Michael Seelig, VP of Housing, Executive Director, (585) 697-6700
Architecture: CSD, People Architecture, (443) 423-1260; SWBR Architects, (585) 232-8300
Interior Design: Merlino Design Partnership, Inc., (610) 313-9550
Photography: ¬2005 Tom Bernard Photography (interiors); ¬2005 Alain Jaramillo Photography (exteriors)
Resident Capacity: 55 clustered cottages, 71 Independent Living apartments, 51 Assisted Living apartments, 24 Memory Care apartments
Total Project Area: 42-acre campus
Construction Cost: $30,000,000
Cost/Sq. Ft.: $113 with site; $96 building only

Rich tradition at a moderate price
BY ROBERT VOLZER, CID, IIDA, VOLZER DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

Offering rich tradition at a moderate price point, we couldn’t be more delighted with our new CCRC,” says Michael Seelig, executive director of St. Ann’s Community’s new 42-acre Senior Living Community, “which provides a moderate-income alternative to our market area’s present stock of ‘upscale’ and ‘affordable’ housing options.” Adopting a locally dominant Arts and Crafts style, the team of CSD, People Architecture; Merlino Design Partnership; and local firm SWBR Architects conveyed the area’s rich tradition of intimate neighborhood enclaves, cozy bungalows, and a spiritual community centerpiece in the design of Cherry Ridge.

Nestled among natural upland wetlands and arranged around a “village green” hosting a shared commons, activity space, a chapel, and all intensive operations, Cherry Ridge provides residents with choice, familiarity, and residential scale in the array of unit sizes providing independent and assisted living. The community includes cottages and apartments; memory care; and phase II, “household-scale” nursing. Construction techniques are simple, expressing the design theme while remaining cost-effective with the use of residential structural and mechanical systems, low-maintenance vinyl siding, restrained detailing, and the prudent use of special accent materials, such as the faux river-run stone throughout facilities.

The varied housing choices within Cherry Ridge include moderate-size cottages with optional dens (1,343 to 1,578 square feet in duplex and triplex units), reflecting the size and design of local homes, and a three-story apartment building with compatible scale and materials that offers independent and assisted living apartments ranging from studio to one- and two-bedroom units (550, 800, and 1,000 square feet, respectively).

The Commons building includes a flexible activity/chapel structure that anchors the village green and is highlighted by a tower. Social spaces include gathering and dining areas; a family cafT; a library; fitness, hair care, and mail centers; and a convenience store.

With coordinated owner/architect strategies, this senior living community is both affordable and desirable. Prospective residents are given choices, not only with the owner’s varied entry fees but also with optional meal plans and unbundled services.

This CCRC has great curb appeal, is efficiently laid out with central staff operations, and has cost-effective but highly aesthetic structures. It also leverages community resources such as the adjacent high school’s aquatic center. Cherry Ridge provides a new place for this town’s aging residents to call home.


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