Since opening in 1966, Plymouth Harbor on Sarasota Bay has grown into a robust 17.5-acre continuing care retirement community (CCRC), offering assisted living, independent living, and skilled nursing on its campus in Sarasota, Fla. However, board members of the church-sponsored, not-for-profit community recognized that the market was shifting. “People who move into a [CCRC] want to make their move while they’re young and active but know that, over time, they or their partner may experience medical challenges,” says Harry Hobson, president and CEO of Plymouth Harbor. Specifically, Plymouth Harbor identified memory care as a component that some residents will require in the future but was missing from its campus. “It was a gap we needed to close,” Hobson says.

While the community set out to expand its services, adding a new three-story building to house 30 memory care units plus 20 additional assisted living and 10 independent living units, leaders also wanted to rethink the traditional memory care experience. Because Plymouth Harbor anticipated many existing residents transitioning into the memory care community, Hobson says it was important that all the living spaces be finished to the same level as independent living. “For years in the industry, residents would move from beautiful amenities to something that looked like a hospital,” Hobson says. “We wanted to take that edge off and make it almost a seamless transition.”

The community
Overlooking Florida’s Sarasota Bay and built in the style of the Sarasota School of Architecture, a regional style of post-war modern architecture characterized by open-plan structures and large planes of glass, Plymouth Harbor draws residents with an interest in the arts as well as a waterfront lifestyle. Following its last renovation in 1988, the community consisted of a 25-story independent living tower with 216 independent living units, and three smaller buildings with 10 assisted living and 60 skilled nursing units.

In 2006, a preliminary feasibility study and master plan were conducted with THW Design (Atlanta) to address the need for memory care services. But then the Great Recession hit, and the project was put on hold. By 2010, Hobson says the community was ready to restart the planning and in 2012 decided to move forward on the expansion.

When determining the program, Hobson felt it was important that designers understand the wants and needs of residents, so a two-day charrette was held in Atlanta in 2014. During the exercise, he tasked participants with imagining an actual person—a grandparent, uncle, neighbor—who might need assisted living or memory care. Each designer wrote the name of that person on his or her nameplate and then was asked to keep their professional credentials but become that other person.

Lorraine Enwright, THW’s senior associate and director of design, says the exercise helped to personalize the project for her and got designers talking about amenities that would entice assisted living and independent living residents to interact. She considered what features would make the design unique and special for her grandparents. “It was an engaging and invaluable approach,” she says. Some of the design features to come out of the charrette included a dramatic two-story dining room, a courtyard, and multiple garden spaces. The 147,294-square-foot project broke ground in December 2015 and was completed in January 2018, bringing the community’s unit total to 226 independent living units, 30 assisted living units, 30 memory care units, and 55 skilled nursing units.

Site-specific response
Several site-specific elements drove the design of the expansion: views of the water; the resort-like feel of the existing community; and a cooling tower on the site that served the entire campus and had to be relocated to make room for the new project. Additionally, the design team had a tight footprint on which to locate the building. “We’re basically 20 to 30 feet from the water, and we had setbacks to deal with as part of the zoning. We also had to preserve the [mangrove] tree line,” Enwright says.

THW made the building footprint as large as it could and created a design to maximize water views for as many units as possible. “The water views are a revenue generator; the better the views, the higher the price points on the units,” Enwright says. “We wanted to make each view as nice as we could.”
However, designers soon realized that they couldn’t give every unit a water view. So for those units that couldn’t see the water, the designers created an interior courtyard to offer pleasing views and natural light. This design solution resulted in a C-shape layout for the three-story addition. On the first floor, one arm of the “C” houses the new assisted living dining room, apartments, and community room, while the center and other arm house the memory care apartments. Additional assisted living units are located on the second floor; the third floor is dedicated to independent living. In the central courtyard are three gardens, two of which are enclosed for memory care residents only.

One of the most distinctive features of the design is the assisted living dining room—a two-story atrium—which creates a “wow factor,” Enwright says. “The community wanted residents, family members, friends, and other visitors to enjoy being there, to stay in the space for more than a meal, and not to feel like it’s in an assisted living home.”

However, constructing the space involved overcoming several challenges. Because the dining room opens on both floors to the lobby, noise spills in from all sides. THW’s solution was to install sound-absorbing, veneer-wrapped ceiling planks in the dining room and draperies on the windows to help with acoustics. The glazing design of deep mullions on the dining room window wall also helps with noise levels. “The shape undulates in and out and helps with the acoustics,” Enwright says.

With the dining room’s location on the building’s western side, the space also receives direct exposure from the sun and reflections from the water, which needed to be addressed to minimize glare and heat gain. THW specified a glazing system with solar properties and motorized blinds, as well as a sun shelf detail in a structural beam that cuts horizontally across the center of the mullioned windows to break up the light and minimize sun glare. Enwright says the result is a dining space that’s used by residents all day long. “People don’t just go to the dining area to eat. They’ll read or meet friends and family,” she says. “It’s an uplifting space.”

Finishing touches
To further enhance the new addition, the project team chose finishes, paint, materials, and furniture that created a welcoming, safe environment to engage residents’ senses. For example, designers selected carpet patterns that are custom-colored in a soothing waterside color palette of blues and greens. “We do a lot functionally to make designs work for seniors and choose materials you’d get in a healthcare environment in terms of performance, but don’t feel institutional,” Enwright says. “It’s comfortable and residential.”

The same custom carpeting is used throughout the new building. However, in memory care, the carpet has a moisture barrier and the patterns are subtler and have less contrast “so as not to cause depth perception problems,” Enwright says.

To further aid residents, the memory care wing is divided into two sections with 15 apartments in each. The two hallways meet at individual kitchen and dining areas (a wall can be opened to make it one space). Each hallway is also designed as a wandering loop path from inside to outside in the gardens and then back into the commons area. Every few feet along the hallway are large, horizontal, rectangular panels made of laser-cut MDF, with different patterns on each side of the hallway, which offer sensory stimulation and serve as wayfinding for residents, Enwright says. At the end of the “loop,” residents can interact with a touch-activated sensory table that’s embedded with a panel that can display different lights and patterns. “You can play with it for a while and look for the patterns you like or just be fascinated,” Enwright says. “It’s another way to stimulate brain activity, memory recall, and wayfinding.”

Lessons learned
Hobson says the community has learned a few lessons since the expansion opened a year ago. For example, because of the emphasis on making the building feel as residential as possible, the nurses’ stations and administrative offices were placed behind walls and doors. “We downplayed them,” Hobson says. But the residents got lost when trying to find staff. “Residents wanted to feel secure and needed those things to be more transparent,” Hobson says. The community has since taken down the walls surrounding the nurses’ work areas and installed frosted glass that allows residents to see in.

In the dining rooms, the design team specified tables at taller heights to accommodate wheelchairs but came to realize that they don’t need to be as high as originally thought. So some of the tables have been lowered to a more comfortable height for more people.

One of the biggest successes has been seen in the memory care unit, where Hobson says he finds residents sharing meals and coming together in the dining area. The setting houses tables that seat six to eight people, and staff are on hand to assist residents, who can eat when they want. “In the old days [in memory care], you’d see almost highchairs with trays. We don’t do it that way,” Hobson says. “Our dining room looks more like a family’s dining room at home.”

Overall, Hobson says residents and staff feel positive about the changes and are enjoying the fluidity between the different environments. “We spent time developing a culture of appreciation for people with dementia. Residents understand that ‘this can happen to me,’” Hobson says. “Having the peace of mind knowing we have this on campus is extremely positive, and that draws attention from the outside.”

Stacey Freed is a freelance writer based in Pittsford, N.Y. She can be reached at stacey.freed@gmail.com.