Located in the heart of Raleigh, N.C.’s North Hills Midtown District, The Cardinal at North Hills, a continuing care retirement community, is just steps away from restaurants, shopping and entertainment. North Hills Midtown was created to engage all generations, and The Cardinal at North Hills offers seniors a trendy urban location surrounded by opportunities for recreation, participation and quiet reflection. The independent living portion of the community opened in January 2017, and the healthcare services building—The Pines at The Cardinal—began accepting residents in May 2017.

The six-acre community includes several living options, including 165 independent living apartment homes and 60 licensed healthcare residences with assisted living, memory care and Medicare-certified private nursing apartments. The first two levels of the healthcare services building include nursing care, enhanced assisted living and memory care. These are organized as households using the small-home concept. In this design, private rooms and bathrooms are centered on a large communal kitchen, dining and living area, creating household-like settings. Residents feel the comfort of being “at home” and are encouraged  to interact with residents and team members just as they would family—socializing, watching sporting events together, cooking together, sharing meals at a dinner table together and more. The top floor provides larger assisted living residences suitable for individuals and couples.

Cline Design Associates (Raleigh, N.C.) was the lead architectural firm for the community. TFF Architects and Planners (Greensboro, N.C.), designed The Pines. The architecture is a fusion of colonial period elements, which are evocative of historic Raleigh architecture, as well as sophisticated, modern design. The architects on the project dubbed this style “transitional modern,” and the design is intended to give a feeling of timelessness with a contemporary edge. ID Collaborative (Greensboro, N.C.) was responsible for the interior design. Although different firms worked on the project, the overarching goal was to have a fully connected community that was unified in design and operational excellence. The community’s developer and manager, Kisco Senior Living (Carlsbad, Calif.), requires that their full-service campuses have the same quality finishes, comfort and design throughout the community. This way, transitioning from one level of living and care to the next is seamless.

The two main challenges the designers faced were the differences in the grade of the site (roughly 20 feet from west to east) and the desire to maintain connectivity between the many different functions, giving the feel of one entire community under one roof. To accommodate these hurdles, the lower floors (garden level) of both the clubhouse and The Pines were set a full level below the main lobby of both buildings. This allowed the designers  to create a secluded garden for memory care, as well as a large at-grade main garden area behind the pool, spa and fitness center, which located behind the lower level of the main clubhouse. All three levels of the clubhouse are seamlessly connected to the three floors of The Pines, enabling staff and residents to move easily between the shared-use spaces in each building such as the clinic, the rehabilitation center in The Pines, and the spa, salon, fitness center and wellness center in the clubhouse. Similarly, many of the shared back-of-the-house functions, such as the main laundry and main kitchen, are located within this transition zone to facilitate more efficient operations.