Granite Farms Estates, an ACTS Retirement-Life Community in Media, Pa., had undertaken multiple construction projects over the years to reposition its 30-plus-year-old community to better compete in the Philadelphia regional market. In a five-year span, the community built a new wellness center with indoor pool, added a bistro, enlarged the dining room, and updated all the common space in the main clubhouse.

In addition to upgrading amenity spaces, the community also required a refresh of some of its residential units. An existing care center, comprising 40 semiprivate long-term care bedrooms and 40 assisted living studio units, needed to be updated with larger, more modern apartments for assisted living residents and private rooms for long-term care residents. Additionally, the Elm Building, a four-story independent living apartment building on campus, suffered from compartmentalized and outdated units, low ceilings and narrow hallways throughout the building, and lack of common space. These factors made it the least desirable residential building on campus.

Faced with limited available land to build something new and a desire to avoid putting residents through many more years of construction, the owner decided to transform the existing four-story Elm Building into a new home for assisted living and independent living residents, with common spaces and amenities on each floor. It would also update the care center for long-term residents only.

Setting goals
Working with architecture firm SFCS Inc. (Blue Bell, Pa.) and general contractor Warfel Construction Co. (Malvern, Pa.), the owner began the renovation project by touring a variety of residential buildings across the country, from senior living communities to market-rate apartments aimed at young professionals, to get an understanding of housing trends. Attracted to the vibrancy and amenities provided in the market-rate apartments, the owner asked SFCS’ interior design team to deliver a building that “doesn’t look like a senior living community” to help attract new and younger residents to the site and make the Elm Building its most sought-after location on campus.


The project team conducted visioning sessions to determine the overall aesthetic for the renovation, landing on “rustic farmhouse meets The Ritz-Carlton,” which the owner felt would create a fresh feel yet be sophisticated enough for the higher-end clientele it wanted to attract. Finishes were selected to be more traditional and comforting inside the resident apartments, while the common spaces would feature a more modern aesthetic with reclaimed barn wood and metal screens juxtaposed with stained wood paneling and sleek stone countertops.

Next, designers worked with the owner’s marketing group to conduct focus groups to gather feedback from existing and potential residents on the proposed design, including the finishes and furnishings. The 65-69 age group loved the design’s clear departure from a traditional aesthetic. Interestingly, the 70-75 age group was less focused on finishes but was very interested in the function of the space, such as if the chairs were the appropriate height and if there were adequate light levels. This input led to some minor changes to fabrics and artwork, and soon after, construction began in January 2016; the renovated community was completed in March 2017.

Modern makeover
Inside the renovated Elm Building, the first and second floors house 40 one-bedroom assisted living apartments while the two upper floors were transformed into modern independent living apartments, providing a higher-end apartment option on campus. Emphasis was placed on creating social spaces to bring residents together. For example, on the third floor, there’s a screening room next to the club room, so residents can host parties and watch special events like the Super Bowl or the Oscars. The club room also has an adjacent pantry/catering kitchen to allow the space to be used as a “pop-up” dining venue for residents.

While the third-floor common spaces were geared toward evening entertaining and fun, the fourth floor was envisioned as a space where residents would start their day. Adjacent to the club room on this floor is a beverage station providing water, juice, and coffee; a fitness room, and a sunroom. These new common spaces were important to help create the vibrant, active setting that the owner desired, as well as eliminate the feeling of isolation by residents in the building.

On each assisted living floor, a living room, dining room, and country kitchen are located centrally to help break up the long hallways and reduce travel distances for residents. Residents and visitors are also encouraged to travel between the two assisted living floors and utilize the amenity spaces, including a private outdoor garden, an activity room, salon, spa room, and physical therapy/fitness gym.

The renovation of an older building can certainly present challenges, and this one was no different. The ceilings were low throughout the building and the existing hallways were narrow, with load-bearing masonry walls on both sides, making it a challenge to add width. To provide some visual relief and make the halls feel wider, sections of the corridor were opened to the common spaces by adding beams and columns. Additional recesses in the corridor walls were created at the entries to apartments to provide a transition zone between the public and private space and to add more visual interest in the halls.

While designers couldn’t raise the ceiling heights, they were able to use different materials such as metal panels, large-format ceiling tiles, and drywall soffits to add interest and the illusion of height changes in areas. Careful attention to lighting made the hallways feel larger while addressing the older residents’ concerns raised in the focus groups.

The owner’s desire for recessed lights to support the community’s modern, upscale aesthetic also presented a challenge, especially on the fourth floor, where the height to the underside of the roof trusses was only 7 feet 11 inches and a fire-rated ceiling was required below that. The design team solved this problem by using surface-mounted LED fixtures that give the look of recessed lights but are located below the ceiling.

To further modernize the community, this air conditioning preventive maintenance checklist recommends that the through-wall HVAC units and individual hot-water heaters in the resident apartments were to be replaced with a new central plant. Placing the equipment, piping, and ductwork throughout the building while trying to maintain ceiling heights required some creativity and coordination. The designers worked closely with the engineers to keep duct sizes as small as possible and locate the required HVAC dropped soffits in perimeter areas, so ceiling heights in the middle of rooms could remain high. Another strategy was to split the large supply and return pipes on different floors to help save ceiling space.

The location of the independent living units on the upper floors and assisted living units below also provided a logistical challenge with stacking plumbing while also routing ventilation and exhaust ductwork, required for assisted living, through the upper floors. Such problems should be left to the professional plumbers Toronto to fix. During construction, the design team discovered that the ductwork for the upper floor units wouldn’t fit perpendicularly through the floor joists as originally planned, and a new design direction had to be developed on the fly. By locating larger duct runs underneath the joists and lowering the ceiling over the toilet rooms and closet areas, multiple smaller duct runs were able to be routed to the exterior wall, fitting between joists, which kept the ceilings higher over the bedrooms and living rooms.

Worth the effort
Repositioning can be challenging in an existing building, forcing design teams to look at new solutions and find creative ways to solve unforeseen challenges that arise. This project benefitted from the owner being willing to reduce census and move all the residents out of the Elm Building to other apartments on campus during construction, which eliminated the need to phase the project and work around existing residents. Additionally, much of the structural shoring work would not have been possible to do in an occupied building.

In the end, while it certainly would have been easier to build from the ground up, it’s often challenging projects like this one that can be the most rewarding. With so many existing communities facing this same issue, providers and designers should embrace the opportunity to get creative and find ways to radically transform their existing buildings.

Amy Carpenter is an architect and vice president at SFCS Inc. (Philadelphia). She can be reached at acarpenter@sfcs.com.