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 Architect’s
Statement
Rural areas enjoy a strong sense of community.
Maintaining connection to that community is important to the
residents of Park Place at Parkside, particularly when they require
nursing care. To deinstitutionalize this elderly care campus, we
wanted to provide architectural continuity of community within a
rural context. In creating “homes” for residents, we
began to change how people viewed this facility--as a place where
you can continue to grow as a valuable member of the larger
community, instead of one in which you languish until the end of
your life. The residential scale is inviting to both the residents
and the community; creating households infuses a familial ambiance,
blurs the distinction between resident and staff, and enhances the
creative caregiving of the staff. The site provides natural outdoor
gathering spaces outdoors for all who live within the community. As
a result, Park Place is a contributing thread to the larger
community fabric.
Owner’s Statement
We needed a true culture change that would help us provide
resident-directed care and maintain our connection to the
community. The board decided to convert the existing nursing
facility into administrative offices and assisted living and add an
expanded commercial kitchen. To replace the nursing beds, five
households of nursing care would become home to 12 residents each,
helping provide true resident-directed care. We needed to
accomplish this project in phases since the loss of bed capacity
would affect us financially. We planned to construct the households
and move residents before we began renovations on the existing
nursing building.
Major Design Objectives and
Responses
Create a home for residents that offers both an extension
of their living style and a place for nursing care.
We decentralized the household to create small homes for residents
that are architecturally residential in scale, that blend into the
surrounding context, and that feature single-family-home scale and
iconography.
Create a community in which residents can actively
participate in their care provision.
Through simple activities of home living, such as cooking and
participating in outdoor activities, these homes focus on the
residents and, through the participatory nature of the built
environment, allow them to continue their life’s activities
even as their health requirements may require nursing
assistance.
 Integrate the
home into the surrounding community.
We used a residential aesthetic and scale to fully blend
the building into the surrounding community. We chose materials for
their warmth and residential quality with the palette of both color
and material reminiscent of nearby structures. Slight variations in
color and material texture from home to home add not only
individuality and variety to the neighborhood, but also a
campus-like aesthetic. Siting the homes around the perimeter of the
existing structure and decentralizing the parking diminishes the
institutional view of the existing structures from the neighborhood
and draws the neighborhood closer to the campus community.
Create a cohesive campus where residents from several levels of
care and from the community at large can interact
We assessed the viability of the existing 1960s structures and saw
that a new culture of nursing care within them was neither
appropriate nor economical. We repositioned these areas within the
new campus as community congregate spaces and as the center of the
campus community where public, resident, and staff cross paths.
This center is reinforced by the location of the homes around the
existing building, emphasizing its central location and providing
outdoor spaces that extend the community center beyond its
walls.
Specific Project Challenges and
Responses
Provide a design that will not diminish revenue stream
during construction.
We creatively positioned these homes around the existing
structure to allow construction to take place without disrupting
operations. At the completion of each home’s construction,
residents can be easily moved into them without loss of revenue. In
addition, once the first two homes are complete, we can conduct a
postoccupancy review, taking the lessons learned from these homes
and incorporating them into subsequent phases.
Appendix Material
Status of the project: Estimated completion March 1, 2006
Facility Administrator: Ms. Lu Janzen
Owner: Parkside Homes, LLC
Architect: InVision Architecture
Interior designer: InVision Architecture
Mechanical engineer: Engineering Technologies, Inc.
Electrical engineer: Engineering Technologies, Inc.
Contractor: Altman Charter Company
Construction Costs
The following information is based on a bid.
Final construction costs as of July 2005.
Building costs
Total building costs: $2,675,300
Site costs
Total site costs : $112,700
Total project costs: $3,124,600.00
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