By Jack Cumming
Have you noticed how boring modern apartment buildings are? It’s as though architectural schools only taught industrial design. I’ve never wanted to live in a factory. But architects regularly display pictures of factory-like dwellings with pride. Don’t they know better? My best guess is that most architects wouldn’t want to live in the multi-family buildings they design, including those lookalike designs for senior living.
The Attraction of “Aging in Place”
I grew up in a single-family house on Tillou Road in South Orange, NJ. It was a lonely childhood. You don’t have the kind of neighborhood abounding with children that less isolated, urban living offers. What I remember particularly was walking home from the Village Center past an apartment house at the corner of South Orange Avenue and Ridgewood Road across the street from the church our family attended.
As a child, I always thought it would be wonderful to live in a building like that. It was sturdily built with brick, which meant it wouldn’t burn like our neighbor’s house did after she fell asleep while smoking in bed. Moreover, it had inviting windowed corners, which I thought would be nice for dining with a view. Plus, in my childish imagination, a building like that with many families would likely have children I could play with.
Recently, I checked Google, and that inviting building is still there, though the windows now have air conditioners in them. When I was growing up during World War II, air conditioning was rare. I zoomed in on a sign and found that the building is called “The Ridgewood Apartments.” Not too imaginative. In front of the name sign was another smaller sign, “Please pick up after your pet.” I don’t remember that from my childhood either.
Beyond Rectilinear and Massive
Returning to the here and now from that reverie of long ago, I thought how nice it would be to have the industrial lines of modern senior living buildings broken up with bay-window niches or other minor touches to make a building interesting and a place where a resident might feel pride in residence. Instead, senior living buildings shout, “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.” Architects and marketing departments can try to spin it otherwise, but the evidence of monetized old age is everywhere.
These thoughts flooded my mind after I watched a recent video about a more imaginative living possibility. It’s been some time since I wrote of the Villa Vie Odyssey, the affordable residential cruise ship that has many similarities to senior living. I had to wonder why senior living developers don’t learn from material like this. Does a development mindset create Scrooge McDuck out of the creative wonder of Donald Duck and the magic that imagination can bring?
Learning From an Alternative
The insight is that most of the same things that make shipboard life attractive are no different from what can make senior living attractive. Moreover, many things that make senior living less attractive are not present on the Villa Vie. The presenter details the pros and cons of ship life. Here are some of the pros, reconstituted as potentialities for senior living.
- Community & People: Residents and staff are exceptionally friendly, welcoming, and hardworking. The [executive director] is communicative and advocates for residents.
Notes: There is no mention of corporate here, though it’s inferred. The experience is unique to the local community, and either that community rises or it falls. The smaller the corporate staff, the more there is for the local community. Sales and marketing, though, for the Villa Vie Odyssey are at the corporate level.
- Food: Plentiful options (buffet, made-to-order pasta/omelets, grill) with breakfast, lunch, and dinner included. Caters to various diets (vegetarian, gluten-free, sugar-free).
Notes: Our cruiser lists food as number 2 after co-residents and staff, and that is probably the right priority. Food service is both a big expense and a big attraction for CCRCs. Wait staff can be a major expense, so it’s notable that the buffet is mentioned. Cruises are known for their buffets. Senior living less so. The cultural trend, though, is toward less formality and more plenty.
The cruiser continues detailing further features of the Villa Vie experience that make it attractive. These have direct parallels in senior living. She praises (1) the bundling that makes living “all-Inclusive and affordable”, (2) convenience, (3) inclusion of a business center, (4) no exclusions but a natural bend toward adults over children, etc., and (5) opportunities to give back to those less fortunate.
Click here for the whole discussion of insightful pros and cons about living on a cruise ship. After all, senior living hospitality is often compared with life on a cruise ship. Note that the cruiser was offered a three-month trial residence before having to make a larger commitment.
