Senior Housing News: Pope Architects’ Senior Living design team uses creative reinvention

Tuesday, November 1st, 2016

Senior Housing News highlighted the creative uses of salvaged materials by Senior Interior Designer Jill Schroeder and the Pope Architects’ housing team, in its Innovation Series features. 

In the piece, One Man’s Trash is Senior Living’s Design Treasure, Schroeder discussed how repurposing salvaged materials, like old farm windmills, nostalgic car doors and barn wood boards, can enhance a community’s design aesthetic, as well as help residents recall familiar items and memories from their lives.

“This approach to repurposing salvaged materials supports the notion that innovative interior design allows residents to celebrate life while remembering the past,” said Schroeder, Senior Interior Designer for Pope Architects.

This design approach takes special coordination to ensure resident safety, project schedule and budget guidelines. One example is Tabitha’s GracePointe Senior Living is a community in Lincoln, Nebraska designed by Pope Architects.

Senior Housing News spoke to Jennifer Knecht with Tabitha, which oversees GracePointe. “Planning from the very beginning to include these types of items allowed us to weigh in on the value of salvaged materials and enabled us to allot for the proper time to refurbish some items,” said Knecht.

GracePointe won an NAHB Housing Innovation award in 2012 for its innovative interior design approach. GracePointe was designed for the special needs of residents with Alzheimer’s or Dementia, with a unique twist by replicating and embracing the 1940s and 50s. Each household provides a protected, comfortable, therapeutic environment that helps residents maintain dignity and self-esteem. 

Pope Architects often utilizes the help of West End Salvage, a Des Moines, Iowa-based architectural salvage company that creates key pieces for the senior living communities. You can read more about this partnership, including a feature on a 2013 HGTV show, by clicking on this link.

Check out some of the senior living communities that incorporate the reinvention of salvaged materials:

 

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