As we gather around tables with family, friends, and loved ones this Thanksgiving, Pi Architects’ team wants to reflect on this past year's progress, growth, and purpose. This holiday is a special time to pause, appreciate what we have, and look forward with gratitude and excitement for what’s yet to come. We have so much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving. We have had the opportunity to partner with visionaries and organizations to design communities and spaces that promote comfort, purpose, and well-being. We are also incredibly fortunate to have a team of passionate, talented, and creative professionals – specialists across all major design disciplines, architecture, interior design, repositioning, development, master planning, and longevity.

Senior living construction and renovation have been bumpy in recent years. While there are still some potholes and detours, the ride is smoothing out a bit. In a recent NIC webinar, Meet Senior’s Housing’s Contrarians, some experts in the field shared their thoughts. While they offered some cautionary tales and precautions for the future, they also saw some light at the end of the tunnel. Here are just a few insights:

• Many in the industry have been hunkering down as valuations have been challenged, exit plans have been destroyed, carrying costs of non-cash-flow properties have spiked in 2023 and progressed into 2024, and the hope of a quick drop in interest rates has slowly dissipated. At the same time, some regional banks have increased regulatory requirements and higher interest rate expenses have made obtaining debt more difficult; as a result, we’ve been re-exposed to old terms such as seller financing.

In the ever-evolving landscape of senior living, staying ahead of the curve means more than just offering the best amenities and services; it is also about creating spaces that enhance the quality of life for residents while optimizing property value. It is about bringing new energy, functionality, and life into your community. That is where our

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As part of a panel on innovation in planning and design at Ziegler’s 26th Annual Senior Living Finance and Strategy Conference, Pi President Greg Hunteman, AIA, talked about disruptions shaking things up and how to make the most of challenges while embracing opportunities. “The primary challenges facing senior living are things we’ve been dealing with for a while, including staffing shortages, development costs, and preference changes leaning into active adult living,” Hunteman said. More communities are looking at an active adult/independent living mix that requires less staffing and is easier to finance but offers more opportunities to bring services to residents. Often, independent living mix involves unbundling services so residents can get as much or as little as they want or can afford, Greg noted. We also are seeing greater variety in amenities. For instance, Hunteman said, “We are creating more communities around water-based activities with amenities such as a ferry from the community to an adjacent lakeside town and boat slips and docks available to residents for their boats.”

As Baby Boomers age and start retiring there continues to be a need for senior housing, especially as Gen Xers come into the mix. Construction comes with some challenges and, increasingly, risks. Most strategic projects will involve some degree of risk. The good news is that there are ways to reduce risk and get projects delivered on time and within budget, with 90% occupancy within a year of completion.

A recent report from the McKinsey Health Institute confirms what we’ve been saying about aging and the need to create and reposition senior communities to appeal to this growing population. Findings from a survey of more than 21,000 older adults (those aged 55 and older) showed that these individuals prioritize having a purpose, managing stress, enjoying meaningful connections with others, and maintaining independence.

It is more important than ever to look around and ask, ‘Would working here bring me joy?’ People working in senior and long-term care settings have reported feelings of stress and burnout for years, let's change that! Pi's interior design team can help you reimage your spaces and help bring happiness to your team.

A key goal when designing a garden or outdoor space for people with cognitive impairment is to keep these individuals safe and comfortable. Outdoor areas should meet the resident’s needs for engagement, physical activity, mental stimulation, and fun while still meeting the safeguards of the community. Many outdoor areas are fenced for the resident’s safety, however, using hedges that blend into the environment can create a relaxing space without making the resident feel confined.

Changing trends, some ongoing challenges, and cautious optimism are on the agenda for senior living industry leaders, and Pi’s Greg Hunteman and a panel of experts addressed all of these during “Emerging Trends in Operations, Development, Repositioning,” a Good People Power Talk program.

When you talk to people living with dementia and their families, it is clear that they face numerous challenges. However, there are no easy solutions. It isn’t always desirable to go into a nursing home or even an assisted living facility, and it can be difficult to keep them at home. We can help by creating and promoting design elements that make it safe and comfortable for individuals with dementia and their families wherever they are.

The popularity of pickleball is estimated to have grown nearly 40% between 2019 and 2021. More than 36.5 million people played the sport between August 2021 and 2022.

It’s clear that pickleball is here to stay and I have to admit I’ve joined the revolution. It’s a great way to get exercise and have fun!

Writer E.M. Forster once said, “What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives?” That is the essence of why people seek places. By nature, people are attracted to integrating indoor and outdoor spaces, with easy access to biking/walking paths, hiking trails, dog parks, and pools.

Boomers coming to senior living surprises no one. Still, there are some ‘aha’ moments regarding precisely who they are, what they want, and how to design communities that will appeal to them and the Gen Xers coming behind them.

Take a look at some data from a recent survey report, on boomers and the future of senior living.

A friend once told me about visiting the Jersey Shore as a kid and seeing huge old mansions converted into retirement homes. Every summer, there would be dozens of residents sitting in rocking chairs on the porch, taking in the sites of the bustling beach community. These people, she estimated, were between 60 and 80 years old for the most part. Today, the statistics show that people of this age are doing anything but sitting on the porch; and senior communities need more rock and roll than rocking chairs to appeal to residents.

Master planning is like knowing in advance where all the pieces go before you start the puzzle. More precisely, it is a vision and a road map built from the information and optics of a community’s operations, market needs and standards, and cost realities that must all be harmoniously combined with inspiration.

Make no mistake. While master planning builds on what has and hasn’t worked in the past and uses these to create a strategy and a template for success, this is by no means a rubber stamp or a cookie-cutter approach to design. With master planning, you save the time, money, and challenges involved in trying to reinvent the wheel for every project. However, the wheel remains unique for each building.

Inflation and interest rates remain high, but there are still ways to build without breaking the bank. Reusing successful designs is one solution that can save time and money, but don’t think that means you can’t have a building with its unique look and personality. We sat down with Jeff Mock, Vice President of Clancy & Theys, to talk about how to make use of design standardization and prototypes.

On the west coast of southern Florida, there’s a vibrant and buzzing community of seniors at Verena at Delray. The renovation and redesign of the building was an opportunity to make the atmosphere reflect the energy of the residents. From jazz band concerts to poker nights, this community is lively and dynamic in its social activity.

In collaboration with True Connection Communities and the Green Courte development team, Pi Architects determined that the interiors of the existing building needed help with functionality and intentional design that reflected how residents truly used the space, and in some cases, whether they used certain spaces at all.

Zach Bowyer, MAI, MRICS, senior managing director, valuation & advisory/living sectors at C&W, told Pi, “Our same-store valuation data does suggest year-over-year improvement in operating margins, which is a combination of improved occupancy, rent growth, and improving labor market. However, continued innovations in technology, healthcare provider partnerships and building envelope will be required in order to regain pre-COVID operating margins.”

Pi Architects agrees a design prototype brings all the players together and puts them on the same page, using proven data and experiences to enhance scheduling, costs, roles, and accountability. New clients can tour existing communities created using a similar template/prototype. “It’s like walking through a model home. Clients can visit an existing community and see what they are getting,” said Mark Warrick, Vice President of Pi Architects.

Senior living is much more complex, varied, and creative than ever, and residents and their families expect diverse and numerous amenities. Innovation and flexibility are keys to thriving in this evolving market, and both come into play with the successful integration of independent living into assisted living, the topic of a recent TALAHour webinar hosted by Misty Powell, Chief Program Officer/Co-Founder of Civitas Senior Living, and Greg Hunteman, President of Pi Architects. The two hosts, both TALA members and frequent collaborators on several projects, talked about the different models of integration, the advantages and challenges of each, and how to make them successful for the needs of residents, community operations, and cost-effectiveness.