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.

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.

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.

Like so many aspects of senior living, pools have evolved. No longer are these just for lounging or swimming. Increasingly, the design and features of a pool and the surroundings are carefully thought out and planned or can result in an expensive unused, and high-maintenance amenity that does little to attract prospects. Before making an investment in a pool, communities need to determine how residents want to use the amenity and what features or accessories will be needed.