Madison consultant advances new design concepts in $60M Portland senior housing project
By Karen Rivedal, The Wisconsin State Journal | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
"With so much of existing senior housing, you can drive by and think, 'Oh, that's senior housing,'" Witz said. "The current generation isn't thrilled with that and I know the next generation of seniors is not going to stand for it."
At
About 40 of the new units will be grouped in small communities known as "pocket neighborhoods" meant to emulate single-family housing. There will be about five units per one-story building, all featuring private front entrances that open to a shared themed garden space. That way, Witz said, neighbors socialize not in building hallways but on front porches and central open spaces.
"It creates more of an intimate residential neighborhood feel," Witz said. "The pockets bring the units closer together, but (residents) each have their own home."
The other new design element will be independent-living apartments on the top floor of mixed-use buildings to be built along a new "
This approach, coupled with the pocket neighborhoods, will create a more appealing community for current and future generations of more active, independent seniors, Witz said, "rather than just building more large apartment buildings with double-loaded hallways."
Witz said the concept of pocket neighborhoods in senior housing with shared outdoor garden spaces started in the
Besides the work of Witz's company, other local ties to the
Witz has described his work for developers as a process of systematically working through and monitoring the design, marketing, financials and construction of projects, from concept through completion.
Witz, a
In 2009 in
Witz described the market as good but not great for continuing care retirement communities, which provide a full-spectrum of housing options for seniors from independent living to assisted living to nursing care.
"It's not as frothy as the apartment world," he said. "I'm seeing activity, but it's still cautious and conservative, and I'm completely fine with that. I've seen projects being built. I'm keeping really busy and the demographics certainly are in our favor. It's just not crazy-busy the way it was before everything (crashed.) I'm still not seeing speculative projects."
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