1. Older folks like tech toys, too ; And companies are providing
them
USA Today
Older adults/ Technology
1/9/09
Edward C
Baig
2. Sometimes it takes a Village to age safely at home
Chicago Tribune
Aging in Place/ NORC/ Chicago
1/4/09
By Jane
Adler
3. Scaling back is here, and now
Chicago
Tribune
Housing trends/ Baby boomers
1/11/09
Mary Umberger
4. Home Care in New York
New York Times
Home
Healthcare/ NY
1/28/09
Letter to the editor
5. Municipal planners prepare to meet needs of aging
population
Philadelphia Inquirer
NORCs/ Aging in
Place
1/21/09
By Cynthia Henry
6. Advances in Senior Living; Motion Sensors, Other Devices
Aimed at Extending Independence
Washington Post
Aging in
Place
2/1/09
Alan Scher Zagier
7. Owners adapt homes to age gracefully with them
Chicago Tribune
Aging in Place
2/1/09
By Linda Laudato
8. Home Is Where They Help You Move
Washington
Post
Senior living
2/2/09
Thomas Heath
9. This is not your father's old folks home; Boomers' active
lifestyles redefining 55-plus housing
Chicago Tribune
Aging in
place
3/6/09
By John Handley, SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE
10. Transit service is getting going ITN SARASOTA: New program
will offer rides and freedom to seniors
Sarasota
Herald-Tribune
Senior transportation/ Sarasota JFS
1/27/09
KEVIN L
McQUAID
11. IN BRIEF
Washington Post
Aging in Place/
Dupont Circle
2/12/09
D.C Extra section
12. Levy in tune with buyers' needs
Chicago
Tribune
Aging in place
2/13/09
By Leslie Mann, Special to the Tribune
13. On second thought, no grab bars; Younger and older Baby
Boomers are set to shake up the housing industry. So what do they want?
Chicago Tribune
Baby boomers/ Aging in Place/ Housing
2/6/09
By
John Handley, Special to the Tribune
14. Let Old Age Come: She's All Set
New York
Times
Aging in Place
2/19/09
By JOYCE WADLER
15. Simple steps at home can prevent falls; Lots of risks come
into play in the bedroom, bathroom or kitchen
Chicago
Tribune
Aging in place
2/20/09
By Francine Parnes, Associated Press
16. What's new in high-rise buildings: A skyscraper designed for
seniors
Chicago Tribune
Baby boomers
2/23/09
By Blair
Kamin, TRIBUNE CRITIC
17. Meanwhile, back at the ranch; One-story design draws
empty-nesters, first-timers
Chicago Tribune
Baby boomers/ ranch
houses
2/27/09
By John Handley, SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE
18. MCCOLLUM ANNOUNCES OVER $23 MILLION FOR MN PROJECTS
States News Service
Aging in Place Allocations/
Minnesota
2/27/09
Office of Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum
MONEY
Older folks like tech toys, too ; And companies are
providing them
Edward C Baig
1661 words
8 January
2009
USA Today
FINAL
B.1
English
© 2009 USA Today. Provided by
ProQuest Information and Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Health issues forced
Ted Campbell, 79, to give up real bowling in 1965. But Campbell, a resident of
the Greenspring retirement community in Springfield, Va., bowls all the time now
-- on a Nintendo Wii video game system in a bowling league he organized at
Greenspring.
Seniors like Campbell are helping dispel an age-old
stereotype: that folks getting up in years have little or no interest in the
latest technology. Video games, PCs, cellphones and such can help keep minds and
bodies sharp. Tech companies are starting to pay closer attention to the mature
market, and to folks with physical disabilities.
The topic of technology
and aging takes center stage this weekend at the Consumer Electronics Show in
Las Vegas. On Saturday, CES hosts the first Silvers Summit, a showcase for
products and services dedicated to keeping aging Boomers engaged, entertained
and healthy. The day-long exhibition will feature speakers and/or product
demonstrations from AARP, gaming giant Electronic Arts, Google, Hewlett-Packard,
Intel, Microsoft and Qualcomm, among others. Sessions will address everything
from online dating after 50 to home monitoring of elderly
relatives.
According to Forrester Research, U.S. adults 64 and older who
bought technology in a recent three-month period spent an average $365 on
consumer electronics products and $429 on computer hardware and peripherals. And
Forrester points out that Americans 55 to 64 are more active in online finance,
shopping and entertainment than those under 55.
EA says about a third of
visitors to its Pogo.com puzzle, word and board game site are Boomers or older
who say they play Pogo games to keep their minds sharp. Howard Byck, senior vice
president of lifestyle products at AARP, says its own gaming area (Sudoku,
Solitaire, etc.) is the most-visited part of aarp.org. He says 7 million Boomers
without kids at home have video game systems.
At Greenspring, more than
200 people bowl on 30 teams in the Wii league, some bowling from electric carts,
walkers or wheelchairs. Campbell reckons the average age is 82 or 83, the oldest
a woman in her mid-90s. The biggest benefit is the social function, he says, and
the opportunity "to do some exercise that they didn't do before."
And
Mary Furlong, 60, a marketing consultant, says Boomers will never be seniors in
the traditional sense. "Hell, no, they won't go," she says of Boomers trying to
resist old age. "We text, we Skype, we Twitter," says Furlong.
Subtle
tweaks for ease of use
"It is absolutely a business opportunity," says HP's
Michael Takemura, director of the company's accessibility program, which
develops products for people with disabilities and age-related limitations. Some
of HP's product designs are subtle. Notebooks have single rather than dual
latches so they can be opened with one hand. Desktop displays have dual hinges
that can be lowered to accommodate people with multifocal lenses.
How HP
and other tech companies are luring Boomers and, in some cases, their
parents:
*Senior-friendly computers. HP and Microsoft are teaming on the
SeniorPC. These are standard HP laptops, desktops or TouchSmart
(touch-controlled) computers with a few extras. Notably: software that adds a
shell on top of Windows with simple icons for browsing the Web, listening to
music and sending e-mail. HP also includes memory games and
prescriptions-management software to help track when and which medications are
taken. Buyers can outfit the machines with options (some from third parties)
such as a larger keyboard or trackball mouse.
For its part, Microsoft is
improving the screen magnifier built inside Windows 7, the next version of its
operating system. It can magnify video for the first time and magnify the entire
screen as opposed to just a smaller window.
In recent years, Microsoft
has also addressed some of the marketing challenges associated with
accessibility and aging. In Windows XP, the company used a wheelchair icon and
the term "accessibility" in the control panel. But people without a disability
felt it didn't apply to them. So Microsoft removed the wheelchair icon in
Windows Vista and Windows 7 and changed the language to "ease of
access."
*Smartphones for older people. The ClarityLife C900 from Clarity
isn't going to wow crowds like an iPhone. And at $270 for an "unlocked" phone,
or one not tied to a specific carrier, it isn't cheap. But the handset could be
a smart choice for grandparents. It has a large, easy-to-read display and big
buttons to simplify dialing. The sound is amplified, making it twice as loud,
the company claims, as an ordinary cellphone.
A one-touch
emergency-response button on the back of the phone lets seniors quickly summon
assistance; the phone calls and texts up to five contacts, cycling through each
until someone is reached. A siren lets users know the feature has been
activated.
Clarity President Carsten Trads says that 85% to 90% of the
company's users are 65 or older.
Clarity's chief competitor may be the
Jitterbug phone made by Samsung. It has hearing aid compatibility and a
noise-reduction cushion, and it's backed by round-the-clock U.S.-based customer
service. Jitterbug reps can add numbers to the seniors' contact list remotely.
Jitterbug has bright and comfortable keys. Rate plans for the $147 device (no
contract required) start at $10 a month.
CEO David Inns says the company
plans to add an Extra Care bundle that will include emergency roadside
assistance and a live nurse feature. "Safety and security is the concern of this
demographic," he says, "not games and TV on the phone."
The sweet-spot
customer for the Jitterbug is 55 to 75. Still, Inns resists the senior-only
label. "At the end of the day, what we want to be is a simple and elegant
solution for everybody," he says.
*Keeping mind and body sharp.
Microsoft's HealthVault and Google's Google Health provide free online
repositories for personal health information (patient records, medicines, etc.).
Patients get to decide with whom to share the information.
Prescription
info might be imported from the pharmacy, or data can be uploaded from blood
pressure cuffs, heart rate monitors and so forth. Google Health lets patients
tap into third-party resources such as the Cleveland Clinic or TrialX.org (for
finding clinical trials based on personal health information).
"This is a
brand-new area. We don't know exactly how to get it right," says Roni Zeiger, a
Google Health product manager and physician. Indeed, both the Google and
Microsoft sites are still in beta, or test mode.
The $199 EmWave Personal
Stress Reliever from HeartMath is an iPod-size monitoring tool that uses colored
lights to give real- time feedback on the stress in your body. More important,
says CEO Bruce Cryer, is that you learn how to get yourself into a more
stress-free zone. "The core science behind it is very solid," Cryer says of the
2-year-old product. "Our business even in a down economic year is
growing."
Dakim's Brain Fitness system is meant to combat dementia
through challenging and fun memory games and other cognitive exercises. The
$6,000 touch-screen, Linux-based computer appliance was sold initially to
senior-living providers, with a $1,200 yearly fee for up to 20 users. But a
$2,500 home version is coming (with a $600 yearly fee for two users). The
machine runs the company's proprietary customizable software but is not a
regular PC. In one game, seniors are asked what they remember from movie clips
shown from the 1930s and 1940s.
One of the most intriguing technologies
comes from Proteus Biomedical in Redwood City, Calif. The company can add an
ingestible microchip to a capsule or tablet, without altering the medicine. It's
made of food ingredients.
When you swallow the pill, it becomes
electronically active and can send a signal through your body that looks like an
EKG. It can be detected by a special, small bandage that might transmit data to
a cellphone. Qualcomm is helping connect the special bandage to 3G phone
networks. Caregivers or relatives will know when and what pills patients have
taken or if the patients failed to take their medications.
The technology
is in human trials. "We believe we have figured out a way for us to bring this
to market with a wide variety of pharmaceutical products," perhaps by 2011 or
2012, says Proteus CEO Andy Thompson. Cost: fractions of a penny per
pill.
Keeping it simple
While many Baby Boomers have grown comfortable
in the digital age, the same cannot always be said of their elderly parents.
Just 43% of seventysomethings surveyed by Compete and the Consumer Electronics
Association expect to purchase consumer electronics over the next 12 months,
compared with 66% of those 18 to 34.
And only 8% of those in their 70s
said they used a social- networking site in the week before they were asked,
compared with 51% of those 18 to 34.
There's another reality: Even elders
fluent in bits and bytes inevitably find it more difficult to hear or to see as
they get older. And people in their 50s and 60s are more put off by products
with too many features, buttons that are too small or confusing terminology,
according to the CEA/Compete study.
Ferndale, Mich., start-up Myine
Electronics is focusing on products with fewer features. "Our motto is. 'Less is
more,' " says founder Jake Sigal, inventor of the USB turntable.
At the
Silvers Summit, Sigal will show off one of his latest inventions, a kind of TiVo
for radio called the Abbee Commercial- Free FM radio. The $250 machine promises
to record FM radio while automatically removing commercials and deejay
chatter.
PHOTO, Color, Jack Gruber, USA TODAY; PHOTO, B/W, Jack Gruber,
USA TODAY
55 PLUS @ HOME
House & Homes
Sometimes it takes a
Village to age safely at home
By Jane Adler, Special to the Tribune
925 words
4 January 2009
Chicago
Tribune
Final
10
English
Copyright 2009, Chicago Tribune. All Rights
Reserved.
Neighbors helping neighbors as they age in place: That's the
basic principle behind Lincoln Park Village, Chicago's first intentional
community.
The Village won't be up and running until later this year, but
the idea for the community was started several years ago by three Lincoln Park
couples. "We had questions about where we would live as our abilities
diminished," said Katherine Zartman, one of the founders.
She and her
husband, Jim, had looked at retirement communities, but they really didn't want
to leave their Lincoln Park home of 48 years. Others shared their feelings.
"Lincoln Park is a wonderful place to live," said Katherine. "We wanted to stay
in our homes if we could."
The couples had read about Beacon Hill
Village, the nation's first intentional community created by neighbors in Boston
about eight years ago. Beacon Hill now has 500 members, and the movement has
grown to about 14 other intentional communities operating across the
country.
Each couple kicked in $100 to buy a manual produced by Beacon
Hill Village on how to start an intentional village. "We were on our way," said
Katherine.
Lincoln Park Village will be available to residents of the
60614 ZIP code, age 50 or older, who will pay an annual fee to join. The
membership rate hasn't been set, but most intentional communities charge from
about $400 to $600 a year. Reduced-fee memberships may be available, village
founders say.
In return, residents can get transportation, help with
household chores and referrals to services such as contractors, dog walkers and
assistance in an emergency.
Members volunteer their time. A small paid
staff provides added services, and some duties are performed by
professionals.
Aging Baby Boomers generally like the idea of an
intentional community, said Andrea Cohen, CEO at HouseWorks, a home-care
provider that works with Beacon Hill Village. "Boomers don't want to age the way
their parents did. They want a new kind of retirement." She says intentional
communities offer an alternative to a formal retirement building and give
members a chance to invest in their own neighborhoods and to provide each other
with assistance.
After holding small preliminary meetings for about 18
months, Lincoln Park Village held its first public meeting last October. About
200 Lincoln Park residents attended the forum at the Victory Garden Biograph
Theater. About 140 of those who attended the meeting said they'd like to join
the Village, and 75 people offered to volunteer their services.
"The
response was great," said Dianne Campbell, executive director of Lincoln Park
Village. "There's a real hunger for community and a little bit of
old-fashioned-ness about it."
Like many others, Campbell has her own story to
tell about how she got interested in intentional communities. She came home
after she had been in the hospital with a brain tumor, and her husband had to go
out of town. "I thought it would be great to ask neighbors for help, and you
know they would like to help, but I was hesitant to ask. An intentional
community is a great idea," said Campbell.
Besides offering seniors a
variety of services, the Village will also provide a ready-made social
network.
"Isolation is a killer," said Campbell.
The Village will
facilitate programs such as a dining-out group for those who want to go out to
eat but have no companion. Other groups will be formed around shared interests,
such as bird watching or going to the theater or movies.
Close-knit
Lincoln Park may be a good place for an intentional community. The neighborhood
has about 67,000 residents, according to the latest U.S. Census. About 9,000 of
the residents are age 55 or older. Campbell hopes to recruit about 500 members.
That should be the right number of participants to provide enough volunteers
without becoming so big that people don't know each other.
Gale Klein is
typical of the volunteers who already donate time to Lincoln Park Village. She's
lived with her husband, John, for the last 21 years in a three-story walk-up
built in 1898 on Geneva Terrace. "It's getting harder and harder to carry the
groceries up," said Gale, who worked 30 years in human resources for Cook
County.
Her work experience is coming in handy. Gale is writing job
descriptions for the Village, detailing the duties of various volunteer
positions. Eventually, she says she would like to work in the Village office,
scheduling volunteers and handling other administrative jobs.
Gale likes the
idea that she can get help in return. She'll be able to call the Village office
and get someone to shovel her walk, or get help with errands. Or in an
emergency, call a neighbor or a doctor.
"Chicago is one of the best
cities in the country. The Village is a great opportunity to stay where you
are," she said.
----------
house&homes@tribune.com
Are
you in 60614?
To build on the momentum started by a recent town hall meeting,
Lincoln Park Village will distribute 3,000 surveys in the 60614 ZIP code in
mid-January. The survey also can be filled out on the Village Web site,
lincolnparkvillage.org.
Diane Campbell, executive director of Lincoln Park
Village, became interested in the concept of an intentional community following
a hospital stay.
In the Market
House & Homes
Scaling back is here, and
now
Mary Umberger
752 words
11 January 2009
Chicago
Tribune
Final
1
English
Copyright 2009, Chicago Tribune. All Rights
Reserved.
Another vote has been cast for the likelihood of "small" being
the next big thing.
In this case, though, the voter isn't saying it's
something that's going to happen -- he's saying it's happening right now, and it
represents the tilt of yet another economic domino.
But I appear to be
betting ahead of myself here. My Dec. 28 column focused on an interview with Tom
Stephani, a Crystal Lake builder who said he's getting ready to end his
home-building hiatus and start specializing in smaller, greener homes near
public transportation.
The way Stephani figures it, in the coming year,
Baby Boomers will be ready to downsize and ditch their heavy property-tax bills.
But they'll want their new homes to be environmentally smart, and they'll want
easy transit in order to be able to get around. Bye-bye, big subdivisions in
isolated areas, he said; hello, infill projects in established, economically
viable suburbs and neighborhoods.
No sooner had I hit the "send" button
on the Stephani column than I heard from a player at another spot on the real
estate spectrum who was calling to tell me much the same thing -- except he says
the ball is already in motion.
Downsizing is weighing suddenly on a lot
of minds, my caller said. "Green" motivations may be all well and good, but to
invoke a famous political punch line -- it's the economy, stupid.
"It's a
value play, it's a cash-flow play," said Jim Kinney, president of Rubloff
Residential Properties in Chicago.
Kinney says his brokerage's phone is
ringing with consumers of a certain age who want to sell their homes -- and soon
-- and replace them with something smaller.
"Trading down is the whole
new thing," said the head of the Gold Coast-based brokerage. "We just had a
whole bunch of listings and there are a whole bunch coming on the market soon.
Every single one said, we're tightening in, we want to trade down. People are
worried about cash flow."
Kinney said that although a downsizing trend
had been predicted for years, the housing boom derailed it.
"There was an
expectation that Baby Boomers and empty nesters would go into a smaller space,
but it went contrary," he said. Flush with profits from selling their existing
homes and fueled with cheap mortgages, they moved up to larger spaces
instead.
But suddenly, the bottom line is speaking to them with a whole
new voice.
"Now, people are suddenly more sensitive to how much the tax
is and how much [homeowners' association] assessments are," he said. "Before,
they didn't really care -- they figured that when they sold, the capital gains
would cover those past carrying costs."
No more, he said. These sellers are
definitely feeling leaner times, and cheap -- or cheaper -- is the word. Some of
them are talking about renting instead of re-buying, in order to keep cash at
hand, he said.
And whole new neighborhoods have opened up to the
downsizing city dwellers -- thanks to the transit fiat of Gov. Rod Blagojevich
(seniors ride free program), Kinney said.
"The older crowd, now that
they're able to ride the bus for free, they're willing to look farther afield
for a place to live," he said.
But don't presume these sellers will be
entirely forthright about their motivation.
"There's a shiver running
through this," Kinney said. "There's enough ego to go around that people don't
want to be seen as wounded birds.
"I've talked literally to dozens of
sellers who are in this position," he said. "They don't want to be perceived
that they've lost money. They preface it with, 'We feel it's time that we cut
out the waste [in our housing], and we don't need this, we don't need that.'
They want to make it sound like it's just a transition."
So, here's the
new downsizing rationale, Kinney said: Everybody's doing it.
"Once it's
perceived that way, everyone can buy into the trend," he
said.
----------
Hear Mary Umberger at 12:49 and 11:15 p.m. Tuesdays and
Thursdays and at 10:30 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays on WGN-AM 720. Write to her
at: House & Homes, Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611
or e-mail housingnews@comcast.net.
LETTER
Editorial Desk; SECT
Home Care in New York
195 words
28 January 2009
The New York Times
The New York Times on
the Web
English
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company. All Rights
Reserved.
To the Editor:
Re ''Change in Rules May Pose Stark Choice
for the Chronically Ill'' (news article, Jan. 24):
Painful enough is the
heartbreak that couples feel when one spouse falls chronically ill.
So as not
to worsen the pain, President Obama must strike a Bush-era reinterpretation of
federal law that would force 3,000 New York couples to make a harsh choice:
Either live together in poverty while obtaining needed care at home, or else
admit the ailing spouse into a nursing home, in which case Medicaid would
protect more of the couple's income for the spouse living in the
community.
Chronically ill patients deserve a true option to obtain care
at home. By eliminating long-established parity of income protection for home
care patients, such a ruling undermines the critical work of the Long Term Home
Health Care Program, which serves 25,000 nursing-home-eligible patients in New
York in their own homes at 50 percent of the cost of institutional
care.
Joanne Cunningham
Albany, Jan. 26, 2009
The writer is
president of the Home Care Association of New York State.
SOUTH JERSEY; P-com News Local
Municipal planners prepare to
meet needs of aging population
By Cynthia Henry
Inquirer Staff
Writer
912 words
21 January 2009
The Philadelphia
Inquirer
JERSEY-D
B01
English
(c) Copyright 2009, Philadelphia
Newspapers. All Rights Reserved.
Sylvia Denbo, 89, has spent 35 years
"aging in place" at the Towers at Windsor Park in Cherry Hill.
Her
neighbor Sue Rose, 93, has been at the towers for 25 years and needs a walker to
get around. Barbara Haskel, 77, has lived there for 27 years.
Though the
complex off Chapel Avenue is home to tenants from a range of ages, races and
religions, its concentration of older adults qualifies it as a "naturally
occurring retirement community" (NORC).
Jewish Family and Children's
Services of Southern New Jersey has set up an on-site office, complete with
nurse and social worker, to help older tenants of all faiths with their needs.
Rose depends on the agency's in-house nurse to monitor her medical
care.
Under the tenants' direction, the office, known as Cherry Hill
Senior Life, organizes activities, including Wii bowling, an art-appreciation
group, and a weekly dinner, that have transformed the towers into a haven for
"people in their second childhood," jokes Harold Heine, 96.
NORCs with
localized services are among many options - including shared housing for
seniors, homes with in-law suites, elder-friendly interior design, and more
hospitable outdoor environments - that municipal planners must consider as the
proportion of elderly in the nation rapidly increases, say two local authorities
on aging.
Between now and 2030, the number of Americans 65 years and
older will double to more than 70 million, according to Delaware Valley Regional
Planning Commission statistics.
"It's going to be scary when we have the
state of Florida in all 50 states," said Jack Carman of Medford, owner of Design
for Generations, which creates therapeutic gardens and landscapes for senior
communities and health-care facilities.
Carman, a landscape architect,
and his wife, Nancy, a gerontologist, are authors of the recently published
Re-creating Neighborhoods for Successful Aging. Their collaborators are Pauline
S. Abbott, director of the Institute of Gerontology at California State
University, Fullerton, and Bob Scarfo, a landscape architect and social
geographer at the University of Washington-Spokane.
"Our neighborhoods
were created for people in their 20s and 30s," said Jack Carman. "They're for
people who can fully function."
"A lot of seniors are 'overhoused' -
still living in the four-bedroom house where they raised their families," said
Peter Kasabach, executive director of the smart-growth group New Jersey
Future.
Many struggle with yard work and housekeeping. Shopping,
socializing and getting to doctors' offices become difficult when they no longer
drive.
Some municipalities, including Collingswood, have incorporated
senior housing into their "town center" makeovers, so older residents can
downsize without leaving town, said Kasabach, former policy chief for the New
Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency. A walkable downtown works for all
ages, he said.
But others, such as Medford, the Carmans said, lack
sidewalks and adequate lighting for walking or biking.
"You don't want
people to become prisoners of their own homes," said Nancy Carman, director of
marketing services for New Life Management & Development Inc. in Mount
Laurel, a consultant on continuing-care retirement communities.
Most
55-and-older neighborhoods are designed for "active" adults, Jack Carman said.
Homes have master bedrooms and bathrooms on the main floor, but they often have
steps or doorways that are difficult to negotiate for those who use a walker or
wheelchair.
Jennifer Weiss, executive director of Jewish Family Services,
foresees two trends: Quality nursing homes will become harder to get into, and
more people will choose to remain in their homes.
"Assisted living is
almost passe," she said. "People want to own their own little piece of the
world."
Developers couldn't build enough retirement complexes to
accommodate the nation's aging boomers, anyway.
In the Philadelphia
region, one in five residents will be over 65 in 2025, according to the regional
planning commission.
In New Jersey, Burlington County will experience the
most dramatic demographic shift, with the number of senior citizens climbing
from 53,000 in 2000 to 107,000, the commission predicted. In Pennsylvania, Bucks
and Chester Counties will see the largest increase in elderly.
In a down
economy, many seniors cannot afford to relocate, the experts said.
Weiss said
many of her clients are stuck in the middle - too wealthy for Medicaid but
unable to pay the monthly fees at assisted-living and continuing-care
facilities. That leaves them seeking other options.
The Carmans' book
suggests communal elder residences or in-law suites, but many towns would need
to amend their zoning regulations to permit such arrangements.
They also
recommend builders follow universal design standards that incorporate ramps,
handrails and wider doorways.
Outdoors, crosswalks should be wider and
traffic lights should be calibrated to give slower-moving pedestrians time to
cross the street, Jack Carman said. Older people are more likely to exercise on
pathways that have shade and benches, he said.
"Our goal is to allow
people to age gracefully, safely and independently in their homes," said Gail
Belfer, director of senior services for Jewish Family Services. But "suburbia
isn't set up for seniors," and services are hard to deliver, particularly for
those who live far from population centers.
With the coming retirement
boom, these issues may get the government attention they need "if louder voices
get raised," Belfer said.
Contact staff writer Cynthia Henry at
856-779-3970 or chenry@phillynews.com.
Document
PHLI000020090121e51l0000m
A Section
Advances in Senior Living; Motion Sensors, Other
Devices Aimed at Extending Independence
Alan Scher Zagier
Associated Press
757 words
1 February 2009
The Washington
Post
FINAL
A13
English
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post Co. All
Rights Reserved
After back-to-back hospital visits for congestive heart
failure, Eva Olweean figured her health was back to normal. But the nurses at
her retirement home knew better: Motion sensors in the 86-year-old's bed
detected restless nights.
Tiny sensors hover unobtrusively over the
toilet, shower and doorways to detect Olweean's movements inside her apartment.
Pneumatic tubes tucked in the mattress and beneath her easy chair measure weight
shifts. Caregivers and researchers at the University of Missouri at Columbia
study the data, noting changes in behavior that could signal medical
problems.
Recognizing the coming "silver tsunami" of graying baby
boomers, tech companies are racing to help aging Americans spend more time
living independently instead of in nursing homes. For the first time, the
International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this month featured a
special section devoted to high-tech senior living.
Among the advances at
the show were motion sensors, the kind that allowed Olweean's
nurses to
figure out what was keeping her up at night. She was experiencing excessive
bloating, a common symptom of congestive heart failure. So Olweean's
cardiologist prescribed diuretics and made other adjustments to her medication
that helped the woman again sleep soundly.
"We try to identify when those
small problems occur, so we can fix them before they become big problems," said
Marjorie Skubic, an electrical and computer engineering professor who works with
Sinclair School of Nursing researchers on the aging-in-place project.
At
Oatfield Estates in the Portland suburb of Milwaukie, Ore., resident movements
in the private retirement home are tracked by what employees call "bed bugs."
Those are embedded motion sensors that detect when someone's behavior could
trigger a medical alert.
Sensors such as those, "smart carpets" and other
tracking devices will be the norm in both private homes and group settings
within the next decade, said Jason Hess, chief executive of Elite Care, the
Portland company that owns Oatfield Estates. He said that will especially be
true as insurers start embracing the cost-saving devices.
"You will see a
lot more places implementing these," he said. "It comes down to cost, and
out-of-the-box thinking."
At the Las Vegas show, on display were talking
pillboxes that remind seniors to take their medicine at regular intervals and
can notify out-of-town caregivers if that doesn't happen. There were robotic
companion pets that mimic the real thing for lonely seniors in need of a
psychological boost.
"We're talking about an important paradigm shift in
how we think about aging," said Majd Alwan, director of the Washington-based
Center for Aging Services Technologies. Alwan led a panel discussion on
smart-home technology at the Las Vegas event.
Delaying
institutionalization by a year or more is a significant financial savings, he
said. "Let alone the benefits in quality of life for the senior and for the
caregiver."
Alwan previously led the eldercare technology unit of the
University of Virginia's Medical Automation Research Center, which developed the
passive sensor technology used in Missouri.
Unlike medical warning badges
worn by seniors, the motion sensors' success doesn't depend on the cooperation
of patients. Elderly people can be prone to forget the badges when dressing, or
might resist the devices as too obtrusive, said University of Missouri nursing
professor Marilyn Rantz.
"Our intent with this project was to incorporate
[it] into their daily lives -- and make it invisible to their daily lives," she
said.
Olweean, a retired factory worker, said she barely notices the
sensors.
"I don't even know they're here half the time," she
said.
Fifteen of the 35 residents at her apartment complex take part in
the motion sensor research project. The complex is named Tiger Place, after the
University of Missouri mascot, and is owned by the university, though managed by
a private company.
Researchers there are also fine-tuning a more advanced
monitoring system using virtual-reality silhouette images to allow observation
of posture, gait and other movements. The silhouettes are considered a preferred
alternative to more invasive video cameras.
Rantz, Alwan and other
experts acknowledge that rapid technological advances in eldercare must be
balanced with privacy protections. That dilemma concerns Fredda Vladeck,
executive director of the United Hospital Fund's Aging in Place
Initiative.
"Technology does have a role to play," she said. "It's a
tool, not the answer."
http://www.washingtonpost.com
WP20090201BD-SENIORTECH
House & Homes
Owners adapt homes to age gracefully with
them
By Linda Laudato, New York Times News Service
881
words
1 February 2009
Chicago
Tribune
Final
20
English
Copyright 2009, Chicago Tribune. All Rights
Reserved.
ALBANY, N.Y.
When Mary Morrison retired last year, a
priority on her to-do list was redecorating her home. The goal was to create a
fresh look while decreasing the time spent on home maintenance.
What
began as a cosmetic makeover developed into a carefully thought-out plan to
adapt her home to her lifestyle, while keeping future needs in mind.
Mary
and her husband, Tom, bought the 60-year-old expanded Cape in 1968 and raised
their two children on a quiet street. As the children grew, they enclosed the
back porch to create a teen-friendly room and remodeled the kitchen.
Now,
the couple is sprucing up their empty nest and planning to stay put as long as
possible.
The Morrisons are not alone in their desire to remain in their
own home as they age; she's 62, he's 63. According to a survey conducted by the
AARP, 89 percent of people older than 50 wish to remain at home, rather than
move to other housing options.
With the nationwide trend of aging in
place gaining momentum, the concept of "universal design" has gone mainstream.
Years ago, people would adapt a home for people with disabilities only as the
need arose.
The resulting bedroom or bath often ended up looking like a
hospital room. Universal design is defined as "the designing of products and
environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible,
without the need for adaptation or specialized design," according to the
University of Washington School of Architecture and Urban
Planning.
According to specialists in aging, good universal design is
invisible and enhances the quality of life for everyone. The Morrisons, and
people like them, are incorporating ideas to facilitate easier use and access as
they remodel, and with attractive products now available, it's easy to be
practical and stylish.
For the Morrisons, this isn't the first time
they've considered their future needs when thinking about home
improvements.
When Tom retired five years ago, the exterior clapboard was
in need of painting. The couple opted for white vinyl siding as a
low-maintenance complement to the brick exterior on the front of their home.
They also replaced the kitchen appliances with energy-saving models and updated
the room's look with easy-to-clean laminate counters and a tiled backsplash that
coordinates with the floor tiles. They selected a single-lever faucet at the
recommendation of their contractor.
Mary has learned other lessons along
the way.
"Decisions made in haste, I regretted in leisure," she says.
Like the striped damask sofa in the living room.
"I don't know why I
chose it. I didn't like it then, and it hasn't grown on me. It is a constant
reminder to take my time," she says.
Mary classifies previous decorating
choices as being in the safe range. "It was easier to go neutral when we were
rushing to get things done for special events and such," she says. "This time
around, I chose yellow for the wall paint in our bedroom and a soft green for
the back room." She has enjoyed perusing wallpaper books and selecting coverings
for several rooms. She hasn't regretted a single choice.
As the couple
packed away clutter to prepare for the painter, Mary had an epiphany of sorts.
She discovered how many of their belongings they no longer needed.
"I
realized how unattached I was to all of this stuff I had packed
away."
That's when she started giving unused furniture to her children,
donating items to charity and tossing junk. The Morrisons began to rethink how
they were using the rooms in their home and what furniture could be rearranged
to suit their retirement lifestyle.
The television was moved upstairs to
a former bedroom. One end of the enclosed porch became a reading area. That left
plenty of room at the other end for a dining table that can be extended for
company.
Thinking ahead, Mary feels this room could become a first-floor
master bedroom, because there is a full bath, complete with a shower seat,
adjacent to it. If they decide to do that, Mary says the flooring in the
bathroom would need to be replaced with a nonslip surface.
The family
room was rearranged to set up an office for Tom at one end. In the living room,
they discovered a nice surprise when the carpeting was pulled up to reveal
hardwood floors.
"I may keep them bare or decide on an area rug," Mary
says, but the dreadful sofa is leaving soon to make way for two arm chairs. She
is waiting to decide on window treatments until after the wallpaper is
installed. Now that the curtains have been removed, she likes the clean, simple
look.
An added benefit of redecorating was the discovery of a potentially
dangerous safety concern. When replacing the outlet covers, the electrician
noted worn wiring and loose connections.
Future plans include replacing
the windows and revising the landscape. The furnace will probably need to be
replaced soon. "Then we should be good for 10 years or so," she
said.
FURNISH
Document TRIB000020090201e5210001h
VALUE ADDED Thomas Heath
Financial
Home Is Where They Help
You Move
Thomas Heath
1325 words
2 February 2009
The
Washington Post
FINAL
D01
English
Copyright 2009, The Washington
Post Co. All Rights Reserved
My 92-year-old mother motors around her
two-bedroom, one-floor ranch home in Syracuse, N.Y., with the help of a walker
and comforted by a lifetime of mementos, photographs (not enough of yours
truly), her old furniture and the daily presence of my brother and sister, both
of whom live close by. You couldn't pry Mom from her home with a
crowbar.
But many senior citizens aren't lucky enough to have family in
the neighborhood and an easily navigable home. Enter Transitional Assistance and
Design, a Gaithersburg firm that helps seniors move from a beloved home to
somewhere more suited to their circumstances.
"When you say moving and
downsizing to anybody, their stomach probably goes south," co-owner Joel Danick
said. "What we do for our elderly clients is to make something in a smaller
version while maintaining the features of the original. We are the wedding
planners of the moving industry."
A business school professor told me
once that if you had enough money and a need, you can always pay somebody to
fulfill it. That's what I thought of when I talked to Joel and Susie Danick, who
started the company in 2000.
This is a cottage industry now coming to the
forefront, the Danicks said. There are about 500 "move management" consultants
around the country, ready to tap into the 78 million baby boomers headed for
retirement, not to mention the dwindling members of my mom's
generation.
The Danicks started their company when Susie, 38 at the time
and a part-time nurse, helped move her grandmother from Chevy Chase to Brighton
Gardens, a senior assisted-living complex in Friendship Heights, right over the
District line. The grandmother, who was in her 80s, was reluctantly leaving her
spacious condominium for a small studio. She feared she was heading toward a
nursing home.
Susie painted the apartment in similar colors to the Chevy
Chase place, and duplicated the furniture arrangements in the living room and
bedroom areas so they were similar to what she had in the condo.
"When
she went there, it felt like home," said Joel, 50.
The Brighton Gardens
sales and marketing agent asked whether the complex could show the apartment to
other potential tenants, as a model of how cozy the new home could be. Word got
around and others started asking Susie whether she would decorate their
apartments. She had 35 clients her first year.
The Danicks now help about
300 elderly citizens a year to downsize without losing a sense of home that
evokes familiarity and memories. Transitional Assistance and Design grosses
around $500,000, employs 14 full- and part-time workers, and provides the
Danicks with a handsome income. Joel even quit his executive position at
Balducci's grocery stores four years ago to help. Believe it or not, he said his
grocery skills are transferable to moving consultants. More on that
later.
In the early days, Susie enlisted her girlfriends for help. They
would send their kids off to school, work for five hours and head home at 2 p.m.
to greet their kids.
"I didn't look upon it as a business," Susie
said.
She calculated her prices by calling interior designers she knew.
They suggested about $100 an hour. So she set her fee at $35 an hour. Nearly 10
years later, it has grown to $75, which includes the redesign of the apartment.
Packing and unpacking runs $45 an hour. The blended rate ends up around $50 an
hour. The actual moving -- putting the stuff in a truck and driving to the new
home -- is outsourced to Town & Country Movers.
"One of our core
business decisions was to stay focused on management and consulting," Joel said.
Another benefit: You don't have to lay out the money for a vehicle
fleet.
Like most businesses, the biggest cost is personnel (nearly half).
Insurance is next. Then it drops swiftly. The Danicks have a public relations
person on retainer and they spend about 5 percent of revenue on materials, from
wall hooks to boxes to bags. They run the business out of their Gaithersburg
home, so there is no office leasing involved. Full-timers, including a handyman,
earn low five figures, and the "move specialists" who do the packing, unpacking
and aesthetic work around the apartment earn $15 to $30 an hour, depending on
responsibilities.
Joel said the company offers employees an individual
retirement account and matches up to 3 percent of salary; there is no
health-care benefit.
I guessed their net at around $150,000, and the
Danicks did not disagree.
How do you get new clients?
Mostly through
word of mouth. They have built strong relationships with senior communities in
the Washington region, including Classic Residence by Hyatt and Riderwood. Some
senior communities offer new residents a set number of hours of access to
transitional assistance at no charge to the resident. The company also gets
referrals from Town & Country Movers. For advertising, the Danicks' 2008
Toyota Scion XB is decaled with company advertisements. (Business tip:
Magnetized advertising placards can be stolen off the car.)
Each move is
a mission. They invade a client's home, shooting digital photos of the entire
place, creating a map of the floor plan and re-creating it on a small scale at
the Danicks' home office, moving little scaled cutouts. Every detail is
considered, from towels to window treatments, from custom paintings to china
hutches. When one elderly client had accumulated 100 masks from a lifetime of
travel around the world, Susie asked the client to pick five favorites and
designed a wall display to bring them along.
Any new purchase above $75,
from a frame to furniture, must be approved by the client and is
reimbursed.
"Every plan is customized," Joel said. "Some just need
unpacking. Some need decorating help and full service in between." The minimum
is about $600 for a two-person crew for one day. One job involving moving out of
an $11 million home took a crew of 13 all day and cost thousands of
dollars.
There are headaches. One client got physically ill at the last
minute. Timing the use of elevators, lobbies and parking can be tortuous and
time-consuming. And the job is physical. Imagine packing and unpacking your
house five days a week.
There is a network nationwide of senior
transitional assistance businesses. So if my mom in Syracuse wanted to move to
D.C., the Danicks and a similar company in Syracuse would work it from each end,
with one packing and one unpacking. The one who gets the initial contact does
the coordinating.
The staff includes retired teachers, nurses, production
managers and people who work in estate sales. Most are between 40 and 60. There
is a lot of hand-holding, empathy and gentle persuasion that goes with the
job.
"It's purposeful work," said Joel, who carefully screens and does
background checks on all employees. He brings the same passion to the consulting
business as he did to the grocery business, first at Whole Foods and then at
Balducci's.
"They are both customer-service businesses," Joel
said.
There are regular employee performance reviews. Trust, reliability
and leadership skills earn employees higher pay. So does punctuality. Learning
how to disconnect a chandelier or install shelving will earn you more.
Supervising a crew will, too.
Although the market is still untapped, the
Danicks have no little interest in expanding the business nationally but plan to
grow locally. They did 35 moves in the first year and now do around
300.
"To franchise it at the level we do it would be very difficult and
diminish the quality of service," Joel said. "You can't just go to page one of
the manual and start."
http://www.washingtonpost.com
Chicago Homes
This is not your father's old folks home;
Boomers' active lifestyles redefining 55-plus housing
By John
Handley, SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE
1426 words
6 March 2009
Chicago
Tribune
Chicagoland Final
1
English
Copyright 2009, Chicago Tribune.
All Rights Reserved.
"When we told friends we were moving to a retirement community, they
made fun of us. Now they're jealous," said Rich Schultz.
He and his wife,
Diane, moved to Del Webb's Grand Dominion, a 55-and-older development in
Mundelein last May. What they experienced has changed their view of retirement
living.
"It's a misnomer that we're a bunch of old people having a hard
time moving around," Schultz said. "There's a lot of activity here, a lot of
camaraderie and 40 percent to 50 percent of the residents are still
working."
He agrees with the "active adult" name for this type of
community. "Actually, moving here has made us a lot more active."
The
recreational lodge at Grand Dominion offers a variety of amenities, Schultz
noted, including a fitness center, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, and
multipurpose rooms for arts and crafts and dancing. The community also features
walking trails, and bocce ball and tennis courts. A lifestyle director
coordinates group outings, special interest clubs and other events, such as
variety shows.
For 23 years, the Schultzes lived in a four-bedroom,
two-story house in Mundelein. "As the kids left home, we wondered why we were
running up and down stairs. We looked at condos and townhouses. Then we had an
instant love affair with our ranch-style home. It's almost 3,000 square feet
with an open floor plan. You can stand in the foyer and see almost all the
rooms."
As the Schultzes discovered, "over-55" housing has changed.
Choices have expanded. Starting in the 1960s, the traditional model was the
large, age-restricted Sun Belt communities. Now Sun City-style developments are
being built in the Snow Belt. As Baby Boomers retire, they will put their
special stamp on retirement -- maybe smaller projects that will cater to their
special interests, or large multi-generational communities.
New designs
are bound to crop up once the housing market rebounds.
"The 'silver
tsunami' is coming," predicted Pat Kelley of St. Louis, chairman of the National
Association of Home Builders 50+ Housing Council. "Older buyers know what they
want, but now everything's on hold for another year or so because of the
economy."
Housing analyst Steve Hovany already sees changes coming:
"Active adult housing is getting away from the one-size-fits-all mode. Builders
are targeting many different segments of the market -- from downtown condos and
townhouses to suburban retirement communities.
"Retirement developments
are not as isolated as they used to be. Now they're being built closer to where
people live. Most Chicago retirees don't want to move to Florida or Arizona,"
said Hovany, president of Strategy Planning Associates in Schaumburg.
He
doesn't think many empty-nesters will sell their suburban homes and move to
downtown Chicago. "At age 65, most don't want to endure the hassles of downtown
living on a full-time basis. But they might buy a second home
downtown."
One new trend is the growth of age-targeted developments,
rather than age-restricted, according to Hovany. Age-targeted housing features
one-level living that appeals to older buyers but is in a development open to
all ages.
"Boomers want to run their own lives," explained Hovany. "They
may not like the organized lifestyle at active adult
communities."
Whatever the future holds, it will be dictated by the 76
million Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1964.
However, one expert
thinks Boomers are too busy to think about retirement. "Most are not ready for
an active-adult community," said Christopher Grady, associate principal and land
planner with Kephart Community Planning Architecture in Denver.
"But the
64 to 74 age group has the freedom to do what they want. They're looking for a
home with flex spaces they can use for their travel collectibles or hobbies.
This age group also wants access to transportation, health care, fitness
facilities and socializing opportunities," Grady added.
"Builders should
not design houses for old people. That's because we have stretched the
definition of what it means to be old," said Matt Thornhill of the Boomer
Project in Richmond, Va.
"The typical Boomer at 50 feels like 35.
Mid-life extends from 50 to 75. Boomers have decided to put off old age. That's
something for the future. They think they're never going to be seniors; they're
Boomers," Thornhill said.
But others contend that building for old age
will be a growing trend.
"In seven years, over 30 percent of new homes
will be required to have universal design," predicts Michael Shrenk of New
Millennial Homes in Tampa.
His firm builds the Freedom House that allows
aging in place.
Shrenk maintains that universal design will appeal to
buyers of every age. "Everyone likes wider hallways, pull-out shelves, lights
that automatically go on when you enter a room, audio and visual smoke
detectors, rocker light switches and security systems."
These features
will increase the cost of a house by 5 percent to 10 percent, "but retrofitting
will be much more expensive if universal design is needed later," he
said.
"The key to universal design is to do it in a way that you never
have to know it's there, and that's not hard to do," said Doris Pearlman of
Possibilities for Design in Denver.
One Chicago builder already has
jumped on the universal design bandwagon.
Cambridge Homes includes many
universal design features in its Carillon retirement communities.
"At
first glance, these homes look no different from regular housing. We
de-emphasize wheelchair accessibility, but the doors are two to four inches
wider than normal," said Dave Smith, vice president of sales and marketing for
Cambridge.
Cambridge determined years ago that many Chicago-area retirees
don't want to move to the Sun Belt, so retirement communities were built here.
"People want to be near their kids and grandkids and friends of 40 years," said
Smith.
Carillon at Cambridge Lakes in northwest suburban Pingree Grove is
the builder's seventh retirement community in the Chicago area. On Memorial Day,
a new 18,000-square-foot clubhouse will open there. When completed, the
55-and-older enclave will have 1,200 homes. It is part of the larger all-age
Cambridge Lakes community.
The Del Webb trend in the Chicago area is to
go smaller. After opening the 5,500-home Sun City Huntley in 1998, Del Webb
followed with 765-home Shorewood Glen in Shorewood, 1,015-home Edgewater in
Elgin and 725-home Grand Dominion in Mundelein.
None of the newer projects
have golf courses, though arrangements have been made for residents to play at
local courses.
"At Grand Dominion, we built a golf cart underpass to
adjoining courses, one public and the other private," said Chris Naatz, vice
president of sales and marketing for Pulte/Del Webb.
He pointed out that
the size of Del Webb communities is determined mainly by the availability of
land.
Naatz added that the open floor plans of retirement ranches mean
living and dining rooms don't have to be defined spaces. "It's important that
there is a large enough area for entertaining and family
gatherings."
"Future active-adult projects will be built in places where
taxes and the cost of living are lower," said Janis Ehlers, president of the
Ehlers Group in Ft. Lauderdale.
"They will be built in places with
recreational resources, like Madison, Wis., with its extensive walking and bike
paths," she said.
They also will be built in Snow Belt cities like
Chicago.
B SECTION
Transit service is getting going ITN
SARASOTA: New program will offer rides and freedom to seniors
KEVIN
L McQUAID
KEVIN L. McQUAID kevin.mcquaid@heraldtribune.com
421
words
27 January 2009
Sarasota
Herald-Tribune
SARASOTA
BS1
English
© 2009 Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All Rights Reserved.
As
much as seniors love their cars, Katherine Freund believes they love freedom
more.
Freund, who founded a group in Portland, Maine, 14 years ago to provide
rides for seniors unable or unwilling to drive, announced the formation of a
local chapter Monday at the offices of the Community Foundation of Sarasota
County.
"People still want to do everything they did before when they
age, just without driving," said Freund, who founded ITN America in
1995.
ITN Sarasota hopes to provide 3,000 rides to people 60 and older
and the visually impaired before April 2010.
The membership group, which
will provide rides 24 hours a day and charge most customers $4 a ride and $1.50
per mile to go to medical appointments, social outings, shopping and elsewhere,
will begin operating within a five-mile radius of Sarasota Memorial
Hospital.
Riders who book a day in advance, and those willing to share a
trip, will receive discounts.
"We've added 30 years to the lifespan in the
past 100 years," said Freund, who will be one of 10 recipients of this year's
AARP The Magazine "Inspire" awards. "But the human race is outliving the
transportation system. The transportation system is not keeping up. I believe
this is the future."
Freund noted that women, on average, live 11 years
after they give up their keys.
The need for an ITN-type service is considered
especially acute in Sarasota County, where there are more than 30,000 drivers 80
and older, according to Sarasota County Openly Plans for Excellence, which
identified senior transportation as a major community issue in October
2006.
Like FISH, a nonprofit established in 1973, and other groups now
involved with senior transportation locally, ITN Sarasota will rely on a network
of volunteer drivers.
The local chapter is being sponsored by Jewish
Family & Children's Service and funded initially by the Community
Foundation.
"I started this in my community as Portland, but I always
thought of it as a national issue and a national problem," Freund said. "But
unlike other national issues, there was no national
approach."
INTERESTED?
ITN America founder and executive director
Katherine Freund is scheduled to speak today at 10 a.m. in the Senior Friendship
Center's Friendship Cafe, 1888 Brother Geenen Way, Sarasota. For more
information, call 364-7530.
PHOTO; Caption: Freund
D.C. Extra
IN BRIEF
584 words
12 February
2009
The Washington Post
FINAL
T02
English
Copyright 2009, The
Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved
Aging-in-Place
Program
Starting in Dupont Circle
The Dupont Circle Village, an
aging-in-place program for elderly Dupont Circle residents, has scheduled a
formal launch, volunteer drive and membership meeting at 7 p.m. Feb. 24 at the
Sumner School, 1201 17th St. NW.
Aging-in-place programs allow the
elderly to remain in their homes with assistance from volunteers in their
communities. The Dupont Circle program is one of several in the District
patterned after an effort in Boston's Beacon Hill neighborhood.
Free
refreshments will be available before the meeting, at 6:30 p.m. in the
first-floor gallery. To make a reservation for the launch or to volunteer, call
202-436-5252 or e-mail contact@dupontcirclevillage.org.
http://www.washingtonpost.com
BUILDER SNAPSHOT
Chicago Homes
Levy in tune with buyers'
needs
By Leslie Mann, Special to the Tribune
802 words
13
February 2009
Chicago Tribune
Chicagoland
Final
4
English
Copyright 2009, Chicago Tribune. All Rights Reserved.
Growing up in Freeport, Ill., Jane Levy spent her allowance on two
things, she recalls: "Seventeen magazine, for the girl side of me, and floor
plan books, for the future builder in me."
Decades later, Levy has
outgrown fashion magazines but not her passion for floor plans. As the
owner/president of Levy Custom Homes in River Forest, she still delights in
reading them.
Levy builds custom houses in the western and northern
suburbs and in Chicago. Although she's been in the business for 22 years, Levy
chooses to keep her company small, building one or two houses a year, plus
remodeling projects that range from bathroom to whole-house re-dos.
Levy
works with several architects in the Chicago area to design her clients' houses,
depending on their budgets and their houses' architectural styles.
Her
name is on the company shingle by intention. "It says, 'The buck stops here,'"
she says. "The client works directly with me, not a superintendent, and I'm
responsible for whatever goes wrong. My goal is to under-promise and
over-deliver."
Levy's strategy has not only won her a steady flow of
clients, but the approval of her colleagues. From the Home Builders Association
of Greater Chicago, she has earned Crystal Key, Gold Key and Silver Key
awards.
Being female in the male-dominated home-building business is to
her advantage, says Levy, although she still encounters peers who assume she is
the "wife of."
"Women know how families live, entertain and really use
houses," she says. "And we know intuitively what questions to ask the clients.
When a client told me she had eight kids, for example, I asked her how many
laundry rooms she wanted and where she wanted them. It turns out she had been
putting a lot of thought into them and, yes, they were a priority for
her."
Although her clients' houses are large by most people's standards,
Levy says, "Quality is their first concern, not size. [My clients] are not
interested in following trends or building monuments to themselves. They want
houses that work for their families."
Now that travel is more difficult
than it was pre-9/11, many of Levy's clients want to equip their houses for
summer "staycations" by adding extras such as outdoor kitchens and
fireplaces.
Although each Levy house has its own collection of amenities,
one of Levy's favorites is the heated bathroom floor. "I usually recommend it if
it isn't on their wish list," she says. "They are never sorry they have
it."
A fan of historic houses, Levy takes care when demolishing houses
slated to be replaced with new ones. She has salvaged parts such as newel posts,
then incorporated them into the new houses.
Becoming a CGP (certified
green professional) equipped Levy to help her clients build eco-friendly houses.
"This is important to them and they've done their homework. They tell me they
want houses without products with formaldehyde or toxic glues, for example," she
says.
Becoming a CAPS (certified aging in place specialist) gave Levy the
know-how to build houses for Baby Boomers who plan to stay in their houses.
"It's a matter of thinking ahead. It can be as simple as putting plywood behind
bathroom walls so grab bars can be added later," Levy explains.
As
construction proceeds, Levy likens her role to that of an orchestra leader.
"Most of my trades have been with me for years and are specialists at what they
do," she says. "My job is to coordinate it all and make sure the client's wishes
are being considered with every detail, every inch of the house."
Levy's
own dream house is a log cabin in Colorado, with enough rooms for her two sons
and two stepsons to visit. "And a babbling brook!" she adds.
Asked if she
plans to retire, though, she is quick to answer, "No. The closest thing we have
to the fountain of youth is keeping our minds and bodies
active."
Success, to Levy, is more of a guiding principle than a goal.
"It's maintaining a flawless reputation, personally and professionally," says
Levy. "When you have your own business, the camera's always rolling, whether
you're out at a restaurant or at the job site. You have to be a class act all
the time."
Photo(s) Photo (color): Custom builder Jane Levy, in the
living room of her River Forest home, says her clients want houses that work for
their families. Photo (color): For a client in River Forest, Levy Custom Homes
built a detached garage and customized it for the car enthusiast. Stacie
Freudenberg/photos for the Tribune
Chicago Homes
On second thought, no grab bars; Younger and
older Baby Boomers are set to shake up the housing industry. So what do they
want?
By John Handley, Special to the Tribune
1515 words
6
February 2009
Chicago Tribune
Chicagoland
Final
1
English
Copyright 2009, Chicago Tribune. All Rights Reserved.
No grab bars in the bathroom! Please!
Aging Baby Boomers hate to
be reminded that they're -- just possibly -- getting older.
This largest age
group in American history -- some 76 million strong, born between 1946 and 1964
-- is not ready for the rocking chair. Far from it. "Modern Maturity" is not on
their reading list. They want to continue drinking from the fountain of
youth.
This attitude applies to their housing choices.
One north
suburban architect/builder, himself a Boomer, offers an inside look at his
generation's mind-set: "We want to stay youthful and don't want anything that
suggests handicapped accessibility. We don't want to deal with aging until it's
inevitable," said Jim Landaker, 55.
"But Boomers do want to position
themselves for retirement. They don't want to spend unnecessarily on housing.
Yet after a certain age they like extras. They want all the bells and whistles
and up-to-date appliances in kitchens. They want media rooms, multiple
fireplaces and hotel-like amenities in master suites."
His wife, Chris, a
sales director for a cosmetics firm, summarized the prevailing attitude of many
of her contemporaries: "Boomers will outlive everyone because they fight aging
with exercise, a healthy diet and a good mental attitude. I feel young, about
30."
Despite their efforts to stay in shape, Boomers are beginning to
think about the future and climbing all those stairs in a two-story
house.
The National Association of Home Builders has shed some light on
what Boomers want in its 2007-2008 Consumer Preference Survey, based on a
national sample of questionnaires.
Boomers strongly prefer single-level
living with three bedrooms. Younger age groups want four bedrooms in a two-story
house. Ease of maintenance, energy efficiency and an emphasis on quality were
other preferences.
"Boomers want to show they have arrived and are
successful," said Helen Velas, president of Eleni Interiors, a Naperville-based
home decorating firm.
"Boomers are ready for their dream home. That could
mean remodeling or buying an existing or new home. They want to go to the next
level -- granite countertops, walk-in showers, faux finishes on walls,
architectural details like art niches, built-in bars, wine cellars, several
plasma TVs, under-cabinet lighting. They want the home to be their castle,"
Velas said.
But in the 18-year span of the Boomer generation, she sees a
difference of attitudes. The age range of 45 to 63 really includes two segments
-- younger Boomers and older Boomers -- at very different stages of their
lives.
"Younger Boomers think getting old is so far away that they
haven't addressed the possibility. They haven't given a high priority to housing
features that will ease aging in place. Those features, such as wider doorways
and brighter lighting, will make it possible to stay in a house and live
independently as long as possible," Velas said.
"Universal products for
handicapped accessibility can be smart and beautiful in design," she
added.
But most Boomers don't even want to think about universal
products.
"The leading edge of the Boomers is just starting to touch 60,
so most of them aren't old enough for the retirement market," said real estate
analyst Steve Hovany, president of Strategy Planning Associates, based in
Schaumburg.
"Boomers are just starting to move down from that big house
in the suburbs. They are capital rich and have the potential to buy anything
they want. While they may move down to a smaller house, they will spec it up
with all the creature comforts. Older Boomers want to get out of their
McMansions. Why would two middle-aged empty-nesters want to continue to live in
a six-bedroom house?" said Hovany.
He noted that many Boomers have put
their dream house on hold because of the meltdown in the economy. "Their home
has lost value and they can't sell it. But they know everything is
cyclical."
The expected surge in Boomer housing has not happened yet,
according to real estate analyst Tracy Cross, president of Schaumburg-based
Tracy Cross and Associates. However, he noted that Boomers are a significant
component of the housing market -- 15 percent to 20 percent.
While
ranches may be the choice in the suburbs, there are many other choices in
Chicago.
The powerful magnet of downtown living has pulled an increasing
number of Boomers in recent years. After raising children in the suburbs, these
empty-nesters head for the excitement of the city.
Ana Lukic, a real
estate agent at Rubloff's North Michigan Avenue office, believes Boomers are
revitalized by the action. "Coming downtown has a youthful effect. It offers a
much more active lifestyle than the suburbs."
She noted that it's now a
renter's market. Plus, the glut of condos makes buying attractive. Prices start
at about $230,000 for one bedroom and $400,000 and up for two
bedrooms.
"The city is convenient for older Boomers because buildings are
handicapped accessible, elevators make it unnecessary to climb stairs and it is
easy to get around by cab," she said.
Last October, Ann and Mike
Cullinane moved from the suburbs to 50 East Chestnut, a new 39-story condo on
Chicago's Gold Coast. Twenty of the 34 full-floor residences have been
sold.
"Our suburban home was empty and there was nothing holding us there
so we bought downtown, just off Michigan Avenue. It's fun in the city, and
there's always something to do," said Ann, 49, an interior designer.
Out
in the burbs, another option may appeal to older Boomers. Some already are
opting for age-restricted (55 and up) retirement communities. But even there,
builders are careful to disguise age-specific features.
Dave Smith, vice
president of marketing for Cambridge Homes, a D.R. Horton division, in
Libertyville, pointed out the specific age-related features in the 11 models at
Carillon at Cambridge Lakes, a 1,300-home age-restricted development in
northwest suburban Pingree Grove.
"At first glance, these models look no
different from regular housing. We de-emphasize wheelchair accessibility, but
the doors are two to four inches wider than normal.
"All light switches
are positioned so they can be reached from a wheelchair. People say they don't
want grab bars, but we put backing in the wall next to the tub so grab bars can
be installed later, if needed," Smith said.
"The countertops in the baths
are 35 inches high versus the normal 32 inches so you don't have to lean down so
far. These homes have 20 percent more windows. That helps because visual acuity
declines by as much as 24 percent by age 55," he added.
Carillon prices range
from $178,000 to $289,000 for 1,107 to 2,322 square feet.
As would be
expected, similar special features are standard at Del Webb's 725-home Grand
Dominion retirement community in north suburban Mundelein.
Chris Naatz,
vice president of sales and marketing for Pulte Homes, the parent company of Del
Webb, described the age-related features: "Doors open with easy-to-operate
levers instead of knobs. Kitchens have roll-out shelves so you don't have to
kneel down. Bright fluorescent lighting shines in the walk-in closets.
In
the foyer, a switch can turn on emergency flashers. "The switch is
inconspicuous, but the lights flashing on both sides of the garage point the way
for emergency vehicles," Naatz said.
The six models start at $270,000 to
$400,000 for 1,200 to 2,850 square feet.
Like a third of buyers at Grand
Dominion, Phil and Sally Hamm still work. They downsized from a large home in
Libertyville to a two-bedroom, 1,800-square-foot ranch in November
2007.
An older Boomer at 61, Phil said he likes the camaraderie of the
active adult community.
Following the trend of other Boomers, Vivian and
Howard Bloom selected many upgrades at their new ranch at Carillon at Cambridge
Lakes.
"We customized and bumped out everything," said Vivian, who likes
the security of the gated community.
She also likes everything on the
same level. "You never know what may happen later."
What about grab bars in
the bath? "No grab bars!" she emphasized.
House & Home/Style
Desk; SECTD
Let Old Age Come: She's All Set
By JOYCE
WADLER
2256 words
19 February 2009
The New York Times
Late Edition
- Final
1
English
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company. All Rights
Reserved.
LIVERMORE, Colo. -- IF there were a glitzy, razzle-dazzle
competition for cheerleading captain of the Aging in Place movement -- and given
the boomer resistance to anything to do with aging, there certainly should be --
Cynthia Leibrock, designer, consultant and Harvard instructor, would be a
contender, strutting down the barrier-free, skid-free runway of a well-lighted
arena; tossing an easy-grip baton in the air; blinding the judges with a smile
and that fascinatingly taut face.
In the marketing minefield of design
for aging, Ms. Leibrock knows what many do not: It may be good for you, but if
it doesn't look good, nobody's interested.
Consider her home, a flashy
glass-and-steel structure in the Colorado Rockies, with fabulous gewgaws that
homeowners of any age would covet: The high-end kitchen has a Gaggenau magnetic
induction cooktop (you won't burn if you touch it, Ms. Leibrock points out) and
a Gaggenau column refrigerator with shallow shelves (older people have
diminished olfactory senses, she says, so food needs to be closer). The guest
bath has a reflecting pool and a steam shower with a redwood bench; the frankly
un-beautiful mechanical lift that gets one in and out of the ample tub is hidden
in the ceiling. Should support bars be needed near the toilet someday, the
required engineering is concealed behind the wall. No complicated installation
is required: snap the tiles off, put the bars on. And they're good-looking bars,
too.
Universal design, a movement promoting the idea that all structures,
public and private, should be equally accessible to everyone, has been around
for many years. It is rooted in the work of Ronald Lawrence Mace, an architect
and industrial designer with polio who helped develop the country's first
accessible building code, paving the way for the Americans with Disabilities Act
of 1990. Aging in place, a related but more recent movement, which holds that
homes should be built so owners can continue to live in them despite age-related
problems, has been driven by the aging boomer population.
The problem is
that from a marketing and design point of view, the word ''aging'' is still the
kiss of death. In a culture where Botox, Cialis and plastic surgery support the
illusion that mortality is for other people, who wants a bathroom that looks as
if it belongs in a rehab center?
Ms. Leibrock's approach is to market her
work in terms of great design and good health. ''Boomers are all about choice
and being positive,'' she says. ''I have a steam oven, so I can eat more pasta
or steam in all the nutrients. I have an aromatherapy steam shower. If you have
a cold, that's very healing.''
Is this a business? You bet it is. Ms.
Leibrock has written three books, including ''Design Details for Health'' and
''Beautiful Universal Design'' (written with James Evan Terry), and her daily
consulting fee can go as high as $2,000, although she adds that she has worked
without pay for those who cannot pay. Her newly renovated home here, Green
Mountain Ranch, is intended to be a showcase, laboratory and training center for
those interested in universal design. Ms. Leibrock, who has consulted for Kohler
and Gaggenau, says each has donated about $50,000 in products to her home; about
10 other manufacturers also contributed items.
Why would they do
that?
''I've been in 60 magazines and 8 books over the years,'' Ms. Leibrock
says. ''They know my works, they just get exposure.''
(This, it turns
out, is a bit of cheerleader hyperbole: It does not mean that 60 different
designs of Ms. Leibrock's have been published -- in fact, her own house has
never been published -- but that images of details she has designed have
appeared in print frequently.)
Agingbeautifully.org/ranch, Ms. Leibrock's Web
site, features the sort of portrait you'd expect of a plastic surgeon rather
than a woman who has consulted on accessibility standards for the United States
Air Force. At 60, she is in admirable shape. Miss the turn for her house and she
gets on her $5,000 custom Dean titanium bike to round you up, already suited up
in her cold-weather gear for her customary morning ride. The fact that a bike is
unlikely to overtake the reporter's Hummer is not a deterrent. Ms. Leibrock is
one determined gal.
She also has great sound bites, which she points out,
lest a reporter, lulled into soporific indifference by the music of the Spa
channel and the Feng Shui Pure 2 fountain at her home, miss them.
''I've
got a great one-liner for you,'' Ms. Leibrock says. ''The line is, 'I want
people to know no matter whether they have mental or physical disabilities' --
change that word to differences -- 'they are only disabled if they can't do what
they want to do. Architecture can eliminate disability by design.' You see my
point. If you are in a house where you can do what you want to do, you're not
disabled anymore.''
And a little later, ''Could you mention
agingbeautifully.org in the story?''
Ms. Leibrock is aging awfully well
herself. Has she had any work?
''I'm not telling you,'' she says. But
after a little nudging: ''I had a peel. And one Botox, about four shots a year.
I wanted to look better, not younger.'' And in a note, later: ''I forgot one
thing. (Really.) When they did my peel, they took out a fat pocket below each
lower lid.''
But she has a spiritual side as well.
''I designed a
kitchen with Julia Child for an exhibit at the Smithsonian,'' Ms. Leibrock says.
''I've been teaching at Harvard for 18 years. This doesn't happen to an interior
designer from Pocatello, Idaho, but it happened to me, because I've maintained a
very tight sense of mission. It's my faith that drives me, my prayer time. I'm a
very organized pray-er. I journal, I write a letter to God every
morning.''
The hillside home Ms. Leibrock shares with her husband, Frank,
a retired engineer, is not wheelchair accessible, but it is wheelchair
adaptable, Ms. Leibrock says. Designing a home with an eye toward easy
renovation is key to aging in place.
And while she used high-end
appliances and furnishings, she stresses that universal design need not be
expensive. Her Gaggenau induction cooktop would sell for $5,600, but one could
buy an induction cooktop by Hob for $680, she says.
Nonetheless, she
can't help but point out the quartersawn maple woodwork in her husband's den.
With two Murphy beds and a barrier-free bathroom that has a wheelchair
accessible toilet in the shower, it could easily be converted to a suite for
someone who is wheelchair dependent.
There are no grab bars in the
bathroom, but if the day comes when they're needed, it will be easy enough to
install them, because beneath the Ann Sachs tiles, the bathroom walls have been
reinforced with 3/4-inch plywood.
And check out the wall between the
bathroom and the den.
''This is a movable wall, so whenever I get so
decrepit I need a caretaker, they can take me off the Murphy bed and wheel you
onto a gurney or in a wheelchair,'' Ms. Leibrock says, in a mildly disconcerting
midsentence pronoun switcheroo. ''These doors allow wheelchair
access.''
The reporter sees a wheelchair in the corner of the bathroom.
Shall we put the key in the ignition and fire that baby up?
''Just don't
hit my wood wall or I'll kill you,'' Ms. Leibrock says.
Why, you might
wonder, would anyone -- especially someone who was twice ranked No. 1 in age 30
and older tennis doubles in Utah -- be so hung up on wheelchair access?
Ms.
Leibrock, whose father was a mineralogist and whose mother was a nurse at
theCraig Hospital in Denver, a leading rehabilitation center, has a ready
answer: ''I have a brother who has schizophrenia, and he was inappropriately
housed in institutions and nursing homes when I was younger, and I saw how much
suffering that caused.''
''The honest truth is the gross things, the
aesthetics of rehab hospitals repulsed me,'' she adds. ''I wanted to stay as far
away from it as possible.''
Ms. Leibrock, a member of the American
Society of Interior Designers, chose a career in design so she could make things
beautiful.
Then, about 25 years ago, she became involved with a Bible
study group and felt a need to do another kind of work. ''There was nothing in
the Bible that says thou shalt not design interior design,'' Ms. Leibrock says.
''But it was not right for me. I was just determined to create environments that
were supportive for older and disabled people.''
When Ms. Leibrock and
her husband bought their home in 1994, for $280,000, she was determined to
create an aging-in-place design free of any hospital or institutional vibe. The
one dedicated piece of medical equipment built into the house was the lift in
the guest bathroom.
Even so, the renovation, which Ms. Leibrock says cost
just under $600,000 (not including products donated by manufacturers), includes
some nifty universal-design features: a computer-controlled Proliphix
thermostat, which can be adjusted from the road, a wheelchair or bed. Kitchen
cabinets with a 10-inch removable drawer in the kick space, so that they and the
counters can be lowered for wheelchair users. Recessed door mats and bath
mats.
''The worst thing you can do is throw a bath mat on the floor,''
Ms. Leibrock says. ''Older people shuffle along and drag their feet. All it
takes is a quarter-inch change of elevation to be a tripping
hazard.''
There are still plenty of stairs in this house: there are
stairs at the front entrance, which adjoins the glass-walled dining room that
looks out on the mountains. But there is also a step-free entrance at the side
of the house, via the garage. The step down into the dining room is removable
and was designed to accommodate a wheelchair lift.
Ms. Leibrock's Web
site lists information not only on all the products in her home, but on the ways
in which other homes can be adapted for aging in place. But persuading people --
even those closest to her -- to make such changes has been difficult.
Ms.
Leibrock's father suffered from Alzheimer's and her mother had back trouble
exacerbated by lifting her father on and off the toilet. Ms. Leibrock proposed
combining their two small bathrooms into a larger one, with a higher toilet with
grab bars, a sink and a toilet that could be used from a wheelchair.
''If
there had been modification of toilets, she might have avoided the injuries,''
Ms. Leibrock says. ''But he wouldn't put in grab bars. He didn't want the
stigma. Even with me, Miss Expert, in this area for 30 years.''
She must
be frustrated.
''The biggest challenge of my career is to create consumer
demand,'' she says. ''I could sell it to you for someone else, if you were the
mother of a disabled child, but the hard sell is selling it to you so you don't
end up in a nursing home.''
If Ms. Leibrock is in a friend's home and she
sees dangers, does she tell them?
''If they ask,'' she says. ''I couldn't
sell my own dad -- how am I going to sell my own girlfriends?''
She
continues: ''I offer tours of this house. People have aha! moments. 'Well, I
wouldn't mind having an aromatherapy steam shower.' Those are the teachable
moments. That's what this house is all about: Why not do it, if it can be
exciting and still help you age in place?''
Chicago
Homes
Simple steps at home can prevent falls; Lots of risks come into
play in the bedroom, bathroom or kitchen
By Francine Parnes,
Associated Press
978 words
20 February 2009
Chicago
Tribune
Chicagoland Final
12
English
Copyright 2009, Chicago
Tribune. All Rights Reserved.
If, as the adage says, "Old age ain't for
sissies," the first challenge in the privacy of one's home may well be standing
one's ground to avoid a fall.
Each year in the United States, according
to the Centers for Disease Control, one out of every three people over 65 falls.
Among older adults, falls are the leading cause of injury deaths, according to
the National Association for Home Care and Hospice.
What starts as a
simple misstep may cause many seniors to lose their health, their independence
and even their lives.
What's more, feeling the pinch of the economic
downturn, growing numbers of seniors nowadays may be unable to sell their homes
-- and therefore need to make them safer, says Dr. Marion Somers, a geriatric
care manager in Brooklyn, N.Y.
"That's what is making people look at
their own place, or a family member's house if they are living with them, and
evaluate how can we make this senior-friendly and safer," says Somers, who wrote
"Elder Care Made Easier" (Addicus Books, 2006). "With this economy, [many]
seniors and their families are not able to afford the cost of nursing homes and
assisted living facilities."
Geriatric care managers like Somers help
caretakers and aging family members create a plan of care, which may include
home safety. Resources that can be found on the Internet include the National
Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers and the National Aging in
Place Council. Some private businesses will come evaluate your home.
It
may seem surprising that so many people fall in their own bedroom, kitchen or
bathroom, when home is supposed to be a sanctuary. Yet "some of the seemingly
most innocent rooms in the home can actually be the most dangerous," says
Somers.
"It's important to look at your own home as if you are seeing it for
the first time, and evaluate it with a fresh set of eyes."
For instance,
in the bathroom, "a half-inch rise in the floor may seem like nothing to us, but
for someone who has trouble lifting their feet and shuffles around, this could
cause them to trip," she says.
"Elderly falls at home have long been the
silent epidemic that leads to injuries and often results in nursing home
placement," says Dr. Cheryl Phillips, incoming president of the American
Geriatrics Society, which represents health care professionals who serve
seniors.
The most dangerous room for falls, she says, is the bathroom,
because of maneuvering between the bathtub, shower and toilet. "Lots of risk
factors come into play, and medications that cause dizziness or weakness are the
biggest single factor," she says. "And falls often accompany getting up in the
night."
Some safety solutions may surprise you. Think a rug always
provides protection against a slippery marble or tile floor? Think
again.
"The single most important thing to remove is throw rugs, even if
they have been in place for years," says Jonna Borgdorff, a physical therapist
in Oak Park, and national rehabilitation director for Interim HealthCare, a
company that provides home care for the elderly.
Skip loose rugs that
aren't clearly slip-resistant, and choose uniform flooring, rather than uneven
walkways, she says.
"It is ideal to have one consistent surface
throughout the home to help avoid tripping."
Borgdorff's organization offers
these tips to prevent falls:
*If you have wall-to-wall carpeting, make
sure it is secure and flat, without bunched-up wrinkles or raised
areas.
*Fix poor lighting and add nightlights for trips to the
bathroom.
*In the bathroom, non-skid adhesive textured strips in the tub
or shower floor can help prevent falls, while a plastic shower chair can help
ease access in and out of the tub. Likewise, a raised toilet seat with armrests
may provide balance both for sitting down and getting up.
*Add handrails
on steps and grab bars on bathroom walls. Handrails placed near the toilet,
bathtub or shower, can help someone stay balanced when sitting or
standing.
*In the kitchen, forgo slippery floor wax. To avoid falls, keep
kitchen items in cabinets that are easily accessible, at waist-high
level.
*On stairs, pay particular attention to the top and bottom, where
you may miss a step.
Consider adding stair treads and handrails on both
sides. Be particularly cautious when walking between a carpeted room and a
slippery floor. If walking on stairs is perilous, consider adding a stair chair
that electrically glides up and down the steps.
Some pitfalls are less
obvious: Don't be blind to high thresholds in doorways, says John O'Callaghan,
president of the Metro Louisville Aging in Place Council.
His company,
Evalusafe, offers home safety evaluations for seniors.
Speaking of the
floor, clear any clutter there, which is particularly hazardous for nighttime
trips from bedroom to bathroom, he says.
Above all, when the golden years
usher in an era of change to your home, try to keep the decor
cheery.
"Being reminded that decline may be on the horizon is never
attractive," says Borgdorff. "An idea to consider that may put a positive spin
on the process is to look at it as redecorating."
In other words, she
says, while you're seeking the advice of a home care professional for functional
changes, also consider a decorator to infuse those changes with a new personal
touch.
YOUR HOME
Photo(s) Photo: In the bathroom, a plastic shower
chair can help ease access in and out of the tub. FOUNDATION FOR SENIOR LIVING
CAREGIVER HOUSE Photo: Fix poor lighting and add nightlights for trips to the
bathroom. VIVA TERRA Photo: If walking on stairs is perilous, consider adding a
stair chair. ABBY LIFTS
Arts & Entertainment
What's new in high-rise buildings: A
skyscraper designed for seniors
By Blair Kamin, TRIBUNE CRITIC
935 words
22 February 2009
Chicago
Tribune
Final
10
English
Copyright 2009, Chicago Tribune. All Rights
Reserved.
With millions of Baby Boomers nearing their 65th birthday and
yuppies turning into "ruppies" (retired urban people), it was only a matter of
time before the world got something like The Clare at Water Tower, a stylish
skyscraper in which to grow old.
But it took an architect with the skill and
artistry of Ralph Johnson, a principal at the Chicago office of Perkins+Will, to
ensure that this 54-story high-rise would nestle so deftly into the cityscape
and provide a humane environment for its residents, some of whom get around with
walkers and white canes.
The Clare, at 55 E. Pearson St., was developed,
and is operated, by the Franciscan Sisters of Chicago Service Corp. This is the
first skyscraper built by the Homewood-based company, whose stock-in-trade is
the low-rise "continuing-care retirement community." And it is the tallest
building for Johnson, who already has graced downtown with two handsomely
sculpted residential high-rises, the 39-story Skybridge at 1 North Halsted St.
and the 15-story Contemporaine at 516 N. Wells St.
But The Clare is
entirely different from those yuppie palaces. It is a stacked version of a
suburban senior citizens home, combining individual apartments and common spaces
such as workout rooms and dining areas. While most of its 334 apartments are for
independent, able-bodied seniors, the rest offer assisted living and skilled
nursing similar to hospital care.
Happily, Johnson and Robert Neper, a
Perkins+Will senior associate, have avoided a sterile, institutional interior.
They have also leapfrogged over the trap of the ugly, exposed-concrete tower
plopped on a parking garage. Neither a stand-alone object nor a block-filling
behemoth, their tower is felicitously two-faced, curving suavely on one side and
appearing sharply serrated on the other.
The graceful curve opens up the
densely packed downtown campus of Loyola University Chicago, from which the
developers leased the property, and gives much-needed breathing room to the
delicate, Gothic Chapel of St. James that sits kitty-corner across Rush
Street.
In another good stroke, the architects designed a sharp-edged,
nine-story "bustle" building that extends westward from the tower.
The
bustle provides classrooms for Loyola on its lower floors and space for the
tower's parking garage above. Residents of The Clare can thus walk to classes
(not to mention nearby restaurants, houses of worship and cultural attractions)
Or Loyola students can use the tower's chapel and other facilities. This builds
an intergenerational mix right into the site.
On the skyline, The Clare
is largely a success, though it lacks Skybridge's prominent site alongside an
expressway.
Johnson's big move consists of a curving, cantilevered
"eyebrow" that sweeps above a big recess hollowed out of the tower's top. This
treatment creates a distinct topside profile without repeating the cliche of a
mansard-roofed summit, as in Lucien Lagrange's adjoining Park Tower. It also
gives the building a clear "front" that faces toward Lake Michigan.
True,
Johnson cheats a little here, making the eyebrow resemble concrete even though
it is really a steel frame clad in aluminum. The Clare's sharply angled,
west-facing side also can be faulted because it is more back than front,
presenting a so-so, ribbon-windowed exterior to the west.
On the whole,
though, Johnson's handling of the tower is remarkably supple, enriched by the
rhythms of three-part, Chicago-style windows; the human scale provided by
vertical notches and horizontal recesses; and the elegance of curving concrete
walls that appear as thin as bent cardboard.
The architects also have
performed well inside, where they worked with the Dallas office of Perkins
+Will, which was responsible for interior architecture, and Interior Design
Associates of Nashville, which handled furnishings.
One of the most
impressive features occurs at the building's northeast corner, where you
discover that the vertical slot cut into the curving exterior isn't just for
looks.
It opens the corridors of the independent living units to natural
light and lake views, helping residents to orient themselves.
Equally
good are high-ceilinged, light-filled communal spaces, notably a hotel-like,
three-story atrium that extends from the 17th to the 19th floors, and a 53rd
floor gathering space with spectacular lake views.
The interior designers
have outfitted these spaces in a traditional style that is at odds with The
Clare's clean-lined exterior, but their design stops short of over-the-top
historicism.
Corridors outside the independent living units are outfitted
with small wood shelves, a departure from many architects' rigid, controlling
ethos. Residents can personalize the shelves with their own decor.
Not
enough residents have moved into The Clare yet for a critic to judge whether the
skyscraper really works in building community. But the exterior is certainly a
good citizen, and the interior appears to do all the basics rights. From around
the world, developers and government officials involved with elderly housing
already are flocking to the tower to observe.
In the city that invented
the skyscraper, this high-rise for seniors is the latest new wrinkle in the art
of building tall.
----------
bkamin@tribune.com
In the Web edition:
To view a photo gallery from The Clare at Water Tower, go to
chicagotribune.com/theclare
Chicago Homes
Meanwhile, back at the ranch; One-story design
draws empty-nesters, first-timers
By John Handley, SPECIAL TO THE
TRIBUNE
1537 words
27 February 2009
Chicago Tribune
Chicagoland
Final
1
English
Copyright 2009, Chicago Tribune. All Rights Reserved.
"They don't build ranches like they used to -- and that's a good thing,"
said Chris Naatz, vice president of sales and marketing for Pulte Homes/Del
Webb.
He described the dramatic evolution of the ranch, that modest
one-story dwelling that changed the face of suburbia after World War II. Since
then, the ranch has grown up. It is larger, fancier and more
expensive.
"Today's ranches are significantly more energy efficient,"
Naatz said, because of better insulation and improved heating and cooling
systems. "Floor plans are open. Baths and kitchens are larger. Wall closets used
to be the norm; now many ranches have walk-in closets in the master bedrooms.
Separate showers have replaced the tub/shower combination. Higher ceilings and
bay windows are common now. Instead of the old one-car garage, some ranches even
have three-car garages.
He noted that the traditional ranches of
yesteryear had three bedrooms, while ranches in retirement communities like Del
Webb's Grand Dominion feature two bedrooms and a den.
The old-style ranch
started out as a basic box, simple and affordable. Millions were built in brand
new subdivisions that covered suburban America.
"The ranch used to be the
No. 1 architectural style in the U.S.," said Al Bloom, president of Bloom &
Fiorino Architects in Oak Brook.
Buz Hoffman, president of Lakewood
Homes, traced the history of the ranch: "A pent-up demand for housing followed
World War II. Builders rushed to vacant land in the suburbs to satisfy that
demand.
"Ranches were simple and quick to build, so they became the
predominate style," he said. "In 1955, my dad sold 1,200-square-foot ranches for
$14,000. These were basic houses, usually with just a carport. What was called
the 'GI bath' was only 5 by 7 feet."
Hoffman said the heyday of ranches
lasted during the 1950s and 1960s. Raised ranches and split-levels were
offshoots of the ranch.
But when buyers wanted more space, the two-story
home roared into popularity in the late 1970s and beyond.
"Over the
years, as people became more affluent, their housing preferences shifted to
two-stories, which offer more space for the dollar," said real estate analyst
Steve Hovany, president of Strategy Planning Associates in Schaumburg.
He
noted that a ranch costs 20 percent to 30 percent more per square foot than a
two-story.
"If a 1,200-square-foot house -- like the ranches of the '50s
-- were built today, it would be the lowest cost residence on the market. But
people don't want that small anymore. The average ranch today starts at about
2,000 square feet.
But "many empty-nesters decide that a one-story is all
they need," he added.
Now the ranch is making a comeback, sparked by two
trends -- first-time buyers who like the simple and efficient layout, and
empty-nesters who prefer the convenience of one-level living.
Typical of
those empty-nesters are William and Ginny Brittain, who moved from a three-story
townhouse in Chicago to a ranch in Naperville last July. "We loved the city, but
those three stories got to us. That's why we moved," said William
Brittain.
"My knees aren't what they used to be, and it seemed like I was
climbing stairs 100 times a day," said Ginny Brittain.
Their new ranch at
Carillon Club, a 55-and-older retirement community by Cambridge Homes, has 2,183
square feet with two bedrooms and a den.
"We have a giant great room and
lots of space when the family is over," said Ginny, who added that other
advantages include the social activities available at the clubhouse and the
maintenance-free aspects.
"Ranches are gaining in popularity because of
the aging population. The resurgence of ranches is being led by a wave of
retiring Baby Boomers who don't want to walk up stairs -- or can't," said Dave
Smith, vice president of marketing for Cambridge Homes.
While the bulk of
ranches currently being built in the Chicago area are in active-adult
communities, he emphasized that ranches continue to be built in subdivisions of
every type for every age group.
"The biggest design change is the
development of the great room concept. Traditional ranches used to be divided
into small separate rooms. Now floor plans are open, with no designated living
room.
"Today's ranches also feel larger because of higher ceilings. The
standard 8-foot ceiling of the past now goes up to 10 feet or even 18-foot
vaulted ceilings. Instead of just master bedrooms, now we have master suites,"
he added.
"Many find the convenience of one-level living desirable," said
architect/developer David Hovey, president of Optima in Glencoe. He added,
though, that two-story residences can have more curb appeal.
Hovey noted
that the explosion of ranch construction in the suburbs was made possible by the
availability of land there. "In Chicago, some lots are only 25 feet wide, so
builders were forced to go vertical in the city. But larger suburban lots
allowed for the construction of horizontal ranches," he said.
Architect
Bloom said today's more informal lifestyles have changed the layouts of ranches.
"Older ranches had no feeling of openness. When you take walls out, the space
appears larger. The old ranches had no family room. Kitchens used to be much
smaller and they were equipped with modest appliances. Dishwashers were a
luxury."
He added that the roofs of older ranches had a low pitch, while
today's more steeply pitched roofs allow for higher ceilings. Exteriors were
usually wood siding or brick, while now many have vinyl siding with some brick
or stone accents.
While empty-nesters may be the prime market for
single-level living, builders are targeting a wider range of
buyers.
Remington Homes is betting on the resurgence of the ranch. The
builder has opened two new single-level models at Remington Pointe in Volo in
Lake County.
"We specialize in ranches and have seven different plans,"
said Greg Rose, Remington's sales manager.
He described the appeal of
ranches: "The open floor plans of one-level bring everybody together. We're
starting to see a shift of younger buyers to ranches, as well as
empty-nesters."
One young buyer described the appeal of ranches: "We fell
in love with the open floor plan of a 1,750-square-foot ranch with 15-foot-high
vaulted ceilings. Young couples with no kids don't need the unwanted space
upstairs in a two-story," said Anthony Raines, 26.
He explained that he and
his girlfriend, Lindsey Smetana, 23, bought the Cypress model at Remington
Pointe in northwest suburban Volo.
Base-priced from about $200,000, it
has two bedrooms, a loft and unfinished basement. After apartment renting, they
moved in last September.
"Some of my friends like ranches because they
think a two-story would be overkill as a starter home," he added.
The new
models at Remington Pointe are the 2,481-square-foot Manchester and the
2,253-square-foot Essex. Both have three bedrooms, two baths, full basement and
two-car garages. The Manchester is priced from the low-$300,000s, while the
Essex averages $20,000 to $30,000 less.
John Wozniak, president of J.
Lawrence Homes, thinks ranches are on the upswing because of the growing number
of aging Baby Boomers. He cites the U.S. Census Bureau prediction that 40
percent of Americans will be over the age of 50 by 2012. His firm offers
2,019-square-foot ranches at Silver Leaf in Joliet and at Midlane Club in
Wadsworth.
Another builder emphasizing ranches is Merit Homes, which offers
five ranches at the Enclave, a golf course community in
Libertyville.
First-time buyers want floor plans designed to fit their
lifestyle.
"Young parents want all the bedrooms grouped together so they
can keep tabs on the kids," said builder Jack Sorenson, president of U.S.
Shelter Group.
On the other hand, he noted that empty-nesters want the
master bedroom in a separate part of the house from the guest
bedroom.
U.S. Shelter shows a 2,403-square-foot ranch as a model at its
Prairie Ridge subdivision in Hampshire.
While young buyers are looking
for a basic, low-cost house, empty-nesters want more.
"Many empty-nesters opt
for glamorized master suites, sunroom retreats and upgraded kitchens. "They've
earned it and don't want to be reminded of their first house," Sorenson
said.
In the future, the adaptable ranch will continue to fill the needs
of young and old.
Photo(s) Photos (color): William and Ginny Brittain moved
from a three-story townhouse in Chicago to a ranch at Carillon Club in
Naperville last July. "We have a giant great room and lots of space when the
family is over," said Ginny. CANDICE C. CUSIC/TRIBUNE Photo: William and Ginny
Brittain outside their ranch home at Carillon Club, a Cambridge Homes
development for active adults 55 and older in Naperville. CANDICE C.
CUSIC/TRIBUNE
MCCOLLUM ANNOUNCES OVER $23 MILLION FOR MN PROJECTS
299 words
26 February 2009
States News Service
English
(c) 2009
States News Service
The following information was released by the office
of Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum:
Congresswoman Betty McCollum (MN-04),
Minnesota's member on the U.S. House Appropriations Committee, today announced
$23,630,000 in federal funding for projects in the Fourth Congressional
District, as the House passes the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act (H.R.
1105).
“Minnesota has been hit hard economically and this $23 million in
federal investments will go a long way to create good local jobs, improve
connectivity and strengthen our state's economy,” Congresswoman McCollum
said.
The $410 billion omnibus spending bill will fund the federal
government for the balance of fiscal year 2009. The legislation is slated for
final passage by Congress next week and then heads to President Obama's desk to
be signed into law.
The following are projects secured by Congresswoman
McCollum in the fiscal year 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act:
Fourth
Congressional District Federally Funded Projects (FY09)
Transportation
Infrastructure:
$20 Million Central Corridor Light Rail Transit
$475,000
Red Rock Corridor Intermodal Bus and Bus Facilities (Newport, MN)
$475,000
Snelling Avenue Pedestrian Safety Median
Healthcare and Community
Services:
$466,000 Metropolitan State University, Faculty Model for
Addressing Nursing Shortage
$238,000 Jewish Family Service, Aging in
Place Initiative
$285,000 Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare,
Electronic Medical Record system
$285,000 Highland Park Clinic, Ambulatory
Electronic Medical Record
$381,000 University of Minnesota, Veterinary
Diagnostic Lab and BSL-3 Facility
Workforce Training:
$500,000 Twin
Cities Rise! (Job training program for ex-offenders)
Agriculture and Food
Security:
$290,000 University of Minnesota Cereal Disease Lab
$235,000
University of Minnesota Uniform Farm Management Program
Congresswoman
Betty McCollum (MN-4) serves on the House Appropriations and Budget
Committees.
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