Photo courtesy of PROCON
Architects at Manchester-based developer PROCON received a notable national design award for a senior living facility the company developed in Connecticut.
The company’s architecture team was recognized as a winner of the 2019 Argentum Senior Living by Design Award for Brightview Senior Living in Shelton, Connecticut. The Shelton community was selected from among 34 national submissions for its embodiment of Argentum’s 2019 theme “A Certain Sense of Place.”
Argentum is the leading national association exclusively dedicated to supporting companies operating resident-centered senior living communities and represents 75 percent of the senior living industry.
The 4-story,168,000-square-foot Brightview Shelton is lodged in the Connecticut countryside adjacent to Wells Hollow Farm, between New Haven and Bridgeport. Inspired by the farm, the building features bays, a gabled roof, balconies, porches and a porte-cochere entrance. Light fixtures, barn lights at the resident balconies, a decorative cupola and a chandelier at the porte-cochere all pay homage to its countryside setting. And, the assisted living common spaces and corridors face the dairy farm, allowing residents to watch activities of a working farm, while encouraging them to visit the farm’s ice cream stand with their families.
Following studies that state natural light is important for health, the team sought to maximize controlled natural light throughout the building, including the entrance, gathering spaces and resident areas with vaulted ceilings, oversized windows with transoms and light tubes for welcoming natural light. Bright communal spaces were designed to encourage community connections among the residents.
Outside the building, senior-friendly planter boxes provide a place for seniors to get their hands’ dirty. The independent living garden features a stone seat wall for adult children to use while their parents sit in more senior-friendly chairs. The memory care neighborhood has integrated musical instruments, as well as a sensory garden with plants that stimulate residents with a variety of sensory experiences. Outdoor games include a putting green and a bocce court.
