Senior living builders tackle complex structures and occupied renovations

On a construction site steps from the DC Metro, crews erected a resort-style Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) for seniors looking to enjoy the amenities of urban life. In Hunt Valley, a project team transformed part of a shopping mall into an amenity-rich senior living community. And at numerous seniors’ buildings around the region, construction workers are updating apartments, building out amenities, and modernizing assisted living and memory care facilities.

The demand for additional and updated senior living communities is strong and growing. For the construction industry, that means professionals and tradespeople need to master the complex requirements of facilities that combine independent living, assisted living and memory care. It also means construction workers must craft exquisite, high-end amenities, erect buildings on tighter sites, and orchestrate unique project phasing and sequencing to complete expansive renovations in fully occupied facilities.

Modern CCRC developments, which combine independent living (IL) apartments with assisted living (AL) and memory care wings, require project teams to deliver multiple structural and building systems within a single facility.

While IL residences can follow the wood-construction processes of multi-family developments, AL and memory care spaces must meet the standards of non-combustible construction. That includes concrete and steel structures, two- to three-hour fire walls, and other fire protection measures that enable residents and staff to shelter in place rather than fleeing a fire. Projects often call for large partitions and fire doors that automatically close in an emergency, dampers that close to prevent fire or smoke from spreading through ductwork, and designs that prevent pipes from crossing from IL to AL areas.

“It’s like building a commercial building inside a residential structure,” said Casey Hughes, Vice President of Harkins Builders. “But it all functions as one building. Once you are inside, you don’t know they are two different buildings.”

Meeting all of those requirements means assembling a much larger project team.

“On a standard multi-family job, we probably have 40 contracts, 40 trades,” Hughes said. “On a senior living, continuing care project, we have 70 to 80.”

In addition to delivering different structural systems and other aspects of non-combustible construction, the project team must meet other distinct needs of a CCRC. Those include commercial kitchens and laundry rooms, nurse call systems, wander guard systems, extensive access controls, infrastructure to serveries in multiple dining areas and bars, full-house generators and more.

“All of these buildings have central hot water mechanical systems which are done by a different caliber of plumber than a residential water heating system,” Hughes said.

The variety of residential units and common spaces in CCRCs adds to the complexity of the work.

“It’s not a production build,” Hughes said. “In some multi-family jobs, once you figure out one component, you just repeat it 300 times. That’s not the case in senior living communities. Once you figure out the barroom then you move onto the salon then the physical therapy room and so on. Each one is totally different and has their own challenges. Sometimes, it feels like you are building a 200,000-square-foot custom home.”

Those complex projects, however, are creating interesting opportunities for some contractors.

Located near a Metro line, Brightview Dulles Corner is taller than many CCRCs and required a tower crane for the concrete work. To meet non-combustible construction requirements, the project used the Hambro Structural Floor System – a composite slab system comprised of concrete and wire mesh – supplied by Swirnow Building Systems.

“Any job that includes a tower crane is a very intense process. It’s expensive, time consuming and risky,” said Ted Bowes, President of Excell Concrete, which also recently worked on Brightview Alexandria.

Excell completed the footings and slab for both buildings then installed the Hambro system.

“We were putting joists in place, installing temporary plywood and reinforcing mesh, then placing and finishing the concrete,” Bowes said. “Obviously, when you get up six or seven stories in the air, that work gets tougher.”

Brightview Dulles — which features resort-style amenities including bocci ball courts and a dog park — also presented Excell with the opportunity to complete impressive site concrete.

“There was integral color decorative concrete outside,” Bowes said. “There was also a large amount of concrete that was poured overtop of rigid insulation on top of the garage to create amenity space. To get the grades and shapes they wanted, we stacked up rigid insulation four feet thick in places. There was probably as much complexity in completing the site concrete as there was in building the building.”

However, renovations of existing facilities are currently the most prevalent senior living projects.

High interest rates and construction costs are limiting new construction yet “the demand for senior living keeps growing faster and faster,” said Bud Grove, Senior Vice President of Senior Living at Wohlsen Construction. “Forty-five percent of the existing senior living product is 25 years old or older and there is very limited new product coming online. So, there is big interest in renovating.”

CCRC owners are remodeling apartments to meet modern tastes and updating main entrances, lobbies and other common areas to create more luxurious environments. They are adding fitness centers, pickleball courts, indoor-outdoor bars, walking trails and other amenities. They are also transforming single dining halls into a selection of distinctive cafes and bars.

At Sunrise Brightview Gardens in Columbia, Wohlsen is currently completing extensive renovations that include upgrades to common areas, activity rooms, dining rooms, select resident rooms, and memory care space. It also added a new second-floor balcony and converted a roof area into an outdoor terrace.

At Pickersgill Retirement Community in Baltimore, Plano-Coudon Construction is nearing completion of Phase 3 of expansive renovations. To date, those have included updating skilled nursing facilities, converting studio apartments into one-bedroom assisted living units, updating MEP systems, and updating or adding an array of amenity spaces – a reading area, gathering space, games room, garden room, gym, pub, salon, dining room and continental breakfast area.

“Residents and their families are expecting more,” said Lisa Tenley, Vice President of People and Communication at Plano-Coudon. “I heard one client say that they try to market their community to the oldest daughter in a family because that is often the person who helps make the decision on what facility a senior will move into.”

Completing those renovations in fully occupied facilities is extraordinarily challenging.

“You have to be mindful and respectful of residents and work with the staff to understand how they operate the building,” Grove said.

That detailed knowledge is essential to developing what inevitably is a complex and uncommon plan for phasing and sequencing work. To keep residents and staff safe and minimize disruptions to their days, crews have to be prepared to erect and repeatedly move temporary barriers, adhere to strict hours of construction, and complete unnatural processes, like renovating half a dining room while supporting full operations in other half.

“Our superintendent is the orchestra leader and when he points the baton at the first violinist – or the electrical contractor — they have got to hit their mark,” Grove said.

Project teams also need to continually communicate and interact with staff and residents, said John Jozwiak, Project Manager at Plano-Coudon.

The company, which has worked on phased, occupied renovations at Pickersgill since 2019, is “in constant communication with the owner and we do bi-weekly construction memos that we send out to all the residents to let them know the status of construction, what’s coming up and if they are going to be affected in the coming weeks by our activity.”

Both Plano-Coudon and Wohlsen further engage residents with the construction projects by putting plexiglass windows in temporary partitions so that residents can safely view construction sites. They also periodically partner with art groups at senior communities and enable them to paint the exterior of temporary partitions.

“When you are doing these difficult projects and you have residents living there, your team has to really delight the customer. They have to work like a ghost in the background but still make the community feel like they are part of the construction project,” said Grant Cunningham, Project Executive at Plano-Coudon.

Plano-Coudon has deepened that connection by becoming Pickersgill’s construction manager.

“We take extra steps,” Jozwiak said. “We will get together with them and do a page-turning through all the drawings and make sure they are aware of all the work we are putting in place. We follow an open-book concept and if we have a question about whether something is going to work with the facility, we will bring it to their attention. We are not going to put work in place that may not be in their best interest.”