When they set out to reimagine the Senior Center facility more than 10 years ago, the architects at local firm Bushman Dreyfus knew they could be part of something special.
The Center had grown into a nationally acclaimed senior community organization under the leadership of executive director Peter Thompson. First accredited in 2002, it went on to win the 2008 Commonwealth Council on Aging Best Practices Award and the national 2009 NuStep Pinnacle of Excellence Award.
But space limitations began to take their toll. So Thompson and his team of architects launched a feasibility study in 2009 to explore a new facility and put the Center at Belvedere—as it would be known in its new location—back on top.
“Our vision was continuing our focus on holistic wellness and healthy aging programs,” Thompson says. “What we know is, by segregating people by age…it is not healthy for the individual or community. We need places for people to come together and create the magic of community.”
Construction on the new center, situated between Pen Park and U.S. 29, began in late 2018 and was completed in early 2020. The result is an open-concept space in the demographically diverse Belvedere neighborhood anchored by a Greenberry’s coffee shop and medical clinic, and gleaming with modern materials and glass for maximum natural lighting.
Thompson says the goal was to create a space welcoming to folks of all ages. “It’s more like a hotel lobby in the atrium,” he says. Still, Thompson recognizes some seniors don’t want to interact with others at all times, so the space is dotted with art studios and exercise rooms to create separation.
“All the program areas have glass to the corridors and atrium—it’s about connecting people,” Thompson says. “You are never disconnected from the rest of the building. That is a critical, huge piece.”
According to Tim Tessier, who along with Jeff Dreyfus, Kevin Cwalina, and Dhara Goradia led the project from an architectural perspective, at least two goals drove most design decisions. First was wayfinding. The Center at Belvedere is laid out along two main wings running off the lobby. The idea is to make it easy for seniors to enter the building, find their way to classrooms and other amenities, and return to the entrance.
Second was a blending of indoor and outdoor spaces—what Thompson describes as a campus-like effect.
“It started with this idea of a big, gracious, open space across two stories,” Tessier says. “It also opens to a pond on the back of the building…and encourages people to flow to the outdoors and enjoy those spaces.”
Bushman Dreyfus leaned on Lifespan Design Studio of Ohio to assist on quality of life design elements, and selected a modern senior center in Utah as its inspiration for the new Center at Belvedere.
“The building they were in before was not a modern building,” Tessier says. “They were willing to try something new. It was not this idea of grandma sitting in a parlor, or whatever antiquated views people might have.”
