Borrowing from Restaurants to Reinvent the Dining Experience at Older Adult Communities

If elevating the dining experience for customers works for restaurants, it can work for older adult communities, too. That’s the message OZ Principal Jami Mohlenkamp, AIA, conveys in a column he authored for the latest issue of CREJ’s Health Care Properties Quarterly.

Mohlenkamp, who heads the senior living practice at OZ Architecture, points to the new Atria Englewood assisted living and memory care residences south of Denver as a prime example of how older adult communities (and the architectural firms that design their built environments) are taking cues from restaurants to create elevated dining experiences for their residents and guests. Atria’s top-floor dining area provides stunning penthouse-quality views of the Rocky Mountains, an example of how older adult communities are moving away from impersonal cafeteria-style dining halls, toward a more personalized dining experience with crowd-pleasing spaces and elements borrowed directly from the restaurant design.

Specifically, Mohlenkamp details a half-dozen potential design approaches from the restaurant world that are viable and cost-effective for older adult communities and their experience-hungry residents. See the complete article below.