Senior Housing – “beyond sticks and bricks”

Kasey Burke, Senior Vice President of Meta Housing, accepts SAGE award (left), and S111’s Michael Bohn meets with SAGE “Person of the Year” Annie Gerard (right).

Last week Studio One Eleven was honored at the 2010 SAGE Awards Dinner for our Long Beach Senior Arts Colony, which was recognized in the “On the Boards” category. The SAGE Award highlights individuals, projects and programs that have made outstanding contributions to enhance the quality of life of Southern California residents aged 50+. This year there were a record number of entries, so we are proud to be a part of a winning team.

The SAGE Awards are given annually by the 50+ Housing Council, which was celebrating its 20th anniversary. Many of the influential icons in the senior housing industry were acknowledged at the event, including John Huskey, President of Meta Housing Corporation, Vicki Clark, President of Vintage Senior Housing, and Barbara Krueger, founder of the first 50+ Housing Council in Orange County.  It was a great opportunity to network and learn about the issues that guide our work as architects who design for senior and/or affordable housing projects.

SCANPH looks at TODs

The Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing (SCANPH) held its annual conference on October 1, 2010, with the topic of “Recent Practices in Transportation-Oriented Development.” Michael Bohn of Studio One Eleven was one of several invited speakers, which included Art Cueto of Transtech, Michael Dieden of Creative Housing, and Dan Falcon of McCormack Baron Salazar, on benefits and strategies associated with developing around transit.

The event attracted a diverse audience and engaged developers, non-profit organizations, funders, and policy-makers. Many came with limited knowledge on how to leverage these important parcels around transit hubs, often instead looking for simplistic solutions that do not respond to the context. The good news is that public funding sources are increasingly being directed towards TODs, planners are incorporating the idea of developing around transit into their vision, and innovation has spurred many creative approaches to parking that encourage more development in these areas.

You can view Michael’s presentation slides here.

Studio One Eleven’s Long Beach + Anaheim Wins 2010 SAGE Award

Studio One Eleven’s Long Beach + Anaheim Senior Artist’s Colony has been awarded the 2010 SAGE “On The Boards” Award, which showcases 50+ residential communities still in the design stage.  The SAGE Award is one of the most prestigious honors in the Senior Housing Industry, recognizing individuals, projects, and programs that have made an outstanding contribution to enhancing the quality of life for Southern California residents aged 50+.  What made Long Beach + Anaheim attractive to the judges was the contemporary design, as well as the fact that it is located in an urban setting linked to transit with future potential of being associated with a mix of uses, incomes, and multigenerational residents.

CNU President John Norquist Visits Long Beach, Studio 111

LONG BEACH (July 27, 2010) – Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) President John Norquist, on a visit to Southern California, spent the afternoon of July 27 touring Long Beach then gathering with Southern California CNU members at Studio One Eleven. The evening was highlighted by an engaging Town Hall-style discussion focusing on urbanism in Long Beach and its affect at the national level.