SAS Architects & Planners is happy to showcase the renovation work for the existing Independent Living Commons at Oak Trace. This exciting and vibrant renovation project adds life to the existing community and is a wonderful example of what is yet to come with the opening of the new Independent Living building and Commons in February of 2024! We thank all of the amazing and talented people who have worked hard to make this concept into a reality.
The interior renovation of the existing independent living building is part of a multi-phased master plan at the Oak Trace Senior Living Community. The second phase brings renovation to the existing independent living amenity spaces, completed July 2023, and will provide a new 5-story independent living apartment building with additional amenity spaces that will be complete in early 2024. The existing and new IL buildings will be connected by a common corridor.
The goals of the master planning concept for the amenity spaces aligned around maximizing opportunities for connections to the exterior environment and providing unique amenities to encourage community interactions. The amenity spaces within each building are positioned around courtyards to aid in wayfinding, enhance connections to the exterior environment, and improve access to natural light. Community residents expressed concern that they might develop an “us versus them” mentality with the new building, and that the residents would not feel at home if they were not in “their building”. To counteract this, careful planning took place to purposefully ensure unique amenity spaces were placed in each building, operationally themed to create unique experiences while encouraging residents to move between the original and new building with regularity and frequency.
The renovation project transformed the previous main entrance and a series of enclosed amenity spaces into an open plan bar lounge and game room. To provide a more flexible area for public gatherings, a significant amount of the corridor was removed to open into the newly renovated dining rooms. Also, a telescoping wall opens the game room into the lounge to provide more flexibility throughout this space. At the center of this renovation is a double-sided fireplace as the focal point of the bar lounge, featuring rich woodwork and laser etched illuminated screens. This renovation phase also included the refinishing of the existing Dining rooms, multipurpose rooms and expansion of their existing arts and crafts room. At the completion of the master planning project, the bar lounge and game room will offer an upscale and unique destination for the community only found in the original building.