Seniors in the City: Design Considerations for Health and Wellness

In 2010, 12.2 percent of New York City residents were 65 years or older. This number will increase to 15.6 percent in 2040, making the older adult population larger than that of school-aged children. As such, the built environment will need to be designed to meet the needs of this growing population, especially in housing and healthcare.

Traditionally, the design community has responded to this population’s needs through the creation of long-term care facilities. Today, architects, designers, and clinicians are focusing on creating environments that encourage wellness and healthy living for older adults outside the traditional senior care facility. Through the creation of age-friendly neighborhoods, geriatric emergency departments, and centers for healthy living, NYC will have a new paradigm to provide fitness, therapeutic, and cultural centers for seniors that can also become vibrant community resources.

Join the AIANY Design for Aging Committee for a discussion about the physical, emotional, and sensory changes that occur during the aging process and how the design of the built environment can provide support and facilitate independence whether at home, in a healthcare setting, or living in the community.

Speakers:
Esther Greenhouse, Environmental Gerontologist
Ula Hwang, MD, Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine, Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Mount Sinai Medical Center
Richard Rosen, AIA, Principal, Perkins Eastman

Moderator: Lindsay Goldman, Director, Healthy Aging, Center for Health Policy and Programs, New York Academy of Medicine

Esther Greenhouse is an environmental gerontologist and designer advising manufacturers, consulting on regional PBS series, and developing the program for the visual environment of the nation’s first elder-focused emergency department. A contributor to Henry Cisneros’ book Independent for Life, she is recognized as a national expert in both universal design and aging-in-place. Involved with AARP’s Age-Friendly Communities program, Greenhouse works with municipalities to catalyze positive change. She is an Industry Scholar in the new Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures, where she is developing a course on the intersection of the built environment and aging. An award-winning instructor for the National Association of Home Builders, Greenhouse’s goal is to collaborate to create environments of all scales that enable people to thrive.

Ula Hwang, MD, is an Associate Professor in Emergency Medicine and Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. She is also a core investigator in the GRECC (Geriatrics Research, Education and Clinical Center) at the James J. Peters Bronx VAMC. Her research focuses on understanding and improving the quality of care older adults receive in the ED setting. She wrote the seminal article, “The Geriatric Emergency Department,” and co-led the development of the nationally endorsed Geriatric ED Guidelines that debuted in 2014. She currently co-PIs the jointly funded John A. Hartford Foundation and West Health Institute, a multi-organizational Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative initiative to disseminate and implement recommendations from the Geriatric ED Guidelines in hospitals across the US. She holds leadership positions in Geriatric Emergency Medicine programs and is the current ACEP Geriatric Section chair and has been the past President of the Academy of Geriatric Emergency Medicine of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

Richard Rosen, AIA, is a Principal in the Senior Living Studio with Perkins Eastman. Though he specializes in Senior Living buildings, Rosen has more than 30 years of experience in a variety of institutional building types, including courthouses, hospitals, laboratory buildings, and multi-family housing. Prior to joining Perkins Eastman, he was a senior design manager for Marriott Senior Living Services, responsible for the design of senior living communities in New England and New York. In addition, Rosen served as the Chairman for NAHB’s Best of Senior Housing Awards for 2005-2006. He has a Master of Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Arts in French Literature from University of Rochester.

Lindsay Goldman, LMSW directs the New York Academy of Medicine’s work in healthy aging. She has 14 years of experience in program development and administration, aging services, philanthropy, and social policy. Goldman oversees Age-friendly NYC, the Academy’s partnership with the City Council and the Office of the Mayor to improve all aspects of city life for older people. She is the lead author of the Academy’s report Resilient Communities: Empowering Older Adults in Disasters and Daily Life and the chapter, “Age-friendly New York City: A Case Study,” in the recently published book, Age-friendly Cities and Communities in International Comparison. Prior to her time at the Academy, Goldman worked at UJA-Federation of New York where she was responsible for strategic planning and allocations to support older adults in New York and Israel. Goldman also served as the director of the Health Enhancement Partnership at Lenox Hill Neighborhood House and received a Best Practice Award for her work from the National Council on Aging in 2008. She holds a BA from Wesleyan University and an MSW from NYU.