Aging populations inspire ‘universal design’ housing

By Charles Taylor
Senior Staff Writer

Prince William County, Va. doesn’t want to leave the future to chance when it comes to meeting its residents’ lifelong housing needs. Spurred by aging baby boomers, the county is promoting the concept of “universal design” in homebuilding — homes that can evolve to meet a family’s changing needs over a lifetime.

“A lot of housing that’s out there now is what I describe as  ‘Peter Pan housing’ — designed for people who are never going to grow up and never going to grow old,” said Jon Pynoos, professor, Andrus Gerontology Center at the University of Southern California and a universal design advocate.

AARP surveys show that the vast majority of its members want to “age in place” — either in their current home or community. Without adaptable housing, that prospect becomes less likely, Pynoos said.

“Especially baby boomers — who have seen their own parents age and tried to provide them support in housing that doesn’t work — have come to the realization that there’s a better way to do it,” he added.

Counties and cities across the country are embracing universal design — or UD — concepts and educating their residents about the benefits. Howard County, Md. has created a zoning category to encourage UD home construction. The state of California has passed a voluntary code that cities can adopt. The city of Irvine, Calif. developed a voluntary UD code education program.

“The intent of universal design is to simplify life for everyone by making products, communications and the built environment more usable by as many people as possible at little or no extra cost,” according to the Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University in Raleigh (Wake County). Universal design benefits people regardless of age, ability or situation.

Pynoos said a UD home can cost zero- to 5-percent more than a comparable house without universal design features: “These things don’t cost very much more if done early on” and are “much more expensive and difficult and cumbersome to do after the fact.”

Prince William’s universal design efforts began with an eye toward the “aging and disability community.” However, universal design isn’t just about ramps and grab bars. Wider doors and hallways can accommodate strollers as easily as wheelchairs; a teen on crutches can appreciate a “zero-step” entryway as much as a senior using a walker.

“While particular groups may especially benefit from features at a particular point in time, there’s nothing about any of it that says ‘Boy, that’s a real turn off,’ said Richard C. Duncan, senior project manager at the UD Center at N.C. State.

“This is very mainstream design stuff that everyone can move into and enjoy.”

A universal design demonstration house that recently opened in Prince William — and will be on display through the end of March — is “high-end” construction, said Toni Clemons-Porter, long-term care coordinator for the county’s Area Agency on Aging. She also co-chairs the Greater Prince William Coalition on Universal Design. However, UD concepts have been used in Habitat for Humanity houses and other affordable dwellings, Duncan said.

Photo courtesy of Devereaux and Associates The kitchen island in the Prince William universal design house features a lower sink with a recessed area below it that’s wheelchair accessible and kid friendly.

“It’s a house that’s beautiful; it’s a house that is marketable, and it integrates the features in the house seamlessly,” Clemons-Porter said of the home in Prince William. “And quite frankly, if we don’t point out to you some of the features, you may never pick up on them.”

Case in point: the stairs to the second floor. The lip of each hardwood step is stained a darker color. “Just by having the stain which looks like a beautiful design at the edge of each step, allows a person with a visual impairment to see the edge and where each step ends,” she said. And yes, there is a staircase in this UD house.

N.C. State’s Duncan said, “We like to highlight multiple-story houses as being candidates for universal design, which also busts myths; people tend to think it’s got to be a ranch-style house.” For example, UD homes can be built with “stacked closets” — an upstairs closet in the same footprint as one downstairs — that can later be converted to an elevator shaft, if the need arises. This can be done for perhaps $20,000 less than in a home without this accommodation, experts say. The Prince William house accomplishes this with a computer alcove upstairs over a downstairs kitchen pantry.

Howard County, Md. — zoning for universal design

In 2002, Howard County established a new zoning category for “active adult” housing, dwellings specifically designed and sold to anyone over 55, according to Phyllis Madachy, administrator of the county’s Office of Aging.

The guidelines for such construction require that “individual dwellings must incorporate universal design features to be adaptable for residents with mobility and functional limitations that often result from aging.”

  Madachy said, “This kind of housing is springing up all over the country” — prompted by the “early edge” of the baby boomers who want to remain active as they approach and pass retirement age.

In Howard County, the rule is that developers can’t build single-family homes in areas where schools are 15 percent over capacity. However, there’s an exception for builders of active adult housing. Madachy explained that developers of over-55 housing “are given higher density so they can build four units on an acre and are not required to show impact on roads or schools.” This allows them to build in areas that would otherwise be off limits.

The county’s Universal Design Guidelines for Age-Restricted Adult Housing specify, among other features:

• for multi-family apartment or condo developments, an accessible path between parking, dwelling units and common areas that meet ADA standards
• for single family detached and attached developments, a “no-step” access to the front door entrance to all dwelling units and community buildings. If a no-step front entrance is not feasible, an alternate no-step side or garage entry to the first floor may be approved (a no-step entrance is desirable, but not required at other entrances)
• complete living area including master bedroom and bath on first level floor (or elevator access if multi-story apartments)
• lever handles on interior and exterior doors, and
• reinforced walls to allow for the later installation of grab bars around the toilet, tub and shower stall.

Madachy said, “The universal design advocates who were instrumental in this happening are with the Howard County Homes for Life Coalition” (www.hflc.org). USC’s Professor Pynoos applauds the county’s approach, saying “Howard County has done a really good job on this.”

Prince William County’s road to universal design

Leon Harper, a former AARP housing specialist and current Prince William County resident, has been instrumental in mobilizing the universal design discussion in the county. He chairs the county’s UD Coalition.

“We were lucky in this county in that we had through Toni (Clemons-Porter) a great long term care group,” he said, “and that group, when I joined it, evolved it into an aging-in-place committee” — a precursor to the coalition.

“The real thing that made it happen in the county,” he added, “we constantly kept this before the board of county supervisors. And we were able to educate our members so that they went back to their constituencies and educated them, and the county could see the validity of where we coming from.”

County Supervisor Martin E. Nohe recently told The Washington Post, “I’ll be honest, I had absolutely no idea what universal design was when I joined the board three years ago.” Of the universal design house, he said, “There are design features in here to help the disabled and the aging, but the features also help everyone. The word universal is very important.” Lesson learned.

In September 2005, Prince William County hosted a symposium that brought together more than 160 professionals — including architects and home builders — to educate them about universal design, said Clemons-Porter. “Coming from the aging network, we began noticing a trend. Time and time again, we would learn of families who moved into the Prince William community — and this is happening nationwide — moving into housing that they could not function in.”

She recounted a tearful call from an “elderly man” who had just bought a house, but after suffering a stroke, “couldn’t get in and out of the house.”

“He was very frustrated and it was going to cost him a lot of money to renovate the house to make it usable.”

The coalition worked with Centex Homes and architects Devereaux and Associates, which resulted in their volunteering to design and build the house “at their own cost,” Clemons-Porter said. “Nothing has gone into the house at any cost to the county, which is wonderful. So, it’s been a partnership.”

She said the County Board has made educating the community about the importance of universal design in housing a “goal in their five-year strategic plan.”

“If we can educate consumers — create a demand for this type of housing, which we think people will want — we’ll see more builders include that in housing now and into the future,” she said.