SAGE Industry Research Funded by J+J Flooring Group to Focus on Florida CCRC
as the First of Many Design Reviews to Improve Senior Lifestyles

 GRANDVILLE, Mich. – Jan.  XX, 2017 – The Cottage at Cypress Cove, the nationally-recognized newly constructed, state-of-the-art assisted living memory care facility on the Fort Myers, Fla. continuing care retirement community of Cypress Cove at HealthPark Florida, has been selected to serve as the first United States site for a new Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE). Evaluation of The Cottage, part of any ongoing research program to improve senior living design, will assist in identifying which design aspects of Cypress Cove’s four-household memory care facility delivers the best resident outcomes and what new insights can be gleaned from areas that need improvement.

The POE project is being led by the Society for the Advancement of Gerontological Environments (SAGE) and funded by J+J Flooring Group, a major provider of flooring products for the senior living industry. On-site evaluation of Cypress Cove will begin in late January of 2018.

“We are delighted to be selected as the first POE site,” says Cypress Cove Executive Director Michele Wasserlauf.  “Since opening, The Cottage has received rave reviews for its home-like environment. The households’ design, purposely built for residents with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, has allowed our staff to provide specialized person-center care to those living at the 44-apartment facility.”

“We are thrilled with an opportunity to support the evaluation for an industry that seeks even better approaches to serving those who suffer from loss of memory,” she adds.

Selecting the POE site for the evaluation involved careful consideration of both logistical factors as well as content-quality factors. SAGE selected The Cottage at Cypress Cove based on their award-winning submission for the 2017 Environments for Aging Design Showcase. The documentation that accompanied their submission provided detailed descriptions of project goals and objectives.

These descriptions will be cross referenced with the SAGE Principles and used as the basis for evaluation to document design outcomes and user experiences. What is learned from the POE can be used to inform future design and set directions for future research in environments for older adults. POEs are used to improve the ways that buildings are designed and support productivity and well-being. POEs have been more commonplace in offices, schools and universities, hotels and hospitals.

Collaborative Industry Effort

J+J Flooring Group and SAGE have formed a partnership to establish the 2018 SAGE POE. The multi-step, multi-year program is the first of its kind within the combined flooring and senior lifestyle spaces. The project will provide a sustainable platform to conduct ongoing post-occupancy evaluations (POEs) of physical environments for older adults which involve collaboration among numerous stakeholders.

“Over the years, SAGE has led a number of post-occupancy efforts.” said SAGE President Mitch Elliott, AIA. “The sponsorship of J+J Flooring Group will allow the POE team to dig deeper into exploring the outcomes at Cypress Cove. We believe that J+J Flooring Group is the best possible partner to help us achieve this goal because they are equally committed to elevating the life experience of seniors. We also appreciate the support of Emerald Expositions, as they have given the SAGE POE presentation a prime slot in a two-hour deep-dive session at the 2018 Environments for Aging Conference.”

Elliott added that POE Team Leader Amy Carpenter is a seasoned veteran in the SAGE POE process, and Research Coordinator Migette Kamp will raise the bar for applied research methodology in this process. Both the POE leadership and team include a variety of distinguished experts from various organizations focused on senior living design:

POE Team Leadership

  • Amy Carpenter: POE Team Leader, Architect Specializing in Senior Living, SFCS Architects Inc.
  • Migette Kaup: Research Coordinator, Environmental Gerontologist/ Designer, Professor, Kansas State University

Other members of the POE Team

  • Teresa Whittington: RN Dementia Specialist, VP of Clinical/Continuum Operations at CC Young
  • Robert Soler: Lighting/ Circadian Rhythm Specialist, BIOS: Biological Innovation & Optimization Systems
  • Keith Gray: Director of Applied Research, J+J Flooring Group, Leads Company’s Human-Centered Research Initiatives, Scientist and Engineer (50+ patents), Advocate for Evidence-Based Design, Leadership in Center for Health Design’s Research Coalition and Many Others
  • Fred Worley: Regulatory Expert, Former Regulatory Official with the State of Texas; Member of the NFPA Technical Committee

J+J Flooring Group will provide funding for resources and administrative support for the SAGE POE. SAGE will work with J+J Flooring Group to leverage the company’s experts and relationships in the senior living space during the development, implementation, presentation and publication of the POE. Additionally, J+J will participate in all phases of the partnership and the POE process. The partnership will enable SAGE to build a robust library of POEs, which is a significant first step to fortifying current and future POE tools for collecting usable data on evidence-based design outcomes.

“We believe Cypress Cove is the ideal selection for this SAGE POE project. It’s a top-tier senior community that has a vision for continuous improvement in memory care,” said Keith Gray, director of applied research for J+J Flooring Group. “Their Cottage at Cypress Cove neighborhoods feature some superb and innovative design characteristics. It will be very interesting to see how the POE yields even further refinements in that built environment.”

For more information about J+J Flooring Group, visit www.jjflooringgroup.com or call 800.241.4586.  For more information about SAGE visit www.sagefederation.org or call 888-655-SAGE (7243).  Visit Cypress Cove at www.cypresscoveliving.org

 

About J+J Flooring Group

For more than 60 years, J+J Flooring Group has intelligently crafted beautiful commercial flooring products for diverse applications. As a division of Engineered Floors LLC, we are proud to be a part of the third largest carpet company in North America. With our range of products, including broadloom and modular carpet, Kinetex textile composite flooring and luxury vinyl tile – we engineer all our flooring solutions with a steadfast commitment to design, quality, service, integrity and sustainability.

In 2016, J+J Flooring Group joined Engineered Floors LLC. Based in Dalton, Ga., Engineered Floors is a privately held carpet producer founded in 2010 by Robert E. Shaw. The company, which employs more than 2,800 people, produces stain-resistant and colorfast-solution-dyed nylon and polyester fiber and carpeting for residential replacement, new home builders, as well as multi-family and main street commercial applications. To learn more visit, www.engineeredfloorsllc.com.

About SAGE

SAGE is a leading voice for excellence in the design of senior living environments – for both the built environment and the human experience within it. As such, SAGE promotes collaboration among aging services providers, design professionals, regulators, residents, researchers, manufacturers, educators, students and others interested in providing innovative and appropriate environments for older adults. SAGE membership includes professionals from this diverse base who find value in networking and drawing on the deep learning and sharing opportunities the organization offers.

SAGE sees the core element of its mission as providing a nexus for collaboration among all disciplines involved in the development, operation, and regulation of settings for older adults. To support this mission, SAGE offers educational forums which feature current research and best practices for the design of living environments. The organization also evaluates senior living environments based on SAGE’s design principles and shares results through conferences and publications. In addition, SAGE also promotes regulatory change and research which supports resident-centered care and more.