Changing trends, some ongoing challenges, and cautious optimism are on the agenda for senior living industry leaders, and Pi’s Greg Hunteman and a panel of experts addressed all of these during “Emerging Trends in Operations, Development, Repositioning,” a Good People Power Talk program.

When you talk to people living with dementia and their families, it is clear that they face numerous challenges. However, there are no easy solutions. It isn’t always desirable to go into a nursing home or even an assisted living facility, and it can be difficult to keep them at home. We can help by creating and promoting design elements that make it safe and comfortable for individuals with dementia and their families wherever they are.

The popularity of pickleball is estimated to have grown nearly 40% between 2019 and 2021. More than 36.5 million people played the sport between August 2021 and 2022.

It’s clear that pickleball is here to stay and I have to admit I’ve joined the revolution. It’s a great way to get exercise and have fun!

Writer E.M. Forster once said, “What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives?” That is the essence of why people seek places. By nature, people are attracted to integrating indoor and outdoor spaces, with easy access to biking/walking paths, hiking trails, dog parks, and pools.

Boomers coming to senior living surprises no one. Still, there are some ‘aha’ moments regarding precisely who they are, what they want, and how to design communities that will appeal to them and the Gen Xers coming behind them.

Take a look at some data from a recent survey report, on boomers and the future of senior living.

Master planning is like knowing in advance where all the pieces go before you start the puzzle. More precisely, it is a vision and a road map built from the information and optics of a community’s operations, market needs and standards, and cost realities that must all be harmoniously combined with inspiration.

Make no mistake. While master planning builds on what has and hasn’t worked in the past and uses these to create a strategy and a template for success, this is by no means a rubber stamp or a cookie-cutter approach to design. With master planning, you save the time, money, and challenges involved in trying to reinvent the wheel for every project. However, the wheel remains unique for each building.

Here’s the dilemma. We’ve seen firsthand how physically and mentally damaging social isolation can be on seniors, but—at least for the foreseeable future—we can’t go back to in-person visits, group activities, concerts, and crowded dining halls.

As senior living communities seek to address pandemic concerns and prepare for the new normal post-COVID, renovations are on their minds.