Four teams of Cornell design and behavioral environment students teamed up with Kendal at Ithaca residents recently to complete a series of interactive studies focusing on the community's dining areas and their support facilities. The students chose the following points as guidelines for the studies: social interaction; lighting; materials and their finishes and ease of maintenance; safety; sense of place; empowerment of the individual diner; circulation and signage, and; acoustics.

The Cornell teams followed a thoughtfully planned process, first visiting the Blue Heron formal dining room and the informal Windows room and its servery for initial observations. They next revisited during dining hours to observe—following their guidelines—and to identify design issues. The designers then worked with the residents to gather feedback on their findings and to discuss observations and concepts. The process was highly collaborative and led to the development of prototypes suggested by the students. Last came construction of the final models and a formal presentation to Kendal residents and staff.

Blue Heron Room

For the Blue Heron, the problematic issues were discovered to be ambience, privacy/territoriality, and acoustics; the goal was increased usage in a more spacious, personalized, and intimate room. The students came up with a series of flexible, lightweight partitions that would create an enhanced sense of visual privacy while not only being fully adjustable for changing set-ups, but also accessible for wheelchairs and walkers.

Resident reactions to the Blue Heron partitions included: “The sound level just drops! Openness but intimacy...flexible...inviting...easily budgeted.“

Windows Room

The Windows dining room and its servery, larger and more complex, presented a range of significant problem areas: lighting, glare from the floor-to-ceiling windows, traffic circulation, crowding and access at certain points, seating arrangements, and storage. The students brought forth a wealth of constructive ideas for change, some more affordable than others, but all creative. Certain simple rearrangements of elements of the room, such as the cashier's position and the layout of the salad bar, led to the articulation of some interesting possibilities including a central "node" that would ease both circulation and congestion.

The node prototype was built and tested: it consolidated dessert, soup, coffee, and waffle amenities; provided a feature to promote resident interaction; and centralized and streamlined circulation paths. The actual node structures were also flexible and moveable.

Within the main dining space, varied sizes of tables arranged in new patterns were suggested as was the possible use of moveable dividers or partitions for small groups and couples. Perhaps most strikingly, the Cornell students suggested "annexing" two under-utilized sections of the adjacent living room area. With some modifications to existing space, these areas could provide much needed extra seating and could accommodate smaller, quieter groups who would enjoy the fireplace and the feeling of a separate dining area.

The project is going forward with a six- person ad hoc group working on a description of specific changes and the technical and logistic feasibility of achieving them. A proposal will be developed to share with all Kendal at Ithaca residents in the near future.

"The importance of a built environment that is safe and socially conducive became apparent to me through my research but it was reinforced through my discussions with Kendal at Ithaca residents. Being able to experience that culture first hand was both personally and educationally rewarding ...it allowed me to take what I've learned at Cornell and apply it in a way that could tangibly improve the well-being of others. By working with the Kendal at Ithaca residents I developed a vested interest in helping them achieve a more enjoyable dining experience and will carry the lessons I learned from this project well into the future."

              Emily A. Gates, Cornell student

"I really enjoyed working with Kendal residents from a design and educational standpoint. Every designer wants clients that are engaged and that ultimately really care about the final design. Everyone that we worked with at Kendal lent us very valuable feedback, and made us excited to present the final product. It really felt as though what we were doing mattered! In the classroom setting, you don't get experiences quite like that."

              Brooke Mayer, Cornell student

"Many of us felt it was a great experience/collaboration for BOTH residents and students and would like to encourage more in the future. The success lies with faculty who have both interest and knowledge in living environments such as Kendal’s and Kendal administrators who are interested and able to commit their time."

              Cindy Noble, Kendal at Ithaca resident

One of the enriching opportunities that life at Kendal at Ithaca offers is the chance to interact with college students. Classes at both Ithaca College and Cornell University are always looking for interested and engaged older adults to participate in projects and research. This particular project was highly collaborative and directly addressed a set of problems that has been discussed by residents for some time. 
              Betsy Schermerhorn, Director of Marketing and Public Relations