Dillard, president of D2 Architecture in Dallas, was in Baltimore then. He wanted something more from the firm and wasn't sure his staff of young architects staff really "got it" when they were designing housing for seniors.
His thought: Make them actually move into the senior housing and live with the people they were designing housing for. That way they could first had get a feel for the needs and requirements of the residents.
He went to the human resources office first to make sure he could do it. Then he tapped on the glass at a staff meeting and made the announcement.
"I said we have new protocol and we will require you to on put on pajamas and spend the night as if you were a senior," he said. "You put on pajamas, check in. and write down in an organized way in a journal. What did you see? What were nuisance? What were joys and difficulties.
"You spend 24 hours under the conditions of an 85-year-old or 90-year-old," he says. "They live with limited mobility, glass (windows) that don't work. To help them get the feel of life for these elders, they do things like tape their fingers together to get a feel of what it's like to live with arthritis.'
Dillard's firm, which has 20 employees, doesn't design retirement citizen housing, as such. They design entire retirement campuses.
"Our world starts with a 78-year-old's world," he says. "These are people who want to get out of their houses. They are moving into campuses. There are several levels of care – independent living, assisted living. You can go to skilled care, or if you are losing it mentally, you go to memory support. These are campuses were are designing on 12 to 20 aces. It's a village."
But the key is to get the designers to fully understand what the residents need and require. Each employee keeps a journal, and at the end of that visit they turn their journal in.
"He's trying to get architects and other people interested in! senior housing to be savvy and come up with making a better fit between man and habitat," says Stan Ingman, professor of applied gerontology at the University of North Texas, who has had Dillard talk to his classes. "That's the same thing I see with architects and engineers trying to design green. We can build buildings that are are efficient, but if humans don't like them, they will not be used efficiently."
"The biggest benefit is when I send 27-year-old out, they come back with a heart 10 times as big," Dillard says. They meet people and understand their plights."
The company has done "25 or 30"s sleepovers so far. Dillard has done four himself.
"The taping of fingers together was first thing that happened to me," he says. "It gives me an idea of the limitations of arthritis. You see that. Then the other thing is, sometimes will put dew on the (eye) glasses. Or wear someone else's glasses. "
To get a feel for hearing impairment, they will wear ear plugs. To get a idea for other disabilities, he's operated as if he could only move one side of his body – and tried tying shoes with one hand. .
"They've given us diets that are horrible," he said. "The water is thicker and the meat is thin."
Some findings:
Window sills are too high, and residents can't see out the windows. "We are finding everybody wants larger windows, and they want to see the outdoors. We literally have started designing larger windows -- 10 to 20 percent larger. We're doing an all-glass 12-story building in Texas."More indirect light. "Direct lights hurt your eyes. Sharp, low voltage lights come in and punch into your eyeballs in an irritating way. The answer is indirect light. They need a lot of light, but they don't need spotlights in their eyes. We do ceiling fans and light fixtures that shield the light source."No ramps or steps. "We had a lot of complaints about floor levels," he says. "we learned no ramps and no steps. You're shocked and how many places have that." Dillard says ev! en the sl! ightest bump from a change from carpet to wood was a problem. "Our old friends don't lift their feet," he says.Quieter places. The firm is working more on acoustics."Last year I stayed at a place where a guy across the hall had the television loud because he couldn't hear," Dillard said. "All you have to do is – don't' have the doors right across the hall from each other. It doesn't cost any more to open the door where the wall is there, and just stagger them. That's one I caught up close and personal."
The firm has designed about 70 projects, he says. Of those, 25 are up and running, another 30 are in works. Locations are mostly in Taxes, but also in California, Georgia and Oklahoma.
Meanwhile, more sleepovers are planned for May.
The next step: Once he has 40 journals, he has been encouraged by Ingman to turn it into a book. And not just a book for architects. The operators of the facilities will find it useful as well.
"He wants to build for people as opposed to building fancy beautiful buildings," Ingman says. .
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