Aging in Place by Design

By Marcelles S. Fischler, The New York Times

July 17, 2009
 

EASY ACCESS: Patricia and Carmelo Viola’s new town house at Locust Cove at Oakdale includes an elevator, among other user-friendly features. “Hopefully, we will have a long life here together,” Ms. Viola says.

WHEN Patricia Viola first visited the two-bedroom two-and-a-half-bath town house at Locust Cove at Oakdale, a new 55-and-older community, she loved the layout but didn’t think she could consider living in a three-story place because of the osteoarthritis in her knees. 

“I wanted something ideally on one level,” said Ms. Viola, 65, a retired teacher. She was looking to relocate from Brooklyn with her husband, Carmelo, 62, a retired carpenter. “It is difficult for me to climb up and down steps now.” 

But the $499,000 town house was designed with an elevator; Ms. Viola realized she shouldn’t have any trouble reaching either the master bedroom suite on the second floor or the laundry room in the basement. 

Other user-friendly features included a step-free entryway; doorways and hallways wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair; a built-in marble seat and grab bars in the shower; and doors that opened with levers, not knobs. Ms. Viola was convinced. In April, she and her husband moved in, adding $10,000 to extend the patio, which is accessible without steps through a sliding glass door.

“There is nothing here that would inhibit me from getting from place to place,” Ms. Viola said. 

“Hopefully, we will have a long life here together.” With mobility no longer an issue, if something happens to one of them, “the other one can survive here on their own, financially and accessibly,” she said.

With the population aging, the “universal” design used in the Violas’ home has become a priority in new construction. In June, the town of Islip passed legislation expediting permit applications for homes with three or more universal design features. Huntington and Riverhead passed accessibility-friendly legislation last year, following the lead of Southampton town.

Additionally, last year Suffolk County amended its code, mandating that affordable housing built with county funds must incorporate accessible design. 

Gene Parrington, the Islip councilman who co-sponsored the town legislation, said he was motivated by the perception that a growing percentage of aging residents are having trouble getting into, out of and around their homes. Among the features that a project would need for town approval are 36-inch doorways and passageways, no-step entrances and blocking between wall studs around the toilet and shower areas for grab bars. 

Vincent Calvosa, the principal of the Calvosa Organization in Bohemia, the developer of Locust Cove, said demand was so strong for accessible housing that 24 of his 28 town homes have sold, even while some were still under construction, and he has offers on the last four. 

“I made the two-story home a home that as people get older they can stay with,” Mr. Calvosa said. “It was a huge area that needed to be addressed.” 

Ray Accettella, the president of Jarro Building Industries in East Meadow, holds certification from the National Association of Home Builders for residential remodeling geared toward aging in place.

“As we are getting older, we are not as agile as we used to be,” Mr. Accettella said.

Accessibility issues used to be linked to people with disabilities, he added, but homeowners today are adding elements like barrier-free showers “because they want to stay in the house.” 

The universal design features also prove helpful to those temporarily disabled by a broken limb or an illness. 

Allison Bryant, 29, a dance teacher, lost her mobility for nine months because of multiple sclerosis. Confined to a wheelchair until May in her parents’ home in Huntington, she was the catalyst for a $6,000 accessibility overhaul. For that price, a ramp was added at the front door, Ms. Bryant’s bedroom and bathroom doors were widened, and the cabinet under the bathroom sink was removed. 

Still, because the house didn’t have ample open space, Ms. Bryant couldn’t reach the refrigerator or cook for herself; nor could she do her laundry in the basement. “If the house had been accessible,” she said, “I would have been able to do things myself. I felt helpless.” 

Warren Strugatch, a co-owner of a special events and public relations firm in Stony Brook, is a founder of Universal Design Long Island, a new nonprofit group associated with the Suffolk 

Community Council, a social services agency. He emphasized universal design’s usefulness for any age group. A step-free entry, for instance, could be a boon to a mother pushing a stroller; similarly, a laundry room near the bedrooms eliminates the chore of carrying loads of clothing long distances. 

“Quality of life is impacted by design that doesn’t take into account the needs of the human body, the flexibility or lack of flexibility of the human body,” he said. “The home should always accommodate us.” 

Judy Pannullo, the executive director of the Suffolk Community Council, estimated that it cost $700 more to build a house with universal design principles, including a more spacious bathroom. “It is more expensive if you do it as remodeling,” Ms. Pannullo said. “If you are going to build new, you might as well do it right, so you can age in place.” 

Because of health issues, Jean Spina, 80, of Westbury, had D. J.’s Home Improvements in Franklin Square, redo her kitchen last year. She said that she “needed things to be a little easier.” 

Her new double oven has doors that swing open to the side, not down. Extra lighting is helping her to put off cataract surgery. The pantry has an easy-to-grasp handle instead of a knob. 

Now Ms. Spina and her husband, Christopher, 82, are contemplating turning the den of their colonial into the master bedroom and turning the powder room into a full bath. 

“You don’t know what will happen tomorrow,” Ms. Spina said. “I want to make things comfortable, so I don’t have to leave my house in the event that one of us can’t go up the stairs.”

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