At The Pearl at Boulder Creek, most community decisions are made only after extensive resident feedback from its restaurant, activities, facility and welcoming committees. So, when Dial Senior Living — the company behind The Pearl — determined it was time for a refresh of The Pearl’s furniture and flooring, committees of residents were formed, and the opinions of all were sincerely sought.
What happened next is rare in senior living. Once Dial saw that residents had suggested multiple changes that would profoundly impact the quality of life of their residents (such as acoustical alterations in the restaurant that would help residents hear each other better over a dinner table), the senior living company went all-in. They overhauled the health and wellness center, created a dedicated art room, knocked down a wall to make more space for community events and, yes, redesigned the restaurant for optimum physical and communal comfort.
A Community Designed for Safe, Vibrant Living
“We’ve been given the gift of our voices being heard and valued,” said Nyla Witmore, a resident and visual artist who served on the refresh committee. Pearl Executive Director Kelly Dwyer added, “It turned out to be more of a renovation than a refresh, which speaks to the commitment of Dial.”
Bernadette Russek chaired the restaurant committee. A statistician and former professor at the University of New Hampshire, Bernadette was attracted to The Pearl because “it’s homey,” as well as near her family. For her, the transformation of The Pearl was “about being practical because the people are what make The Pearl inviting.” She and Nyla, who is a retired speech and hearing therapist as well as an artist, spent hours drawing maps of the restaurant and pub: The finished layouts feel significantly more spacious. In the restaurant, the new high-backed booths, envisioned by Nyla, nurture pockets of conversation. “The booths block out the noise behind you, and the sounds you want to hear bounce to your ears,” she explained. “It’s good for everyone.” Nodding, Kelly, The Pearl director, said, “Our residents, who experience day-to-day life in the building, were the experts on what they needed.”
While the Dial design team selected most of the flooring and paint for the refresh, Nyla and fellow resident Joan Patch were invited to reimagine the art room. “We previously shared an art space with the activities room,” said Nyla. “This was an opportunity.” Joan — a retired interior designer who went back to school as a mom of four and graduated with her design degree alongside her youngest daughter — planned loads of storage for the community’s art supplies, plus shelving to display resident creations. In the lobby, an additional display gallery was installed, and resident and community art is regularly rotated. “Now we know exactly where to go to find the size of paper we want,” Joan said with a laugh. One of Pearl’s residents teaches a weekly art class, and residents and friends are always welcome to drop by to paint, draw or sculpt.
Design for Optimum Accessibility and Comfort
On the refresh committee, resident Jerry Spielvogel leaned into his background in industrial engineering and finance to consider the feasibility of resident requests. For instance, the committee requested, and received, a glass wall in the atrium and double doors into the room, both of which minimize noise and increase accessibility. “Everything we did triggered a chain of events,” Jerry said. To enlarge the atrium for choir concerts and community meetings, the health and wellness center was absorbed into the atrium space. Dial responded by turning a residential apartment into a large space for the health and wellness center and, to the side, the new art room. “A lot of calendar time and careful thought went into each step,” he said.
Jerry even helped ensure that The Pearl’s personal trainer, who is on-site full-time, has a dedicated office space with a window, just near the saltwater lap pool. In the fitness center, “everything is really spiffed up, with mirrors and new equipment,” Nyla said.
Overall, the changes to The Pearl are not nearly as important Bernadette, Nyla, Joan and Jerry as how those changes were fulfilled. “Because we had input, everyone has a feeling of ownership,” Bernadette said.
That sense of ownership gets to the heart of the mission of The Pearl — and is why, in fact, Pearl leads by involving residents. “The people here are so real, and I’m always discovering something new about them,” Nyla said. “It belies what we look like or whether we have walkers: We have people here who have traveled the world, who have won awards, and yet, when you come to dinner and see someone, we ask them to join us. We’re a community that cares, from the management to the residents.”