KTGY Designs Eco-Friendly Foursquare Senior Living Property in Portland
Portland, Ore.--KTGY Group is designing a green senior living community just outside of downtown Portland. The $29 million apartment community will add 132 units to the city's pool of affordable housing for active adults of 62 years and over.
Portland, Ore.—Tapped by developer Foursquare Foundation, KTGY Group Inc. Architecture and Planning is masterminding the design of a green senior living community that will sprout up just outside of downtown Portland. The $29 million apartment community will add 132 units to the city’s pool of affordable housing for active adults who are 62 years and over.
Foursquare Senior Living, which will occupy a nearly 1.4-acre parcel adjacent to the Foursquare Church office at 12th Ave. and Burnside St., will feature five stories of residential accommodations above 6,300 square feet of street-level retail space. The development will be green from beginning to end, starting with its very location. “The fact that it is in Portland, which is very progressive in terms of sustainability, starts us off on the right foot,” Laurel Gillette, studio director with KTGY, tells MHN. “Also, it’s an infill project, and the fact that you are not taking large acreage and building new, but instead are taking something from the inner part of the city and putting a building on it makes the project very sustainable.”
Additionally, Foursquare will be a transit-oriented development, as a trolley line is being planned along Burnside Street.
The building will be green on the inside, too. Residential units will feature Energy Star-rated lighting, windows and appliances, as well as water-efficient fixtures and toilets. Finishes featuring low-emitting materials will reduce contaminants and the air quality will benefit further from the fact that Foursquare will be a smoke-free community. The list of green features at the property reads like a model guideline for enlightened sustainable development. Many of elements on the list, such as the 7,600 square-foot rooftop garden terrace, will serve multiple purposes.
“I think the major feature that is different about this project is the eco-roof,” Gillette notes. “It will serve as a storm water treatment system and the residents will also be able to use it for gardening, so it becomes an activity for them as well. Some of the residents, for instance, may have sold their homes and downsized to a smaller apartment at a place that provides more of a community than being alone in a home, so we try to give them some of the features that make it feel like home and also give them something to do as part of the community.”
And there will be plenty for the residents to do at Foursquare. This will not be your great-grandfather’s senior apartment. Tenants will be able to avail themselves of an approximately 4,900 square-foot recreational center offering a state-of-the-art fitness center, a computer center and a hobby and craft room.
The sparkling extras will be a great draw, as will the property’s anticipated LEED Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council, because in Portland, it’s not just about an amenity-rich environment. “Sustainability is something that people look for in Portland,” Gillette says. “And for many seniors, their children and their children’s children are making them more aware.”