Visiting Nurse Senior Living

     Visiting Nurse Assisted Living Community provides an affordable solution for seniors in need of helping hand with their daily routine. VNA Senior Living Community is a newly constructed community offering supportive housing for seniors in a four-story building with extensive services and 3,000 square feet of community space. Built on the site of an abandoned and demolished school, the building features 99 fully accessible one-bedroom apartments. All units include a kitchenette and a stove. Five apartments are reserved for seniors with developmental disabilities. The community has a sense of independence, but has staff to help if the need comes up. There are also a few stores and cafes in the community to create a neighborhood feel.

     VNA’s integrated design process began several years prior to construction as an idea that just needed ripening. A grant from Enterprise Green Communities helped to fund design charrettes, planning sessions and feasibility studies. Edward Connelly, president of New Ecology, Inc. and respected green building and sustainable design consultant, provided technical expertise and coordination to the development team.

     The VNA Senior Living Community is part of a larger “continuum of care campus” for seniors. The Somerville Housing Authority recently broke ground on an adjacent site for a 95-unit independent living facility. When completed, residents will have access to some of the services provided at VNA, such as meals, activities and health services. There are some already in the completed portion and there anre more interested in making VNA their community.

     For the VNA, residents’ and employees health was the primary motivator for constructing a green building, as it is likely that most residents will live in their VNA home for the rest of their lives. Most of the electricity used in the building will be generated on site by a natural gas-fired cogeneration unit, and a roof-mounted solar photovoltaic array. The cogeneration unit will also provide heating and hot water. A rainwater collection system recycles rainwater to provide 100 percent of the water used for toilets. Other green features include:

     • Efficient lighting design and highly-efficient Energy Star certified light fixtures

     • Engineered wood used in trusses

     • Drought tolerant plants used in natural landscape

     • Rainwater collection provides water to flush toilets and irrigate gardens

     • Rainwater catchments to supplement landscape irrigation

     • Low-flow toilets and showerheads, and high-efficiency washing machines

     • Water-permeable parking areas

     • Green Seal approved interior/exterior paints and primers