AGE-FRIENDLY DESIGN: COMMUNITY DESIGN CHARRETTES CONDUCTED WITH AGHE HOST SITES (2016–18)

The Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE) fosters the commitment of higher education to the field of aging through education, research, and public service. As part of AGHE’s last three annual conferences from 2016–2018 – in Long Beach, CA, Miami, FL, and Atlanta, GA – the Age-friendly Design Committee (AFDC) coordinated design charrette workshops with local partners (e.g., universities, public agencies) that led to design recommendations for advancing each conference host community’s age friendliness. We will highlight the evolution of partnerships with local universities, conference attendees, and community stakeholders. Local university partners included California State University Long Beach (CSULB), Florida International University (FIU), and Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC). In Long Beach, 2016, the AFDC worked with a CSULB gerontology faculty member, student, and operator of a residential care facility for older adults, recommending improvements for the home’s social and physical environments. In Miami, 2017, the AFDC worked with an FIU landscape architecture class utilizing PhotoVoice methods to incorporate older adult perspectives into the design of the Underline, an urban linear park under construction. In Atlanta, 2018, the AFDC offered a pre-conference workshop focused on age-friendly design concepts, curricula, and community-based research and service approaches. The AFDC worked with GGC faculty and sociology students to assess age-friendly features and barriers of Atlanta’s BeltLine, a network of parks, trails, and community service access points. These charrettes enabled AGHE conference members to collaborate with local community stakeholders to move toward more age-friendly environments.