The Highlands at Wyomissing - A Joint Venture of The Lutheran
   Home at Topton and The Reading Hospital and Medical Center
Wyomissing, PA

The Highlands Atrium The Highlands Dining Room The Highlands Lounge The Highlands Patio The Highlands Physical Therapy Room

Project Specs
Construction Cost:  $5M
Completion Date:  2003
Memory Support Beds:  18
Skilled Nursing Beds:  46
Rehabilitation/Short-Term Care Beds:  16

Narrative
This continuing care retirement community, which first opened near Reading, PA, in 1989, selected SFCS to add a new unit to serve cognitively impaired residents and to upgrade its medical model healthcare center.

The new memory support unit is Heather Court, featuring two households of nine residents who share commons and dining space. Staff support spaces were decentralized and discreetly designed into each household and the area connecting the two households.

Resident rooms are private and fitted together tightly for an efficient floor plan, without compromising resident comfort. Residents have direct sightlines from bed into bathroom, minimizing disorientation. Sliding doors on bathrooms, which include a private shower, save space. Large windows provide all residents with views of the outdoors.

At Heather Court, SFCS designers listened to the community’s needs and incorporated two special features: innovative built-in casework for linens and a purpose-filled wandering garden. Instead of laundry carts sitting in open hallways, special built-in storage cabinets hide the carts behind attractive, custom cabinetry where the linens can be easily accessed and replenished.

Comfortable porches provide a transition between the wandering garden and indoor commons spaces. The garden was designed as a destination in itself, full of activity. The variety of elements included in the garden provides a range of opportunities for physical activity and stimulation drawn from the experiences of everyday living. Residents can retrieve letters from a mailbox, hang laundry on a clothesline, fill a birdfeeder, or enjoy gardening in raised planting beds. The garden also includes a small pond, butterfly feeders, and a gazing ball. A pergola and a trellis, tables and umbrellas, and benches and rockers provide a diversity of settings in a relatively compact area.

The existing 60-bed Health Care Building was reorganized to provide 16 beds for short term rehabilitation and therapy services and 46 beds for skilled nursing care. The central nurses’ station was redesigned and decentralized to provide a cluster-based team approach for staffing. The renovation also included upgrading finishes, lighting, low voltage systems, casework and details. The therapy services suite was relocated to this area for the convenience of short-term and skilled care residents.

In the assisted living wing, public areas such as corridors, social gathering areas, restrooms, and bathing rooms were improved through lighting, wall finishes, and handrail upgrades.

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