Best Design for Independent Living 2022: Portal to Paris in Atlanta

City houses with private gardens and gas lamps. Cobbled streets lined with bespoke shops. Stylish curved canopies and roof lines. An old fountain topped by a Roman goddess.

While this is something you can find anywhere in Paris, it’s actually some of the design elements that make up Corso Atlanta, Galerie Living’s residential seniors community in the city’s Buckhead neighborhood.

Paris — and in particular its 19th-century citywide redevelopment — is where the project’s designers and Galerie CEO Tim Gary found inspiration for the project. According to Galerie Living’s design director Steve Markey, this is evident throughout the design.

“There’s a moment for me, especially in projects like this one, where the building just starts to sing… I’ve seen it happen with this one,” he told Senior Housing News.

Today, the project is so popular that the Galerie “can’t get people in fast enough,” Markey said.

The community’s Parisian design, combined with the atmosphere it creates for residents, has helped it win first place in the Best Independent Living category in the most recent Senior Housing News Architecture and Design Awards.

Concept

Planning for the Corso Atlanta gained momentum in 2017. From the very beginning, Gary had a clear vision of developing a Parisian-style luxury community.

“It’s a kind of Tim Gary magic,” Markey said. “In his travels…he will find things that he wants to add to the project that he thinks speak well.”

This vision was a guiding light for the design team, as well as one of their biggest challenges. Unlike a residential community of older people, Paris was built over hundreds of years. Over time, in the process of construction and restructuring, small corners, unique lanes and other elements that give the city its charm appeared.

So, the designers of the project drew inspiration from one of the recent transformations of the city, which took place as part of the so-called reconstruction of Paris, led by urban planner Georges-Eugène Haussmann.

“We went to Paris and… took a lot of inspiring pictures,” Markey said. “I went through thousands of photos and then basically sorted them.”

After several hours of research, the project team eventually came up with a project that featured all the attributes of the Parisian district, including large gates with curved mansard roof lines and streets with shop windows, balconies and metal structures. Gas lanterns help complete the Parisian look.

In some cases, the Galerie designers may have imported materials from Paris, such as large carriage doors that are 150 years old.

But in general, finding the right materials was not easy, and the designers were faced with the task of finding alternatives to some of the materials that had long been used in the construction of the city. The planners of the project sourced certain materials from places like Greece, and the metalwork was done by a local metalworker originally from Italy.

“[The challenge was] find plausible alternatives, down to looking for window patterns that would mimic French casement windows but didn’t actually work,” Markey said.

In the center of the courtyards of the community is an ancient fountain, brought from Europe and depicting Aurora, the Roman “goddess of the morning dawn.”

Designers didn’t just stick to traditional French design. They also included features such as flat metal awnings to add a touch of contemporary style.

The project planners adopted an open-plan design with interior views of courtyards and other elements that would help maintain design continuity within the community. They wanted to come up with something that would allow people to linger in the space and relax, as they might do in a French cafe.

“As you walk through the community, there are plenty of cozy meeting places where you can sit and have a coffee or a glass of wine at night – it’s all about the experience,” said Stephanie Hagans, director of interiors for the Galerie. design.

Another project partner was THW Design, which contributed to both the community’s architecture and its interior design.

In the end, the master plan covered 335,318 square feet and included 20 town houses, 80 self-catering apartments, 77 assisted living, and 26 memory care.

building

Construction began in 2019, shortly before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The project planners engaged Reeves & Young to work with the community as a builder.

The project site itself created some problems for construction. For example, a small hospital was previously located on this site, the foundation of which is still rooted into the ground. Another problem was the community’s concrete frame, which was difficult to reconcile with its outer shell, Markey said.

Another problem was the fact that the community was sitting across from a noisy and unsightly interstate. The solution was simple enough that the designers decided to build a wall spanning several floors to hide the speeding cars. But the location and height of the wall made the project more difficult for the contractors.

To solve this problem, Markey says, the team brought in what he believes is one of the largest cranes in the entire southeastern United States.

One aspect of the project that did not cause problems was Covid-19. Since the project is related to senior citizen housing, it is not subject to certain Covid safety restrictions and can move forward while some other projects do not.

The construction was completed in 2021. As a result, the process dragged on for several months, but not prohibitively.

“Many [construction] happened at the very beginning of Covid and at that time the supply chain was not yet exhausted,” Hagans said. “So the timing wasn’t as bad as it could have been.”

Completion

Today, Corso Atlanta is a testament to the vision and execution of the project team. The community is populated by a thriving ecosystem of shops and eateries, including Giverny Flowers, a flower shop that CEO Gary named the best in Atlanta in December.

Within the community, residents regularly visit venues, including a wine bar with green plants modeled after the Seine River in Paris, a lobby lounge full of books, a French bistro, a market, and a pancake shop. To fill the open windows with quality suppliers, Galerie partnered with local businesses.

Materials to help give character to the design include hardwood flooring, “quirky” custom iron lighting, and soothing artwork throughout.

The SHN Architecture and Design Awards judges praised the project for its design, with one praising the “breathtaking” interior design and “intoxicating” finishes, accessories, accent lighting and landmarks.

Another wrote that the project was “an exquisite design that traces the French theme to every detail, both inside and out.”

The community has two more phases of construction ahead of it, adding a total of 300 housing units, Marki said. And like Paris, he and Hagans believe the Corso Atlanta will continue to age gracefully for years to come.

“All these spaces that we find really special are sometimes not necessarily planned from the beginning – they evolve,” Markey said.

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