On July 26th, I was honored to attend the ground-breaking of a game changing new home for older adults in Fort Dupont Washington where I’ll be designing the interiors. It’s called Mary’s House and it’s an exciting project that will provide 15 LGBTQ seniors with affordable housing.

My friend and developer Gina Merritt (Northern Real Estate Urban Ventures) partnered with Dr. Imani Woody, an advocate of women, people of color and LGBTQ people for more than 25 years, with the vision and commitment to serve LGBTQ/SGL elders experiencing housing insecurity and isolation. The project location is on the site of Dr. Imani’s childhood home, in south east Washington. Mary’s House is dedicated in honor of Dr. Imani's late father and a former colleague of hers who was a member of the LGBTQ community, and who despite being in an upscale nursing home, died with improper care.

As I’ve written before, we boomers are re-defining what it means to age and when I design for this audience, I vow no rocking chairs here! That’s part of the reason I love this project so much because it fits perfectly with my values celebrating the 'whole person' as they age, no matter who they are. When it’s finished next year, you’ll see my designs for amenities like a gym, a computer lab and an arts and crafts room. I’ll be sharing my process along the way.

It makes me so happy to be able to use my abilities to really make a difference by contributing my talents for a more equitable world.

What about you? Is there anything you'd like to change about the idea of aging?