On April 2, the AIANY Design for Aging and AIANY Women in Architecture Committees were pleased to host Valerie A. Mutterperl, AIA, LEED AP, Principal of Perkins Eastman, Gail Ressler, Owner of Gail Ressler Interior Design, and Susan H. Wright, RA, CPHC, LEED AP, VP for Design and Construction of Selfhelp Realty Group, for a profound and candid conversation focused on the female perspective of designing for an aging population, moderated by Chia-Yi Huang, AIA, LEED AP, member of the AIANY Design for Aging Committee.

Over the years, we’ve found that women designers are growing in numbers. Also, more women are Executive Directors, CEO’s, and CFO’s of senior resident service providers and care communities. In the panel we highlighted the growing voices of these women professionals who are focusing on Design for Aging. Panelists shared stories about the following topics:

  • What does their career path look like?
  • How or when did they start designing spaces for aging?
  • What’s their perspective when they approach a project?
  • How do they set up design goals that impact the end-users? 
  • What are they the most excited about in their work?
  • How did they harness this passion as fuel to their work to create a place for themselves that embraces their skills and sets them apart from the crowd?
  • What advice do they have for other professionals?

They also talked about how our industry is doing, and how we can continue to positively impact Design for Aging. Their projects are from very different sectors of this industry, but their stories are all amazing and touching. The experiences and conversations are important for everyone to hear. We missed Darcy Connors, Executive Director of SAGEServes this time, but we’ll surely invite her to share with us in the future!