“Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.”

 — Albert von Szent-Gyorgy

Louis Tenenbaum is the father of the aging in place movement in this country; when he speaks/writes, I for one, pay attention. Here is a guest post by Louis on being inspired in Beantown. Within these words is some gem lying in waiting; enjoy.   

I am an innovation immigrant. 

I don’t often feel inspired. But I am inspired by the incredible third annual Aging Means Business Conference held Friday in Boston associated with the Gerontological Society of America annual meeting.  This was my second time at this conference organized by Greg O’Neill and his team of Sarah Wilson and Dani Kaiserman from the National Academy on an Aging Society working with Mary Furlong and this time with the always provocative and fun (and of course, natty!) Joe Coughlin from MIT AgeLab.

I have been involved with Mary’s events for a few years…having been a semifinalist in the first year of her Boomer Venture $10,000 Business Plan Competition and on the winning team a few years ago. This time the results Mary has been working toward really came together. There was a healthy mix of long dedicated and newly interested business thinkers. The energy was palpable. Just being in this crowd was fun.

The air of excitement started at a Friday night reception hosted by First Republic….a bank that is doing things differently. As we learned in one of the next day’s presentations, they are paying attention to their customers! What a novel idea! The innovation I heard that sounds great?…NO music! (Turns out I am not alone unable to hear and concentrate with music playing in the air around me. I avoid retail and restaurant experiences for this problem. This bank listened.)

Curiously (or NOT- maybe expectably) that issue rose again later in the day. Gretchen Addie and Jose´ Colucci  from IDEO, the quintessential design and innovation consulting firm, engaged us in a process throughout the day rather than just giving a presentation. Innovation worksheets were on the tables when we came in. We were encouraged to state ideas, note the participants, explain the idea, make a sketch and then hang them on a board. Gretchen and Jose´ reviewed them, then shared their take on a few, putting our new ideas in a context of some of their previous projects. We saw how they help ideas grow.

One of these ideas related to the bank practice- Cones of Silence for restaurant tables – allowing diners to dial the background ambiance/noise up or down to balance their desire and threshold for atmosphere and conversation. BOY would I love that!

Matthias Hollwich, the keynoter was a real hit. Matthias is a co-founder of HWKN and the design leader of the BOOM senior communities. Those of us in the senior community design field for many years might say there is really nothing new here, other than wild looking/futuristic house forms. That misses the point. The point is a young, excited and out of the box designer came to this field cold, with no prior knowledge or assumptions and came to the same conceptual conclusions about lifestyle and community we have been promoting for years. That is totally validating! Second, his work is evidence of fresh and growing interest in these opportunities. Third, he brings fresh ideas for reaching the solutions. This young and really pleasant architect and…. just  plain….leader,  pulled together an extraordinary team, bringing real excitement to housing older folks in community.

True to form, Matthias would not be satisfied with the same old survey data. He engaged Hunter Tura of Bruce Mau Design, also new to this field, to develop a tool (looks like an app, folks) to gain customer insight. They hit the nail on the head.

I was excited, but not inspired, when I went to bed. I woke up ready to work, and, reviewing some materials, the inspiration hit.  What turned up the volume? Two more stories.  Do you have the patience?

1. I was so happy to see Jan Hively when I walked into the room Friday morning. Jan Hively, human extraordinaire, is lively, engaged, committed and she gets things done! Jan showed me a brochure from the European Union AAL program (Ambient Assisted Living- the EU term for aging in place or community). The EU has declared 2012 as the European Year on Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations.  Saturday morning I downloaded the ‘brochure’, a catalogue really, of projects- and started looking for individual project pdf’s to download for reading on the plane home. I was bowled over by the sheer number of ideas they are pursuing in the EU effort.
2. That reminded me of a conversation I had at the conference with Marcus Wilhelm, Research Director from Redstar. Marcus, like Matthias, is an innovation native.  He explained the way his company building company works. They generate eight ideas a month, winnow them down through research with the goal of supporting a few startups per quarter. I had heard this sort of thing before but never got much of a handle on it.

I have been trying to get a handle on innovation for a few weeks. I thought I had it recently- thinking it was about leaving assumptions behind. That is part of it. Now I think it is about the process of rapid idea generation. That fits the pace of the digital/internet world, where I am also an immigrant.

This is exactly what Gretchen and Jose´ did with us.  It clicked for me as I paged through the plethora of ideas being pursued in the EU.  The process of innovation is to generate lots of ideas and consider them. For we immigrants it is a new way to think.

I feel inspired to generate lots of new ideas for the problems I am trying to solve, many of which are identified in Aging in Place 2.0: Rethinking Solutions to the Home Care Challenge

Trust me there was much more to think about and many other exciting, even inspiring, people at this conference. I may get another post or two out of it.

Congratulations and THANKS to those who worked so hard to pull this together. Inspiration is a gift. I appreciate it. I hope I see all of you at next year’s conference November 14-18, 2012 in San Diego.    Why miss a chance for inspiration?

See

Aging in Place Ideas

(photo cupboardsonline.com)

 The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.

-Frank Lloyd Wright

I once wrote that inspiration is like rain, it falls on everyone; some shield themselves with an umbrella, failing to take heed; still others run in doors, avoidance all together—then there are those who walk freely amongst the pour, sensing every drop and giving reverence. 

The word “inspiration” comes from the ancients who believed that a breath of divinity is received from the gods by some deserving soul. The key word here is, “deserving.”

Diane and Jay Plesset are just such deserving souls, as they were chosen by the gods one fateful day in November, 1999. On a trip from the Bay Area to Portland; to be with her mother who had undergone emergency bypass surgery, Diane came upon a small ad in an airline magazine that would change the course of their lives—and save an iconic structure for history.

Airline Magazine Ad: Gordon House For Sale 

Occupied with the thoughts of her mother, Diane picked up an in-flight magazine; perusing it she discovered an ad for the sale of the Gordon House in Oregon. A lifetime fan of Frank Lloyd Wright, Diane tore out the ad and tucked it away in her purse—at that moment, like lightening to the rod, the gods had planted the seed of desire.

Author Robert Grudin noted that to be inspired is to surrender one’s mind to a new force, heedless and powerful—abandoning oneself to an irresistible flow, like a canoeist drawn into the main channel of a rapid.

The Journey

Within several weeks Diane had made contact with officials and traveled back to see the Gordon House in Oregon. Doing their research the Plessets found the Gordon House and property had been sold to a couple who planned to tear down the iconic structure and rebuild on the property.

Over the course of the next year came an endless litany of calls to concerned parties, meeting with attorneys, county commissioner’s hearings with standing room only, petitions, and input from around the world on what the Gordon House fate should be.  

Finally, in early December of 2000, an arrangement was made with the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy to purchase the Gordon House for $1 in exchange for tax credit from the State of Oregon.

Diane and Jay were given the right of first refusal to buy because of their efforts in trying to save the house from demolition.

The Evergreen House: “Do you think it’s time for plan B?”

Passing through the front-door threshold of the Evergreen Home is literally stepping into someone else’s dream…

The Frank Lloyd Wright inspired home of the Plessets is not a dream denied—rather it is what the gods entrusted (win-win solution) and intended all along.

With deadlines approaching and impenetrable restrictions by the FLWBC, the original goal of buying the Gordon House, moving it to a purchased lot and living happily ever after became out of reach…Jay asked Diane: “Do you think it’s time for plan B?”

Diane says, “After many fortunate experiences, and numerous challenges, “Evergreen” was finally completed on a site in Oregon City, Oregon, in October, 2007, which is only 25 miles from the Gordon House, now located in the Oregon Garden, in Silverton.”  

Aging in Place: Award Winning Design

On January 31, 2009, “Evergreen” won the Home Builders Association Excellence Award for Best New Home in its Category. The home is built with aging in place/universal design, and sustainable design features; because the Plessets want this dream to last. And they know great things have no fear of time…

See 

The Gordon House

The Oregon Garden

The Evergreen Home

The Survival Guide: Home Remodeling by Diane Plesset, CMKBD, NCIDQ #13029, C.A.P.S.

1957 Interview of Frank Lloyd Wright

Silverton, Oregon

Frank Lloyd Wright designed this home for Conrad and Evelyn Gordon for their farm on the Willamette River in Wilsonville, Oregon. The ‘T’ shaped home was constructed in 1963 primarily using concrete block solid wall sections, heated and colored concrete floors, cedar and glass. The house is the only building designed by the famed architect in Oregon and is of significant importance. With the sale of the property in 2000 and the purposed demolition of the house, it became necessary to salvage and move the structure.

The project involved determining the best strategies for salvage, moving, reconstruction within a very short time line and coordinating work with an assembled group of assisting professionals. Many portions of the building were able to be preserved intact. Other elements were preserved and fitted to new construction that was built to match the original. Some updating was unobtrusively installed including floor heating, electrical, security, insulation and seismic reinforcement. The house was moved to the Oregon Garden and sited in a similar manner as the original. The house is now open to the public as a resource to be enjoyed by all.

(photo chatterbox.typepad.com)