Central to The Ackerly at Sherwood’s design is active, vibrant senior living, especially for those with dementia, Alzheimer’s, or other ailments. People’s mental and physical wellbeing—their happiness—defined our design outcomes. Moreover, Sherwood needed more senior living support. Before The Ackerly at Sherwood, the growing town had only a single senior housing community. During The Ackerly at Sherwood’s development, its triangle-shaped site, an empty field and parking lot that had stymied previous development attempts, presented both a design challenge and an opportunity. Working with Providence Health & Services, Deacon Development, Rembold, and Pence, Ankrom Moisan assisted with the redevelopment of this underserved corner of Sherwood with the addition of The Ackerly at Sherwood. By adapting to local zoning laws and an atypical site, The Ackerly at Sherwood’s programming bridges retail, single-family houses, and healthcare (a Providence medical facility is located right next door). The building’s form, too, is defined by the site’s plan. Like the letter Y, The Ackerly at Sherwood comprises three separate and natural light-filled wings, joining at a central axis with shared amenities and staff offices. Yet another benefit of the site’s oddball shape: It opens up a tremendous variety of outdoor spaces for gardening, exercising, socializing, dog-walking, and just relaxing. A walking path circumnavigates the full property, with an enclosed interior path set aside for memory-care residents. The Ackerly’s Northwest modern style reflects nearby commercial buildings, and triangle-shaped rustic/modern lap siding references the neighborhood’s residential design language. Immediately upon entering, residents are treated to a 270-degree view of ground-floor amenities that are simultaneously open and discrete, characterized by distinct finishes and ceiling treatments. Structurally, butterfly trusses and wooden beams further express the Ackerly at Sherwood’s material relationship with its surroundings. Functionally, folding walls enclose or merge spaces, depending on need. For example, should the adjacent activity room require it, the wall separating the bistro-slash-coffee bar folds in to invite a crowd. Designed around such innovative urban multifamily housing principles, The Ackerly at Sherwood feels like home—a lively, safe, hospitable, and service-oriented home filled with light and life.

A sense of openness defines senior living at The Ackerly at Sherwood. Inside, The Ackerly at Sherwood’s ground-floor amenities, separated by function yet permeable by design, are defined by subtle changes in finish and ceiling treatment. Next to the lobby, a bistro operates as a coffee bar by day and wine bar by night; a folding glass wall opens to admit spillover from the adjacent activity room. Other multifunctional designs are just as intentional. The tech area and library serve as prefunction spaces for the theater, and dining prefunction extends into the lobby sitting space, with a baby grand piano serving both. Down the hall is for wellness, with a fitness center, salon and spa, massage rooms, and a telemedicine room. Our unit typology reconfigures the two-bed sleeping area, locating a shared bathroom to the front of each unit. Wide corridors make moving through memory care easy and gives plenty of space to our front-porch design concept, which places Adirondack chairs and different flooring material at each unit entry, enhancing The Ackerly at Sherwood's overall sense of community. Throughout The Ackerly at Sherwood, cedar accents like a feature wall and natural wood countertops bring the outside in, and evocative carpet patterns suggest aerial views of the Willamette Valley’s farmland. Our hope is that we’ve given The Ackerly Sherwood’s senior-living residents an elevated, light-filled building that artfully balances color, patterns, and natural sunlight to energize, soothe, serve, and welcome them home.