Whitney Center
Hamden
At the Center of It All
Life is golden at Whitney Center, where residents are anything but sequestered from the surrounding world
When the Whitney Center retirement community decided in 2006 that the time was ripe for a major expansion, executives and board members spent a full two years reaching out to neighbors before applying to Hamden’s zoning board for permission to start building.
They discussed parking and construction issues and showed the plans for two new buildings on the 15-acre campus on the west side of Lake Whitney, recalls Dale Kroop, director of economic and community development for the town of Hamden. The effort provided a good example of Whitney Center’s dedication to the community, he says.
“They have always been a good corporate citizen,” Kroop says. “They have a good history with the town.”
Located at 200 Leeder Hill Drive, Whitney Center was the first continuing-care retirement community in Connecticut when it was built in 1979. Last year it celebrated its 30th anniversary by breaking ground on the biggest expansion in its history. The new apartments will be larger than the current living spaces and will offer eight new floor plans. The expansion will include new amenities such as an art gallery and salon.
“The product needed to change as people change,” explains Gregory B. Gravel, Whitney Center’s president and CEO. “People want more space, and they want more variety.”
Currently the center has 170 residential living apartments, a 59-bed skilled nursing facility and assisted living apartments, with a total population of 240 residents. The first phase of the $90 million expansion will add 87 new apartments in a seven-story building, a 218-seat cultural arts center, a new parking garage and other new amenities. The second phase will add a new four-story health and wellness center with 16 assisted-living apartments and 48 private rooms for rehabilitation, skilled nursing and memory support.
Current apartments range from 500 to 1,300 square feet, while apartments in the new building will range from 1,300 to 1,800 square feet. A glass-walled interior promenade called Main Street will link the new and the original residential buildings.
Plans call for the existing building to be upgraded and renovated after the new residential building opens in the fall of 2011.
New residents typically move into an apartment where they live independently, and later have the option of moving into an assisted living or skilled nursing area if the need arises.
Whitney Center’s founders were primarily area academics, and the center has a long history of attracting retirees from the region’s many educational institutions including Yale University, Quinnipiac University, Southern Connecticut State University, the University of New Haven and Albertus Magnus College.
Whitney Center is well known for offering a wide spectrum of entertainment and educational opportunities, including concerts, classes, lectures, exhibitions and social gatherings, along with free transportation to events in New Haven such as plays and concerts.
The facility is also dedicated to fitness. Whitney Center has a workout room and a large pool staffed by an aquatics instructor.
“It’s important to help people stay healthy,” Gravel says. “We maintain an emphasis on wellness as well as on opportunities for intellectual growth.”
Residents Drive Decisions
While Whitney Center’s residents range in age from 71 to 102, the average age is 83, Gravel says. That age group is more active and engaged than ever before, he adds.
“Years ago we would start programs for the residents. Today we are told what programs to start by the residents,” Gravel says with a smile. “We are no longer dictating — we are responding.”
Gravel believes that’s the way retirement communities should operate, and he says he enjoys responding to the needs of Whitney Center’s residents. For example: When Gravel joined Whitney Center seven years ago, he noticed the gym equipment featured pins that users had to insert into stacks of weights to set the weight they wanted to use, which can be cumbersome for anyone, not just seniors. He quickly replaced all the gym equipment with a line of pneumatic workout machines that operate at the touch of a button.
Resident Alison Fox, who was riding a stationary bike in the gym recently, says she likes having access to the gym and agrees the equipment is easy to use. “I like the people and the staff,” says Fox, 84, who has lived at the center for six years with her husband, Joseph C. Fox. “It’s a real community.”
Michael B. Rambarose, senior vice president for administration, says Whitney Center practices “person-centered care.”
“We focus on the needs of the residents,” he says. “The goal is to help residents live as independently as possible within the least restrictive environment.”
Harry B. Adams, president of the center’s Resident Council, agrees that Whitney Center is set up to serve the needs of its residents. Adams, 85, formerly was associate dean of the Yale Divinity School and served as Yale’s chaplain from 1986 to 1992. He and his wife Manette moved into Whitney Center in 2005.
“The residents feel like it’s their place, and the staff is here to help us make it a good place,” he says. “The residents make a lot of decisions. There is a lecture committee, a music committee, a movie committee, a dining services committee that meets with the dining room staff every month. There is a hospitality committee, which greets new people when they come and helps them make that transition. It’s a very strong community.”
Adams says some residents had mixed feelings about the expansion plans when they were first announced, expressing some concern that making Whitney Center larger might change the character of the community. Those concerns have dissipated, he says, and residents are looking forward to enjoying a new auditorium, new dining facilities and enhanced health-care options.
Bob Pattison, president of the Whitneyville Civic Association, confirms that Whitney Center also eased any concerns that neighboring homeowners and business owners may have had about the expansion.
“They contacted us very early on in the project, years before the groundbreaking,” he says. “They showed us their plans and conceptual drawings.”
Pattison says Whitney Center officials responded to concerns about increased street traffic during the construction period because construction work was pushed back by one hour. They responded to residents’ concerns about the height of the new building affecting their views by floating balloons to test sightlines.
“They’ve always been a good neighbor,” says Pattison, whose association regularly uses meeting space at Whitney Center.
Focusing on the Outside World
As focused as the residents are on keeping Whitney Center strong, most remain committed to the larger community as well — both Hamden and greater New Haven.
Adams, for instance, notes that one group of residents met with area high school students once a month. Whitney Center provides a room for the meetings, which are designed to create stronger ties to community youth.
Kroop says that Whitney Center residents have long served on town commissions, attended town events and spent time with Hamden students.
“They bring a lot of intellectual capital to the community,” he says. “Most of the residents have long educational backgrounds, and they are always available when we need someone on commissions. They really participate, too.”
Kroop adds that the expansion is positive for the community in that it will add tax revenue while making use of existing infrastructure on the Whitney Center campus. It will also add about 20 employees to the center’s current workforce of 220.
Rambarose says the expansion will allow Whitney Center “to offer more to the community at large,” noting that it will include new meeting spaces and that the Cultural Arts Center will hold events open to the general public.
Whitney Center has a long history of supporting the arts in greater New Haven, and actively supports the Shubert Theater, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Long Wharf Theatre the Elm Shakespeare Co., Neighborhood Music School and the Hamden Arts Council. The center not only transports its residents to these venues, it also brings representatives from popular venues to Whitney Center for lectures, demonstrations and other events. Whitney Center regularly hosts the Connecticut Music Teachers’ annual competition and the Hamden Concerto Competition.
The center provides financial support to several arts groups and has been a primary sponsor for the Shubert and Elm Shakespeare for several years.
“We rely on their sponsorship and support, and it’s a great match for us and for them,” says Shubert spokesman Anthony Lupinacci. “The buses from Whitney Center show up regularly, and we’re thrilled that it becomes a big part of their outings and their entertainment opportunities.”
Whitney Center sponsors one of the Shubert’s Broadway shows every year, last year underwriting The 39 Steps. The center also sponsors a Great Performances series of one-night shows at the Shubert, recently including a Sleeping Beauty ballet, the Second City comedy troupe and the Pilobolus Dance Theater.
At Elm Shakespeare, Whitney Center is the lead sponsor for the arts education group’s Free Shakespeare in the Park program, which mounts Shakespeare productions at New Haven’s Edgerton Park each summer.
“They are just about the most generous and nicest people I work with,” says Barbara Schaffer, director of development for Elm Shakespeare. “They have provided very important institutional support for Elm Shakespeare, and many of the residents of Whitney Center are tremendous supporters of ours as well.”
Whitney Center also partners with the wider community in several other ways. The center hosts meetings for groups that include the Hamden Land Conservation Trust, Z’mirah Chorale, East Rock Institute, Whitneyville Civic Association, New Haven Scholarship Fund, Hamden Chamber of Commerce, the Foote School and the Parkinson’s Patients Support Group.
Education is another strong focus. The center supports the Institute for Learning in Retirement, which draws more than 100 people to weekly classes at the center. The center also sponsors an academic lecture every Monday night as well as monthly art exhibits, operates the Hamden High School/Whitney Center Bridge Builders program, hosts Hamden High School’s nursing assistance education program and houses a number of Hamden Adult Education programs.
In the end, engagement in the community helps the residents of Whitney Center stay active and engaged, Gravel says.
“Our residents want an environment that challenges them, that gives them an opportunity to be productive for as long as they want to be,” he says. “They continue to volunteer, and many continue to work. They are not coming here to live as hermits. Remaining engaged helps them stay healthy.”
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