Ruven Liebhaber, Greg Olsen, Robert Walters
This session identifies strategies for creating a livable-for-a-lifetime home environment in three parts. First, Ruven Liebhaber presents the tools for formal and informal caregiving within an intentional community. supports within a cohousing complex and He discusses them community supports in terms of the boundaries, whichthat define their implementation in cohousing. Second, Greg Olsen describes an elder care model fully embedded within the structure of existing neighborhoods. And third, Robert Walters describes how advanced home automation technology can support eldercare in private homes. The three strategies are designed to interface with existing housing and community programs to support aging-in-place. They offer important information for designing new cohousing communities as well as for retooling established cohousing communities.
Ruven Liebhaber is a project development advisor, master planner, architect, group process facilitator, author, teacher and inventor. His dynamic thirty-year career path spans a broad spectrum of professional endeavors. He has completed public policy studies, senior living campus development projects and a variety of building designs. Starting in the late 1990's he has facilitated 2020 LifeVision group empowerment trainings for community planning and advance care directives.
Gregory L. Olsen, MLA, is principal of Patina Consultants, LLC, a design firm promoting PatinaCare, a nurturing philosophy of configuring public space in existing towns in ways that maximize the health benefits of their residents. His master’s thesis, entitled “Community-Centered Elder Housing and Care: An Option of Community Interdependence” helped form his philosophy of aging-in-place. Greg is Adjunct Instructor of Landscape Architecture at Penn State, and joint research associate at Penn State’s Smart Spaces Center and the Center for Sustainability.
Robert Walters is the Director of Technology and a Professor of Engineering at the Greater Allegheny Campus of Penn State University. He started Blueroof Technologies in 2002 to integrate service, learning, community development and smart technology into a non-profit corporation that designs and builds smart homes for older adults. He also has worked with the City of McKeesport to bring technology-based companies to the area. Mr. Walters holds ten patents, presents frequently at national conferences, and is a registered engineer in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania