DBIANE 2021 Award: SLAM – Chapel Haven – New SAIL

The Schleifer Adult Independent Living (SAIL) Building, is a residential aging in place community building for adults with cognitive disabilities.

The SAIL building replaced several older residential structures into a comprehensive four-story 48,500 sf 28-unit facility with 42 beds to accommodate the needs of residents with autistic spectrum aging. An integrated design process assigned fourteen 1-bedroom and fourteen 2-bedroom unit clusters with communal kitchen, dining and gathering spaces within a dedicated budget.

Along with apartments and clinical space, the facility offers community services including fitness rooms, wellness café, engagement, administrative offices, and lounges. The building is intergenerational in design and layout, where adults with disabilities can flourish into their senior years in a vibrant and non- institutional setting.

Project challenges included weather delays which pushed the schedule into winter conditions and the building classification changed mid project requiring the floor rating to be zero versus a 1-hour rating. Both of these issues created several new challenges.