A Calling for Compassion

Melinda Avila-Torio, NCIDQ, RID, CHID, CASP, LEED ® AP, IIDA, is an interior designer, focused on the full spectrum of senior living design. She is an active board member with the AIA Design for Aging Knowledge Community. She also serves on the board for the American Academy of Healthcare Interior Designers. Additionally, she is on the Mentoring Committee with the Women in Healthcare Georgia Chapter. Melinda is a first generation Filipino and was born in Japan. When she was young, her family relocated to Philadelphia, then relocated again to Virginia Beach due to her father’s service in the Navy.

Melinda’s career path was inspired by her mother’s work as a nurse. Her mother worked in a long-term care facility in the latter part of her career, caring for patients of all ages. She saw her mother’s steadfast dedication to her career in addition to caring for her and her three siblings during her father’s deployment. Through Melinda’s work and volunteer service, she is proud to support the Design for Aging community. “Everyone has a relative that’s aging – it’s inevitable. At some capacity, your professional life is going to be impacted by this.”

She studied at Virginia Tech for her bachelor’s degree in interior design. Shortly after, she returned to Virginia Tech for her Master of Product Research Design (more commonly known today as Industrial Design), focusing her thesis on technology and the smart house concept in nursing home communities.

After finishing her master’s degree, she started her career focusing on contract work, such as government and multi-use retail projects. While she was skilled with this type of design work, she felt she was missing a humanitarian component in her contributions. Once Melinda married her husband, they moved to Atlanta. She began working for Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart, an internationally established design firm, continuing with similar project types as her previous firm. Though she had specific experience for this work, the longing she felt to do more compassionate projects remained.

A friend who knew Melinda was looking for more recommended her for an interview with Thompson Witte & Associates (THW Design), and the rest is history. This position opened the door to work on projects that felt more personally meaningful to her. She was also able to actively participate in research and conference presentations to support the work that she believes in. She states, “I finally found my niche and my home. I said to myself, okay, this is what I was supposed to be doing.” She has been with THW Design for 24 years.

THW Design works on projects across the full continuum of care, ranging from Medicaid supported communities to high-end campus designs. They also support hospitality, travel, and food service organizations. She shares, “It’s interesting to bring that knowledge and understanding of hospitality and food service and to apply that to senior living and vice versa.”

Melinda states, “There is a major concern with the silver tsunami that’s coming…Many communities and multi-site operators are really investing careful and deliberate time understanding the direction they must take, not so much reacting to what the competition is doing down the street.” She poses questions; How do you stay competitive with your design services? How do you stay on top of your knowledge base? How do you infuse the level of confidence with either an up and rising leader of a community or an existing one who is worried that their community is not sustainable? These are questions she is eager to tackle.

Melinda’s path to her dream job was not a direct one. Through her opportunities, she had the chance to work on a variety of project types so that she could pinpoint the work to which she was most drawn. She advises, when you are starting out, not to limit yourself and to listen to your intuition. For those early in their career, she encourages individuals to seek out people actively doing the work which inspires them. As she mentors young designers starting out, she urges them to honor their name and consider what they want their legacy to be. Guided by a strong moral compass, Melinda honors her mother’s legacy in her work, through support of aging adult communities.

Collaboration
Megan Crites, Senior Associate, MKM architecture + design, interviewer
Jenn Storey, Marketing Manager, MKM architecture + design, author

Part of the Design for Aging Knowledge Community – Women in Architecture Series

What is Design for Aging? And who is designing these spaces? The AIA Design for Aging Knowledge Community shares knowledge in the design community aimed at improving the built environment for those in our society who are aging. That’s the short answer; a lot more research and practice goes into improving the spaces we design. And who is designing these spaces? Over the years, the architecture profession has been male-dominated. However, that fabric is changing. Female architects have been growing in numbers across the board, from technical designers, project managers, project architects, design architects, studio leaders, and business owners.

How does this growth in female design professionals reflect in senior living and care environments? The fabric is also changing in their industry. More females are Executive Directors, CEO’s, COO’s, and CFO’s of senior living campuses and care communities. The impact of this shift creates a transformation in dialogue and who’s voice is being heard.

So, the question came up, how can we highlight the growing voices of female architects who are focusing on Design for Aging? Interviews, for a start, and writing articles that highlight the architects and their work.

Several questions were posed to female architects across the United States. Where did you grow up? Where did you go to college? What does your career path look like? How or when did you start designing spaces for aging? What are you the most excited about in the work you are doing? What are you losing sleep over? What advise do you have for other female architects? And so on.

The experiences and conversations varied from interview to interview. Which is an important piece of the narrative for every Architect to hear. There were also some common threads that should not be ignored. What is our industry doing right? What do we need to stop doing? And more over, how can architects continue to positively impact Design for Aging?