DALLAS—Having had a loved one diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, Charles Hodges knows the importance of receiving care in a dedicated treatment facility.

That's the reason behind the Dallas architect and Tribute Senior Living partner's decision to construct an advanced memory care and senior living community in Prosper this spring. Upon completion next year, the 60,000-square-foot community will be home to 100 residents. Tribute plans to build nine more across the country.

Hodges, founder and president of Dallas-based Hodges & Associates Architecture, witnessed firsthand the inadequacy of Alzheimer care environments and treatments while his father lived in and out of nursing facilities for years.  

“Nobody is designing for dementia,” Hodges says. “They will take a wing of a nursing facility and keep the doors locked. That is their memory center.”

Traditionally, memory care and senior-living facilities have been constructed with more of an emphasis on cost per-square-foot and less emphasis on the designed environment, says Hodges, whose aim is to take away any potentially distressing design elements, such as inexpensive HVAC units and lighting that can add to the agitation dementia patients commonly experience.

“With some facilities, patients are simply kept in their rooms,” says principal architect Gary DeVleer. “We've created an environment that encourages physical activity and interaction. It's a balance. The environment is soothing when it needs to be, and simulating when it needs to be.”

Austin-based equity investor and Tribute Senior Living partner Rex Paine also has a personal connection with the disease.

“This project has a special place in my heart,” says Paine, owner of Kingbridge Capital. “My mother currently suffers from Alzheimer's and we recently moved her into a memory-care facility. This is just the first of a number of Tribute Senior Living Communities that we will be building, each of which will have the same thoughtful design elements and cutting edge care.” 

Sodalis Elder Living principal and Tribute Senior Living partner Mark Rushing will serve as the operating partner. 

The team has also formally partnered with Dr. Paula Grammas, the former executive director of the Garrison Institute on Aging and tenured professor of neurology at the Texas Tech University School of Medicine, to ensure that the communities utilize every environmental and care advantage in treating Alzheimer's and dementia.