The Belmont Village Senior Living community on Wilshire Boulevard reached a milestone in October, continuing development of a senior center in which many former Bruins will reside.
“The impetus for the project was a desire on the part of retirees and emeriti to have a retirement community where they would dominate the community and really have priority entrance in the community and be able to pursue things intellectual in a senior living community,” said Patricia Will, the chief executive officer of Belmont Village.
The community center project, part of the UCLA Emeriti and Retirees Joint Housing Committee, is set for completion in June 2009.
The project concept was developed to create a place for emeriti and retirees to maintain their involvement with the campus, said Amy Self, the Belmont Living public relations director.
Julia Walke, a California Belmont Living spokeswoman said the midrise building “topped out” on Oct. 16, meaning the building’s structure construction was complete after the last level of concrete was poured.
Self said UCLA emeriti and retirees have priority over the building, beginning with priority for UCLA emeriti and retirees, parents of UCLA emeriti and retirees, active UCLA faculty and staff, parents of UCLA faculty and staff and alumni and benefactors, respectively.
“From the looks of the way things are shaping up, it will be predominately a UCLA involvement community,” she said.
Development of the project began in 2003, and the UCLA Emeriti and Joint Housing Committee has been working on the project’s marketing and promotion, Will said.
The UCLA Emeriti and Joint Housing Committee was unavailable for comment on the project.
Will said Belmont and the committee reached an agreement to create a center for UCLA senior citizens and also to create a program for graduate students.
“We have a project that’s begun where master’s candidates from the school of nursing are teaming with individual seniors within the communities to discuss what it means to be an elderly senior,” Will said.
She said, from a pedagogical point of view, the hope is to give people who are working towards a masters in nursing an idea of what it is like to be a senior citizen.
“We’ll also see a lot of fermentation once the building gets closer to opening from professors who have been working and bringing lifelong learning into the community,” Will said.
After discussing plans with members of the Westwood United Methodist Church and other community members in the 90024 zip code, construction began.
UCLA Emeriti and Retiree Joint Housing Committee, Westwood United Methodist Church and the Holmby-Westwood Property Owners Association collaborated with Belmont Village, contractor CW Driver and architecture company RNL Design to develop the project.
The next phase of the project will be to install the exterior and to continue interior and exterior framing, along with plumbing and mechanical installation.
Creating opportunities for seniors to engage in physical and intellectual pursuits later in life is becoming more popular, in Los Angeles and throughout California, Will said.
“I’d say that UCLA is a first mover ““ UCLA is certainly ahead of the curve,” she said.