Aegis Living Laurelhurst is a recently opened senior community in Seattle developed and operated by Aegis Living and designed by Ankrom Moisan. It offers assisted living enhanced with a collegiate spirit through exceptional design and adjacency to the active University of Washington (UW) campus. Leading a trend nationwide of senior living associated with college campuses, residents of this new community benefit from proximity to the UW, allowing them to reconnect with their alma mater and enjoy music, theater, sports, and classes both inside the community and on campus. The community provides 111 assisted living units and 24 memory care units in a design that blends assistive care and community spaces with residential design to create a welcoming, homelike environment.  

Aegis Living and the Ankrom Moisan team were inspired by the historic collegiate gothic architectural style prominent on the UW campus. The team incorporated design details such as limestone-clad, three-pointed, arched entryways and relites accented with branched tracery millwork in a way that aesthetically connects residents and visitors to the iconic campus architecture. History is preserved on-site through the restoration and installation of an antique jeweler’s clock that originally advertised the location of a jeweler in Seattle in the early 1900s. 

Aegis Living Laurelhurst is designed to foster community inside and out, with spaces that engage the street level on the south, the Burke Gilman bicycle-pedestrian corridor to the north, and views of the UW campus and Mount Rainier from a sixth-floor sky lounge. At the sidewalk, Seattle’s ground-floor commercial design requirements were adapted to meet senior living and neighborhood needs by arranging resident amenities like the dining room, lounge, and lobby, as well as a planned café at a prominent corner, to open onto a public-private street level courtyard. This street level courtyard promotes intergenerational play with a public playground, inviting neighborhood families to engage with the community. 

The design of Aegis Living Laurelhurst addresses varying care needs within assisted living, offering high acuity, transitional care, and memory care-specific unit neighborhoods. The project provides options for couples needing flexibility – either by living in separate single occupancy units with different care levels and shared access to common amenities, or by living together in larger units that more closely resemble traditional apartments. 

Aegis Living Laurelhurst provides beautifully designed spaces inspired by the University of Washington, offering flexibility and industry-leading amenities. The community accommodates residents with varying levels of service in a picturesque neighborhood, making the transition to a new home a comfortable and enriching experience.