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Thomas P. Montgomery’s professional future may have been decided when he was very young during visits to a nursing home where his grandmother lived.  “They weren’t great places back then,” Montgomery recalls.  As an adult, he would change all that.
Montgomery, Vice President of GLMV Architecture, specializes in designing environments for the elderly that allow residents to make themselves completely at home.  In the past, long-term residential facilities housed large groups of people in one space and were heavily centralized.  “There was one huge dining room and one huge common room,” Montgomery recalls. “Residents often had to have a roommate. Those facilities bore little or no resemblance to the private homes people had just left behind.”
That’s not the case in the facilities he designs for GLMV Architecture. The challenge today, explains Thomas Montgomery, is to provide a home that preserves privacy, enables residents to maintain their dignity, and encourages them to carve out a new neighborhood for themselves.
Montgomery has utilized a “Main Street” concept for the $14 million project he designed for Larksfield Place’s memory care facility in Wichita, Kansas.  A main central thoroughfare offers the amenities you’d find in the heart of any small town, including a post office, movie theatre, library, and several dining options.  The facility is designed to gather residents in groups of around 16 or less, as opposed to one large group of 60 or more.
The goal, says Montgomery, is to bring useful, meaningful elements into each residence design.  Smaller, more varied common areas not only give residents choices, they’re also more desirable and functional when family members come to visit.
Montgomery has been instrumental in facilitating huge changes in the residential options available to the elderly.  And his bottom line? “When I reach that age, I’ll have no problem living in any facility like those I design.”