Plans for retirement facility for gay community in motion

on Thursday,February 17,2011 20:02

There are a number of luxury retirement homes across the country, but few are designed to accommodate the gay community. In an effort to give these elderly individuals a place to relax, a number of architecture firms and a Los Angeles-based real estate company are working to design a retirement village primarily for homosexual adults.

The goal is to build the facility in Rancho Mirage, California, but the city has yet to give architects the nod to move forward with the plans. The retirement village would provide 300 homes in eight different neighborhoods, according to The Desert Sun.

"Our hope is to design a spectrum of housing types that cater to and accommodate these diverse lifestyle needs," Joel Sanders, an architect working on the project, told the news source.

The homes will range from studios to four-bedroom spaces that can be shared between families. As soon as the architects receive approval for the plan, they can move forward with construction.

The opportunity to break barriers with designs may inspire individuals to pursue careers in the field in the future. Employment of architects is expected to increase by 16 percent over the next seven years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.