With the opening this month of the new $80-million Walnut Village retirement project in Anaheim, residents will not only have a place to call home, they will have a small, private town that’s full of amenities.
With the opening this month of the new $80-million Walnut Village retirement project in Anaheim, residents will not only have a place to call home, they will have a small, private town that’s full of amenities. “This place really feels like a village,” says Chris Ebert, project representative with Portland-based Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects, the project’s designers. “I think residents will think they are in a community and not necessarily a group of buildings.”
Owned and managed by Burbank-based Front Porch Communities and Services, Walnut Village broke ground in May 2008. It consists of seven buildings, with 172 private residences and cottages, ranging in size from 700 sq ft to 2,020 sq ft. The units are surrounded by a village of three courtyards, a 174-space (90,000-sq-ft) underground parking garage, various restaurants and shops, and entertainment and well-being facilities.
Ebert says colors were carefully used to create unique Southern California-inspired living spaces.
“Part of the concept the owners had for the design was that they wanted all of the various units to be as different from each other as they could be,” he says. “So we used exterior accent colors such as reds, yellows, greens to try and give individuality to the various units.”
The eight-acre project site was designed around three separate and distinct village centers or courtyards: the Main Village, Village Gardens and Village Park.