Design gives sense of comfort to seniors at Davenport’s Kahl Home nursing facility

When the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm set out to expand their 55-year tradition of caring for the elderly at a community in Davenport, Iowa, they did so with construction of a new $28 million facility called Kahl Home. The goal was to provide the residents with services that meet all of their physical, spiritual, recreational, and psychosocial needs.

Russell Construction, THW Design, and American Direct teamed together to ensure this 135-bed multi-story nursing facility exceeded the expectations of the Carmelite Sisters and the community they serve. American Direct provided doors, frames and hardware for the more than 950 openings and worked closely with the design and construction teams to ensure that every component of the door openings was just right.

One of the main goals of the design team was to create a home-like ambiance on the exterior as well as the interior so residents would feel more “at home” in the facility.

“We paid attention to the materials we used so that the stone and exterior wood brackets, for example, look characteristic of the surrounding area and they add a residential feel on the exterior,” said THW Design’s Kyle Ray.

Fourteen of the door openings were special order custom doors because the architect suggested commercial grade hardware on a residential-type door, which is not common. These clad wood doors are in high profile areas of the facility, mainly the courtyard areas. The exterior finish is more substantial than the average door, providing a maintenance-free exterior with a residential-feel interior. The remaining interior doors were commercial grade with heavy duty hardware. All doors feature top of the line exit devices with special consideration given to the doors in the memory care wing of the facility.

Because of the numerous openings and several door vendors being used, keeping delivery of product on schedule was indeed a challenge. American Direct’s vendors went above and beyond to get materials delivered on time in order to meet deadlines, one of the many benefits of American Direct’s deep industry ties and vendor relationships.

“We went back and forth with American Direct so we could work through the construction documents trying to address problem issues before construction began. We had discussions all throughout the design phase,” said THW Design Project Architect Mark Mastropasqua.

The collaboration and teamwork between THW Design, Russell Construction, and American Direct had a notable payoff making the residents of Kahl Home feel right at home.