Wharton Care Center is located on the Uplands Retirement Community site in Pleasant Hill, Tennessee. Uplands is a community that feels like a town, as it is imbedded directly into the community at-large. JSR provided senior living consulting and design services collaboratively with a local architectural firm, McCarty Holsaple McCarty. The upfront planning and programming process started with a strategic meeting that included all of the stakeholders; residents, staff, local community representatives, and administration. The existing institutional building dating from the 1960’s has plexiglassed enclosed nurses’ stations, long corridors, and stark white concrete block walls. Each household includes 15 or 16 residents, versus the original 62 double occupancy units in a double-loaded corridor, institutional setting. Mock-ups of the “small house” allowed staff and residents to make decisions regarding appropriate sizes and functionality. This is the first Eden Alternative™ care model to be built in the State of Tennessee.