A New Space for Old Folks: An L.A. Funder Is Pioneering the Future of Senior Centers

From the outside, it’s not immediately clear how L.A.’s grand old Wilshire Boulevard Synagogue, with its Byzantine-Romanesque design, connects to the space-agey, three-story trapezoid structure sitting in its former parking lot. Nor is it obvious that this futuristic addition is a place for 70- and 80-year-olds to hang out. But this is the Wallis Annenberg GenSpace, a brand-new senior center that is a signature initiative of Wallis Annenberg, the current chair, president and CEO of the Annenberg Foundation and one of the biggest and most active philanthropists in L.A. today.

The Annenberg Foundation gave $15 million for construction of the building, called the Audrey Irmas Pavillion, and an additional $3 million to build out the 7,000-square-foot GenSpace, which occupies the entire third floor. At 83, Wallis Annenberg is the age of many GenSpace members and she has been deeply involved in its design and programming.

By providing a place for older Angelenos to gather, play and learn — and a modern, exciting, cool place at that — the Annenberg Foundation aims to reduce social isolation for older folks, reframe aging to focus on strengths, and bring people of all ages together. Having a building that stops traffic is part of the plan.

Why funding modern senior centers matters

The light and airy GenSpace wraps itself like a donut around a glass-walled courtyard featuring a massive succulent planter and stairs leading up to the rooftop terrace. On a Thursday afternoon in September, about 30 adults in their 60s, 70s and 80s were shimmying their shoulders in an aerobic dance class held in an exercise room with a vaulted ceiling and spring floor, just off the main donut. Another two-dozen older adults were leveling up their tech skills in a different side room. Earlier in the week, more GenSpace members had gathered for horticultural therapy, sitting around two long marble tables designed with central troughs for dirt and plant scraps. Classes run hourly from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., with online classes available round the clock. Membership is $10 a month, on a sliding scale, and there are about 140 members as of now.

While the idea of a senior center may sound fuddy-duddy — and we’ve all probably seen underfunded and uninspiring examples, with brown carpet, dim lighting and a pervasive smell of disinfectant and gelatinous-gravied Salisbury steak — funding fresh, compelling, innovative senior centers should be more of a philanthropic priority than it is. As research from the National Council on Aging shows, older people who get together regularly with peers in a social setting are healthier and happier than those who don’t. Yet only 10% to 20% of older adults go to a senior center at least once a year, according to research cited by GenSpace. Given the small amount of philanthropic funding funneled toward aging as it is, senior centers are a sliver of a very, very small slice.

And yet, as our nation ages, more people will find themselves alone in their later years. This reality deeply troubled Annenberg, even before she herself became the age of GenSpace members. As she recently told the New York Times, “Even at a young age, I noticed older people by themselves in restaurants, theaters, parks, and it broke my heart. … Why aren’t we making these people part of a community?”

Annenberg wanted to do that, and in a way that would enable L.A. to stand as a model for other cities. As other mega-donors age and find themselves gaining a first-hand understanding of the challenges of growing older in our age-unfriendly nation, we may well see more money routed toward projects like GenSpace. This will be a welcome shift in the philanthropic landscape. As we’ve written before, ageism in the U.S. is alive and kicking, and many aging-related funders are combining forces to try to change that.

The Annenberg Foundation started on the GenSpace project years ago by trying to figure out what might draw older adults to a shared space. The foundation embedded a Ph.D. candidate from the Stanford Center on Longevity for a year to investigate what a senior center for the 21st century could do. It also convened about eight focus groups among ethnic populations in Los Angeles, asking what kind of programming they’d like to see in such a center.

“Then we needed a location,” said Cinny Kennard, executive director of Annenberg Foundation.

Finding an accessible place in sprawling, traffic-riddled, public-transportation-challenged L.A. proved elusive. “We looked at existing senior centers located in parks across L.A., thinking, ‘Let’s take one of these and update it for the 21st century.’ But time after time, we’d find one that was open to collaboration, but there was no transportation to it,” Kennard said. “The other thing was, ‘Could we change the optics?’ Everything about aging is so negative. Could we design a space that would change that?”

So, wait! That crazy, space-age building by the temple is for my grandma?

The Annenberg Foundation was on a quest to find a home for GenSpace. The Wilshire Boulevard Temple, meanwhile, was finally moving forward on a long-desired plan to build a community center on the grounds of its Koreatown branch. In 2015, L.A. philanthropist Eli Broad had funded an international competition to find an architect to design the building, and a 15-person panel chose four finalists, each of whom Broad paid $100,000. The design firm OMA, helmed by cutting-edge, controversial, Pritzker Prize-winning Dutch Architect Rem Koolhaas, won the contest, with a plan by the firm’s Shohei Shigematsu. Philanthropist Audrey Irmas pledged $30 million for construction of the new space.

Wallis Annenberg came across an article about the future building in the Los Angeles Times and was excited about the dramatic, futuristic design. This, in and of itself, could help shift the conversation on aging. Also, Koreatown has decent transportation and a need for a senior center, Kennard said. “I came down here and it was a parking lot. We talked to the temple, and said, ‘Could we think of a way to use a part of that building? Could we have the third floor?’”

The temple agreed. The building was finished in 2021, and GenSpace finally opened April 25, 2022, after being delayed by COVID.

To me, the current success of GenSpace is partly a testament to the power of good design. The inside was developed in collaboration with age-inclusive architect Susi Stadler of Stadler &. The open, airy space has soft but strong lighting, pale blue walls, art, trippy wallpaper featuring faces, and a quiet, upbeat atmosphere. It feels like a calmer, keg-free WeWork for the no-longer-working set. The tranquil-yet-buzzy vibe makes you want to grab an espresso and a book and stay all day. At least it made me want to stay, and I’m a couple decades younger than the average member.

Thinking outside the senior center box

Annenberg has been involved with the programming, said Kennard, and remains deeply connected to the project. “She’ll say, ‘No, I don’t want that. I want a horticultural therapy room.’ She’ll say, ‘Now, do we have these kinds of classes?’ She’s all-in, all the time. And remains that way.”

Beyond the daily activities, GenSpace also operates as a think tank of sorts through its Leadership Initiative, which funds an annual class of fellows charged with countering ageism in policy and culture, and a cohort of occupational therapy interns from USC who are working with members. The leadership initiative also convenes an “Aging Out Loud” series — open community conversations led by public and private leaders.

“We find great partners who want to have these rich and wonderful conversations,” said Jennifer Wong, the director of GenSpace. “We aim to change the national conversation around aging.” Community conversations are informed by issues staff members see arise at the community center, and they, in turn, impact programming. For example, one community conversation led to the creation of a workshop on creating videos. “We had another conversation about older adult employment,” said Wong. “We have up to five generations in the workforce. Here, we have a founder in her 80s and a 19-year-old intern. It’s great, but can be challenging. How do we take advantage of different generations working together? What does mentorship look like? Co-learning? Co-generational learning?”

Like other aging-focused foundations we’ve written about, such as the San Francisco-based Metta Fund, GenSpace aims to project more varied stories about older adults into the world. These conversations help with that aim, said Wong. “We want people to be able to identify with the aging process and not just the bumbling, fumbling butt of jokes you see on the screen. There’s a lot to tackle.”

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