Santa Rosa designer wins national award for universal design

In 2000, when Susy McBride oversaw the design and construction of a new home for herself and her family in Fountaingrove, she found herself thinking about details most people take for granted. She thought about fixtures, electrical outlets, cabinet heights and nobs, but not just for how they looked but how easy they were to use.

She turned her eye to everything, trying to see the home through the eyes of her daughter Alexa, who has cerebral palsy and was only 9 at the time. Alexa, now in her thirties, relies on a wheelchair for mobility and has other motor skills challenges that can make navigating spaces difficult.

A veteran interior designer, McBride was an early adopter of universal designthen just a fledgling idea that has, over the last 25 years, become much more prevalent, and is revolutionizing how many people are planning and building their homes.

Universal design goes beyond the basic requirements for accessibility defined in the Americans with Disabilities Act. It takes into account the comfort and use of features by all people, whatever their size, age or physical agility and strength. That means almost anyone could live within a home with relative ease, without needing additional help.

“When you’re considering universal design you also have to think about people, say who have arthritis and they can’t pinch. It’s harder to twist a nob that is round rather than push down or push up on a lever. And in a bathroom a nob faucet is much harder to reach than just a lever,” said McBride.

It could be something as simple as providing a tall prep counter and a shorter one for a client whose 6-foot, 5-inch husband was the cook in the family. Universal Design is a kissing cousin of designed for Aging in Place, both are popular as Baby Boomers and Gen Xers look to creating forever homes they won’t have to leave if they develop physical problems. That could be a hip problem that would require a walker or a shoulder injury that makes reaching difficult, or a bum knee that makes bending painful.

An award-winning designer

When McBride was brought in to do the interior design work for a contractor building a spec house in the Tubbs Fire burn area, McBride decided to put her years of know-how to the test. She worked in many universal design ideas throughout the home. The trick, she maintains, is not just to design for functionality and ease of use, but to make it beautiful as well — so beautiful you wouldn’t notice it was designed with accessibility or aging clients in mind. The modern home features warmly neutral tones in shades of white, pale gray and lighter wood. Sprinkled in like Easter eggs are neat tricks to make it easier for someone who is aging or has mobility or range of motion issues.

The bathroom caught the eye of judges in the International Design Society’s recent awards. They named her Designer of the Year in the Universal Design/Aging in Place category. It was one of 41 categories for everything from small powder rooms to entire homes and every interior space in between. Universal Design was one of nine specialty categories. The awards draw entries from designers across the country.

First the shower is curbless with double doors that sing both ways so a wheelchair could roll in easily. There are two doors that swing both ways and two showerheads, one on a pole that can be adjusted for a height so someone in a wheelchair or a shower chair or who is simply short, can use it.

The vanity is floating in the middle so a wheelchair could drive right up. But if you didn’t need a wheelchair you could place a stylish chair there. The mirrors are lit by touch and all the cabinets have pull handles that are easy to grip. The faucet handles are levers. Although other cabinets in the room are not floating, McBride added extra clearance under them so at least the footrests of a wheelchair could slide under. The room lights turn on with a rocker switch that can be turned on with an easy push.

All the surfaces are easy to clean. The counters are quartz and the tiles are large format — 24-by-48 inches — so the grout lines are small. Because the site has no privacy issues she puts in open eight foot high windows almost to the 10 foot ceilings to get in the light, the nature views and foster wellness, she said.

Designing their home

When designing her Fountaingrove home with Alexa in mind, McBride thought about a multitude of details.

“Granted, I didn’t have to think about the kitchen but I definitely had to think about the bathroom and walkways to the house. Instead of putting in steps we did a beautiful serpentine walkway to the door,” McBride recalls of the home she built in 2000 and sold just before The Tubbs Fire in 2017. “We got a wider, 42-inch door instead of a 36- inch wide door. We had wilder hallways, and even thought about the turning radius coming out of her bedroom. You have to think about those things when you’re a wheelchair user.”