Photography by: Mark Lindhult

River Mills Assisted Living

Chicopee, Massachusetts

The River Mills Assisted Living Residential Community in Chicopee Falls opened in 2019. At 7 River Mills Drive, the facility is located just over 200’ from the Connecticut River and features it’s own interior site stormwater management system. River Mills offers 95 units, of which 73 are for assisted living, while the other 22 are dedicated for memory support living. The projects also showcases outdoor amenities such as an outdoor patio with views of the vegetated riverbank, an interior planted courtyard, and arrival drop off.

River Mills was a former mill. The project team worked closely with DEP to reuse the existing building and its surrounding site. The development of the site was through the guidance of an AUL, an Allowable Use Limitation, which established many constraints upon the logistics of construction, and made reuse feasible. Plants selected for this project include many native grasses, and trees such as Shadbush, Birch, Poplar, Milkweed, Wintergreen, and Bearberry.