Toronto, April 15, 2025 – With an aging population, accessible design is drawing interest.
For more than 40 years, Daniels Corp. has built residential and mixed-use projects across the Greater Toronto Area. The firm has developed everything from a live-work-play midrise on Toronto’s waterfront to an award-winning, master-planned community in Mississauga. Most recently, Daniels has been leading a charge for the inclusion of more accessible design in developments.
Green Street News spoke with chief operating officer Jake Cohen about Daniels’ Accessibility Designed Program – a series of accessibility changes that can be made to units at no additional cost – as well as the importance of residential developers implementing accessible designs as Canada’s population continues to age. Cohen also discussed the market’s shift toward rental and the rising interest in senior housing.
When did accessible design start to become a priority for Daniels?
It started probably about 15 years ago. I was working on a project at Bayview and Eglinton, and I was working for the customer-care and service-and-warranty team. My job at that time was receiving calls from people who were entering their units, doing their pre-delivery inspections and then having requests about certain changes that they wanted to make in their units after the units were already built. I would get a call saying, “Oh, Jake, the unit looks great. However, we’d love it if we could install some grab bars in the shower.” I would go to the construction team, and they would be like, “Jake, you’re killing me – it’s not easy to install grab bars in a shower after the tile is up and after the walls are done and the faucets are in.”
We started to compile a list of accessible features that we thought would be beneficial to people who wanted to potentially age in place or just for people who wanted better, more universal accessibility in their homes. We developed our list of items based on feedback that we received from this building and then subsequent buildings that we were starting to build over the next couple years.
You touched on one of the accessible features there, but what are the different options? What can an accessible unit look like?
Some of the key ones that are really straightforward and don’t take a lot of time, energy or effort when designed and thought about up-front are things like wider door frames. Lowering light switches – that’s another straightforward one. Someone who’s in a mobility device who needs to access a light from a seated position can do so in a way easier fashion. Having a roll-in shower detail for the bathroom – it doesn’t need to be for someone who’s in a wheelchair. It can be someone who simply has a harder time navigating into a bathtub because of the curvature, because of the slipping nature.