Columbus Community Center Presents
Connor Street
Residential
3087 S. Connor Street in Millcreek, Utah 84109
"Every design choice was made with intention so that every resident can live with independence, dignity, and ease."
A Home Designed
Around the Person
"Connor Street Residential was thoughtfully designed using neuro-inclusive principles that support independence, safety, and dignity for adults with developmental and cognitive disabilities."
This guide walks you through each space in the home and the intentional thinking behind every design decision. From the color of each front door to the placement of a stove control, each choice was made to serve the person who lives here.
As you walk through today, use this guide to understand not just what you're seeing but why it was designed this way, and what it means for the adults with developmental and cognitive disabilities who will call this home.
Three Pillars of
Neuro-Inclusive Design
Residents are empowered to engage in daily activities such as cooking, bathing, and laundry with confidence. The environment is designed to work alongside the support they receive.
Calm colors, controlled lighting, and uncluttered spaces minimize overstimulation and create an environment where residents can self-regulate naturally.
Accessibility features are woven seamlessly into the design so the home feels warm, welcoming, and empowering in every detail.
The Space,
As You Experience It
Follow along in order as you move through the home, or use the navigation above to jump to any room. Each section explains what you're seeing and the neuro-inclusive principle that guided each decision.
The experience of coming home begins before the front door. Every detail of the exterior was designed to make arrival intuitive, safe, and empowering.
Each apartment entry door is a distinct color. Many adults with developmental or cognitive disabilities navigate spaces more naturally through visual association than written information. A resident's door color becomes their personal landmark, a familiar and comforting signal that they are home.
Residents identify their home confidently through color recognition, creating a calming and familiar sense of arrival each and every time.
Smooth, continuous ramps replace stairs throughout the building entry. For residents using wheelchairs, walkers, or mobility supports, a barrier-free entrance means independence from the very first moment of arrival.
The building is built to work for every resident today and as their needs evolve over time.
The living room is the heart of the home, a place to relax, connect, and simply be. Every choice here supports individual comfort and the natural rhythms of shared living.
Simple, open living spaces with clear sightlines and easy circulation. Complex layouts and crowded environments increase cognitive load and stress. An open layout makes the home feel understandable, navigable, and safe for everyone in it.
Residents move through and inhabit their home confidently, free from sensory or cognitive overwhelm.
Natural wood tones, warm neutrals, and soft whites throughout. Bright colors, high contrast, and busy patterns are known to trigger sensory overload in many neurodivergent individuals. This palette creates a stable, soothing baseline the resident sets the energy of the room, not the other way around.
The home becomes a predictable, calming environment that supports emotional regulation at its most fundamental level.
Recessed lighting throughout with fully adjustable brightness. Bright for activity, soft for relaxing, dim for evening wind-down. Harsh lighting is a known stressor for neurodivergent individuals. Giving residents control over their lighting is giving them control over their sensory environment.
Residents have the power to actively shape their own sensory experience throughout the day.
The kitchen is where confidence is built one meal at a time. Every feature was chosen to make cooking accessible, safe, and achievable for every resident.
Pull-out drawers replace traditional base cabinets throughout. Contents come forward and into full view, eliminating the need to bend, reach, or search in dark spaces. Better reach, better visibility, better organization residents can fully manage their own kitchen.
Residents retrieve cookware and utensils on their own, building daily living confidence and practical kitchen skills over time.
Extra-high upper cabinets above standard reach give support staff a designated, organized place to store cleaning products, sharp tools, and medications, while residents maintain full, easy access to their everyday kitchen items. Safety and accessibility work together by design.
Residents and support staff each have what they need, with the design thoughtfully accommodating both.
Stove controls are located on the back panel rather than the front. Front-mounted controls can be accidentally bumped or turned on. Rear placement eliminates accidental activation without removing the resident's ability to cook for themselves.
The kitchen becomes inherently safer by design, while residents retain full confidence and comfort in their own space.
Wide pathways and open circulation throughout. Clear movement paths reduce confusion about how to navigate the space, and comfortably accommodate wheelchair mobility and staff assistance when needed.
Residents experience the kitchen as organized, easy to navigate, and genuinely their own.
Each resident has their own fully private bedroom, a space that belongs entirely to them and serves as a true sanctuary for rest, regulation, and personal expression.
Each bedroom features large windows and simple, calm finishes. Natural light supports circadian rhythms, sleep quality, and mood regulation all of which are especially important for neurodivergent individuals. Every resident deserves a space to fully decompress, recharge, and feel at home on their own terms.
Each bedroom becomes a true personal retreat where residents can restore emotionally and rest fully.
Each resident has their own private bathroom completely separate from their roommate's. This preserves personal hygiene routines, sensory preferences, and the fundamental dignity of private personal care. Residents never have to coordinate, wait, or compromise on one of the most personal parts of their day.
Residents maintain complete autonomy over one of the most intimate parts of their daily routine.
Bathing and personal care are among the most intimate daily activities. Every feature here prioritizes safety, accessibility, and the preservation of resident dignity.
A curbless, walk-in shower accommodates wheelchair access, shower chairs, and safe transfers. Traditional tubs and raised thresholds present genuine safety risks for individuals with mobility challenges. This design removes those barriers while keeping the space warm, beautiful, and genuinely home-like.
Residents are able to bathe more independently and safely, with their dignity fully intact.
Grab bars within the shower provide physical stability during movement and transitions placed at precisely the right positions to support entry, movement, and exit so that independence is maintained while fall risk is significantly reduced.
Residents can move safely and comfortably through their bathroom, with the environment providing support at every step.
Wide floor space around the toilet and shower accommodates mobility devices and allows for supported assistance when needed, all while keeping the space feeling warm, open, and welcoming.
Residents move and transfer safely at every step, with their dignity honored throughout.
Laundry is one of the most important daily living skills. Having it in the unit, private, accessible, and always available, makes a meaningful difference in daily life.
Each apartment includes its own washer and dryer. Shared laundry facilities can be overwhelming sensory, logistically, and socially. In-unit laundry allows residents to practice and maintain this essential life skill in the privacy and comfort of their own home, on their own schedule, in a space that is familiar and fully their own.
Residents participate in an everyday routine that reinforces their independence and builds genuine self-confidence at home.
ADA Compliant
Throughout
Connor Street Residential was designed to meet and exceed ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) accessibility standards. Accessibility here is not an afterthought it is woven into every space, ensuring the building works for every resident today and as needs change over time.
Continuous accessible pathways and gradual ramps throughout with no stairs and no barriers to entry or movement anywhere in the building.
Curbless shower design fully accommodates wheelchair access, shower chairs, and safe assisted transfers in every unit.
Strategically positioned grab bars in all bathrooms meet ADA placement standards for safety and physical support.
All doorways and circulation paths meet ADA width requirements for wheelchair and mobility device access throughout.
Pull-out drawers, open layouts, and thoughtful counter heights support residents across a full range of mobility and reach.
Accessible parking and entry pathways ensure all residents and visitors can arrive and depart independently and safely.
Furniture & Furnishings
With Purpose
Every piece of furniture in Connor Street Residential was chosen with the same intentionality as the architecture itself. This is not decorative staging it is functional, sensory-informed, and purposeful. Each item was selected to support one or more core needs of the residents who will live here.
The goal: a home that feels warm, beautiful, and genuinely livable while quietly doing the therapeutic and functional work of supporting daily independence.
There is also something deeper at work here. Neuro-inclusive housing is sometimes designed purely for function, and function matters deeply. But at Connor Street, we made a deliberate choice to go further. The staging reflects a belief that the residents who live here deserve a home they feel genuinely proud of. Colors that are beautiful and intentional. Furniture that is considered and refined. Spaces that feel elevated, because the people living in them are elevated. When a resident walks through their front door and feels that sense of pride in their space, that is not a small thing. That is dignity made visible.
Textures, weights, and materials chosen to support sensory regulation, comfort, and nervous system calm.
Furniture that encourages movement, physical engagement, and gross motor skill development in everyday life.
Calming pieces and spaces designed to support emotional downregulation, rest, and nervous system recovery.
Items selected to support independent daily routines, life skills practice, and functional living at home.
Designed for the Individual.
Built for Community.
Connor Street Residential is not just a collection of individual apartments it is a thoughtfully designed community. Each resident has their own fully private bedroom and private bathroom, ensuring complete personal autonomy and dignity. At the same time, the shared living spaces were intentionally designed to support meaningful connection with roommates.
Living alongside a peer, when supported by a thoughtful and well-designed environment, has been shown to positively impact wellbeing, social connection, and overall quality of life. The design at Connor Street makes that connection natural and comfortable, without ever sacrificing personal space or private routine.
Every resident has their own private bedroom and bathroom, a space that is entirely their own to rest, recharge, and feel completely at home.
Shared kitchens and living areas are open, calm, and easy to move through together, making everyday moments of connection feel natural.
Living alongside a peer builds social connection, reduces isolation, and creates a genuine sense of belonging, one of the most meaningful aspects of a well-lived life.
The layout provides clear personal boundaries while encouraging natural interaction the right balance of independence and community, thoughtfully designed in from the very beginning.