Cynthia Leibrock

Improving People's Lives by Design

She had the career many young designers dream about…a firm of her own, designing homes for people for whom money was no object. In her own words, universal designer Cynthia Leibrock, MA, ASID, Hon. IIDA, now an award winning author and international lecturer, spent the first decade of her career “making rich people, look richer.” But instead of feeling successful, she felt empty. “I didn’t find eternal satisfaction in doing that. I didn’t feel like I had much purpose,” she says. So she fired her dozen employees, shut down her firm and went on a quest to find a purpose for her life. A simple invitation by one of her fired employees to attend a Bible study class led her to discover her life’s work.
“I grew up with a brother with a mental disability. One of the reasons that I ended up doing high end work was that it was as far away from disability as I could get,” she said. But her spiritual journey brought her full circle. “I found that I wanted to improve the lives of older people and people with disabilities by design,” says Leibrock. With certain deliberateness, she works toward that goal in her many and varied projects and endeavors.
In the Beginning
Leibrock earned a Degree in Fine Arts with a focus on design from the University of Colorado in 1970 and a Masters in Barrier Free Design from Colorado State University in 1990. After closing her firm and discovering her mission, Leibrock began healthcare space planning and eventually founded Easy Access to Health, a design consulting firm that specializes in training for interior designers, architects, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and hospital administrators. Her first book was ground-breaking. Beautiful Barrier Free: A Visual Guide to Accessibility hit the market in 1992, at the same time that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) went into effect. “It was one of, if not the first, glossy ‘coffee table quality’ architectural books showing off how beautiful accessibility and Universal Design can be, if done right,” says John P. S. Salmen, President of Universal Designers & Consultants Inc. and Publisher of Universal Design Newsletter. Her client list includes such companies as Toyota, Kohler and the Betty Ford Center; and projects like a Universal Design kitchen at the Smithsonian with Julia Child through the Rhode Island School of Design.
A Teacher
She has served as an instructor at the Harvard University Architectural Department, Graduate School of Design. She has been a faculty affiliate and research associate at Colorado State University and she has been an instructor at Idaho State University. Leibrock has found that teaching comes easy to her and spends much of her time speaking to design students and professionals. She is a thorough and committed instructor, says colleague Jim Terry, AIA of Evan Terry & Associates, Birmingham, AL, who has taught a class with Leibrock at the Harvard School of Design almost every summer for more than a decade. “Cindy spends hours and hours preparing for it every year. She will continue to review the material even though she can probably quote it in her sleep,” says Terry. “She has an internal drive to be as good as she can be.”
Leibrock recognizes that she has a gift. “I am strongest in presentation — in motivating designers and architects to use their skills to improve the lives of older and disabled people. …I especially enjoy guest lecturing at universities.”
At the college level she finds students receptive to Universal Design, while she finds many professors still treating Universal Design as a separate idea — “a special project for a special population.”
“Universal Design should be a part of every project” says Leibrock. “My priority is to convince [students] to use the principles [of Universal Design] as a standard for all projects, not just for special projects.”
“Universal Design will not move rapidly unless consumers are interested in it,” says Leibrock. Financial incentives will get consumers’ attention.
“There has to be some way to positively influence consumers,” she says.

For more information on Leibrock, visit www.agingbeautifully.org.

Bringing It Home

Cynthia Leibrock and her husband have selected 100 Universal Design features that they plan to demonstrate in their renovated house. All will be visually integrated so they won’t serve as emblems of age or disability.

Lighting
• High lighting levels without glare including 100fc on counters
• Solar lighting on sidewalks
• Touch controls on lamps
• Rope lights in the kitchen kick space to improve visual acuity
HVAC
• Zoned heating
• Low “E” glass to prevent heat loss and increase visual privacy
Kitchen
• A zero clearance entry to the kitchen from the garage.
• 36” accessible route from the kitchen entry to the living room, bedroom, and gurney accessible bath. Adaptable route to all spaces.
• Grease resistant rubber floor in the kitchen (to prevent slipping)
• Touch controls on kitchen cabinets
• White interiors on cabinets for visual acuity
• Appliance caddies at counter level to prevent lifting
• Recessed door mat
• 9” removable drawer in the kick space recessed for wheelchair users
• Magnetic induction cook top (for sliding pans and to prevent burns)
Bathroom
• Removable shelf under the sink to clear the space for wheelchair users
• Hand-held shower on a vertical grab bar
• Stop valve in the handset
• Floor drain which cannot be blocked