Section I – Preface - The World of Senior Living as We Know It Chapter 1 – A History of Long-Term Care in the United States: Nancy Carman brings to light the challenges that elders have faced over the centuries in various familial, state and public and private institutional settings. Chapter 2 – Public Health and the Built Environment: Pauline Abbott discusses the effects of housing and land-use patterns on mental and physical health and the growing impacts of older adults, many of whom would prefer to age in pace. Chapter 3 – Geographic Information Systems: Health and Aging as a Spatial Construct: Kerry R. Brooks and Bob Scarfo focus on the fact that social space, while often ignored, can be made visible and in so doing can illuminate critical aspects of the relationship between health and the built environment. Chapter 4: Nature-Related Contact for Healthful Communities: From Hunter-Gatherer to Horticultural Therapy: Angela C. Papas contributes a foundation for the idea that green environments contribute to healthier living. Section II: Supportive Environments in the Community, the Neighborhood, and the Home Chapter 5: The Evolution of Continuing Care Communities: Not Your Grandmother’s Retirement Community: Frank R. Mandy follows the transition from elder care provided by others to elder self-care and, specifically, the rise of continuing care retirement communities (CCRC’s). Chapter 6: Naturally Occurring Retirement Community: Thriving through Creative Retrofitting: P. Annie Kirk discusses older residents’ growing wish to be actively involved in their communities, which comes as a result of their long-term residency in a location and their affinity for the place they call home. Chapter 7: Co-housing and Shared Housing: Laura Bauer-Granberry discusses how co-housing and shared-living arrangements can become “workable, long-term alternatives to nursing homes or other institutional settings.” Chapter 8: Outdoor Environments Supportive of Independence and Aging Well: Jack Carman & Ed Fox discuss the need to create built and natural environments that maintain residents’ health, independence, and well-being in order to be able to age in place. Chapter 9: Technology and Aging: Adapting Homes and Shopping Environments with Assistive Technologies: Emi Kiyota examines the role of technological interventions in relation to the task of shopping, which is an essential function for an older adult to be able to live independently in his or her home. Section III: Preparing for the Near and Distant Futures Chapter 10: Collaboration as the Key to the Successful Future of Aging: Bob Scarfo argues for building diverse collaborative teams that span areas of knowledge and that reduce the amount of time needed to develop practical applications of that knowledge for the benefit of the aging cohort.