[Building Blocks by Josef Falkensköld] 

Erika Eitland on the street: Y‘all, I gotta, I gotta take a moment. It’s Erika here. I just realized I have been walking by a piece of the Triennial 2025 art. Literally every day I’m commuting home. So, I’m in front of Patrick Martinez’s piece. What is it called? It’s, the piece is called Cost of Living, and it’s a series of neon signs right here downtown. The signs simply say, “No jobs, no home,” in blue neon letters, and then in the next window, it says, “Affordable housing now,” in these big bright red lights. And it’s funny, because would I have classified these as public art? I don’t know. I see them as advocacy. I maybe see them as education or even just public health — a rallying cry. It feels pretty universal — I think about cities across the United States. But what’s wild to me is the fact that art is literally everywhere, even on your commute. 

Chorus: Inhabit 

Kimberly Seigel: Hey, Erika! 

Erika Eitland: Hey, Kimi! 

Kimberly Seigel: Here we are. Episode three, season four. You know, a season dedicated to the transformative quality public art has in our built environments. 

Erika Eitland: And how art educates us and prepares us for environmental hazards like sea level rise.  

Kimberly Seigel: Absolutely. All right. Erika, I said from the beginning that I am a carbon nerd. (Erika: You did) and in the first episode, we drew out a Venn diagram. Do you remember? (Erika: We did, Yes.) Mhm, one sphere, ‘Public Art’, the other, ‘Climate Change’ and in the middle, ‘Design’. 

Erika Eitland: Yes, I remember. 

[The Meeting by Stefan Belrose] 

Kimberly Seigel: And Episode One helped us see the impacts of sea level rise, right? A real climate threat that Bostonians will have to face in the not-too-distant future. And this was my ‘aha!’ moment, because through the art piece by Sarah Brophy, Climate Monsters, I saw complex climate change concepts transformed into something accessible for all ages. That’s why I’m a firm believer that public art can be a source of climate action and education that inspires a future planet intervention.  

Erika Eitland: You said it! 

Kimberly Seigel: And that future includes both climate and culture. 

Erika Eitland: Okay, yes, to climate and culture, but I’ll be honest, Kimi, when we started this season and I thought of public art, I pictured murals, statues, permanent structures, but all this conversation we’ve had this season has pushed me to rethink that. You know? Now I notice how art shows up everywhere, even on a single commute home. 

Kimberly Seigel: Yes, oh, from subway buskers to temporary art installations of the Boston Public Art Triennial, they all highlight that public art can be temporary or long standing. And oftentimes, it hides in plain sight. 

Erika Eitland: Mhm, and I think my takeaways this season have been sparked by daily experiences. So, it’s summer, it’s Boston, and… well, you know, that means it’s kind of unpredictable in the weather department, you know? We’ve got some poor air quality from Canadian wildfire smoke one day, then we got a little extreme heat. Then we have some crunchy grass thanks to drought. 

Kimberly Seigel: Then the one day we plan to take the ferry, it could also, you know, just torrentially downpour on us, really (chuckles).  

Erika Eitland: I think my big ‘aha’ moment, though, has come from being very pregnant this summer. 

Kimberly Seigel: Oh! Little dude — a mini public health expert on the way (chuckles)! 

Erika Eitland: We can only hope. But, when I think about this summer, it’s really about seeking refuge from those intense days. And I feel like art can intentionally respond to environmental challenges in very personal ways. Like, imagine a misting art piece bringing childlike joy when short walks in the heat are totally depleting. If you have a pregnant woman in your life, you know this. Or there’s a fun bench under a tree or an edge of a fountain that gives you a little chance to sit there, you know, catch your breath, have a little sip of water. 

[Sunshine Strut by Mike Franklyn] 

Kimberly Seigel: You must have been struggling this summer, because this is Boston, and it’s hot and also humid! (Erika: Sticky.) I grew up in LA and the whole county of Los Angeles can get very hot in the summer months. But what makes the heat in LA easier to tolerate is that it’s a dry heat. It lacks that humidity that makes places like the southeastern United States and even Boston just so brutally hot. 

Erika Eitland: Well, and that high humidity in Boston means that the air may already be saturated with moisture, so our body is less able to cool itself down by something simple as sweating. 

Kimberly Seigel: It sounds like today we are thinking about art not only as climate education, but also climate adaptation. 

Erika Eitland: Uh, yes, we are. And really public art is well public, but now it’s personal too, and even though I’m talking about my own experiences this summer, my struggle is shared by a lot of other people in our fair city, and learning how to adapt to the climate can protect some of our other most vulnerable inhabitants. Pregnant people, yes, but also kids, people with chronic illnesses, older adults and our natural ecology and ecosystems too. 

Kimberly Seigel: Definitely! Okay. To get us started, we are going to learn the fundamentals of extreme heat from Boston University’s, Dr. Patricia Fabian, an Associate Professor of Environmental Health and Associate Director at their Institute for Global Sustainability. 

Erika Eitland: And then, we catch up with former singer songwriter turned public health scientist Dr. Tasha Golden, and ask the million-dollar question, “Are artists public health professionals too?” (Kimi: Oo!) And along the way, we will nerd out on other artists that inspire us. 

Kimberly Seigel: And as we close this season, we pull in our fellow Perkins&Will researcher, Tyrone Marshall, to discuss how the intersection of art and climate is not just a Boston opportunity, but an opportunity for every city.  

Erika Eitland: It’s gonna be a hot episode. 

[Sunshine Strut fades out] 

Erika Eitland: Okay. Let’s get this started. First up, Dr Patricia Fabian. 

Patricia Fabian: I’m an environmental health interdisciplinary kind of nerd. 

Kimberly Seigel: We looked to Dr. Fabian to understand what makes Boston unique when it comes to extreme heat. 

Patricia Fabian: Boston is not traditionally hot. It is getting hotter. It is getting hotter faster than other areas of the US. I think in Boston specifically, there’s investments in green technology, in decarbonization and weatherization programs. There’s lots of energy in continuing to build climate resiliency and connecting that to the energy transition that the state wants and that the city wants — quite frankly. 

Erika Eitland: This urgency in action was inspiring to hear. And as someone at a design firm, I’m appreciating that our buildings and our bodies both have to adapt to extreme heat. This is not just an outdoor urban planning issue. 

Kimberly Seigel: Extreme heat is an indoor issue facing residential, educational, and ultimately healthcare spaces. 

Patricia Fabian: What we’ve learned from our studies in homes is that indoor temperatures can be hotter than outdoor temperatures. The reason for that is buildings here, one, they’re old, second, they’re designed to retain heat, because they were designed for cold weather. And so, I think we need to be thinking about designing buildings for multiple weathers instead of just the prevailing weather that has traditionally been in a region. 

Kimberly Seigel: So, the older housing stock in Boston, especially in public housing and buildings known here as ‘triple deckers,’ they lack adequate insulation, ventilation, or air conditioning. 

Erika Eitland: And a topic near and dear to my heart is K-12 schools that, across the more than 1,800 schools in Massachusetts, we have uneven or insufficient cooling capabilities. And updating HVAC or even adding AC is expensive, but the cost of inaction means there is passive heat buildup putting children and educators at risk. 

Patricia Fabian: Window air conditioning works to keep the schools cool enough so kids stay in school. And this is a controversial topic, because window air conditioners are not energy efficient. If you were to design a building, you would not design a building to need window air conditioning. But faced with the reality of very old building stock, thinking about interim solutions, like window air conditioning, so that: kids can stay in school, parents can go to work, teachers can go to work — is worth elevating. Central air obviously works the best. It’s hard to retrofit. But I think while there’s many, many solutions for new buildings, asking the design community to think of what can be done with decades old buildings that need solutions now is worth also discussing. 

Kimberly Seigel: Erika, this parallels what we discussed before about temporality. If performance art is a short-term piece of public art, adding air conditioning to classrooms is equivalent to a short-term public health intervention.  

Erika Eitland: Ooh! I like it.  

Kimberly Seigel: Both are valuable, but may not be given the same oversight as more permanent solutions or more permanent pieces of art. 

Erika Eitland: I like that, but I think the importance of these solutions or art pieces are not the same for everybody. We need to remember the complexity of what drives vulnerability. 

Patricia Fabian: I think also this idea of “one size fits all,” we need to get away from that. And I think heat emergencies and heat advisories are a good example of that, because you have to take into account people’s exposure, people’s job, where they spend their day, people’s susceptibility, individual susceptibility, and people’s ability to adapt. 

Kimberly Seigel: Design teams need to account for these factors. 

Erika Eitland: Yes, because heat advisories don’t accurately reflect the realities happening in pockets of our own neighborhood or individual buildings. 

Patricia Fabian: So one example I can give of sort of exposure and how it connects to heat emergencies is last summer, our research team partnered with the city of Boston, A Better City, and many local organizations, and we monitored temperature in neighborhoods that were identified in Boston’s Heat Resilience Plan as both hot and environmental justice. So, what we showed is that the heat advisory and emergency thresholds were met earlier, and that they lasted longer in hot neighborhoods. But not across the entire hot neighborhood. Heat is very localized, can be very localized. And so, there’s hot pockets that can be single blocks within what you might consider a cool neighborhood, or hot pockets within a hot neighborhood that has cool pockets. So, should heat emergencies be different depending on whether you live in a local heat island? For example. Should we be changing our heat emergency declarations based on who might need to hear it and who might be responding earlier to extreme heat? 

Erika Eitland: Never have I wanted a Hot Pocket less. 

Kimberly Seigel: [Laughter] (singing) Hot Pocket! That’s what you took away from that? An after-school snack? 

Erika Eitland: Uh, yeah! The jingle was playing in my head. But no, I mean, it actually inspired me that the scale of design that we work at is appropriate to spark real change for human health and comfort. I have long said, “A building without people is just an energy efficient sculpture.” 

Kimberly Seigel: You have said that for a long time, yeah. 

Erika Eitland: But, sculptures that account for human experience withstand time and are monuments to the people. 

Kimberly Seigel: For me, Dr. Fabian just reminded us—when design is rooted in community voices, it’s not just buildings we’re creating—it’s futures. She’s shown us how those big, bold visions can literally take shape in our streets and public spaces. 

Kimberly Seigel on the street: Do you hear that? That is the sound of environmental sculpture, Harbor Fog by the artist Ross Miller. I’m standing here on the Rose Kennedy Greenway and looking at this really beautiful, interesting sculpture. It’s stainless steel and bronze, and apparently these three kind of beacons are meant to resemble, I guess, the Boston Harbor nautical buoys. I don’t really see that. I kind of just see robots looking a little bit futuristic as they light up and fog. This sculpture is the first sculpture to be permanently installed on the Rose Kennedy Greenway in 2008, and it is sensor based, and sensor activated. So, if you walk by it, it fogs or illuminates depending on the time of day or the night, changes colors. And, I’ve also learned that it’s seasonal. It only fogs and mists in the summer months then it hibernates in the winter. And I’ve never really thought of art as having like a seasonal persona, and it definitely got me wondering: how is climate change making these artists change their creative process? Or, I kind of wonder if Ross Miller, the artist of this piece, was thinking about all of those things as he created, almost like a refuge for heat from heat in his sculptural piece, it’s really beautiful here. 

Erika Eitland: For the love of misters, nothing brings me greater joy, and I can’t wait for little dude to come so I feel like it’s okay for me to bounce around in there with him, you know? 

Kimberly Seigel: (Through laughter) I mean, why not now? What’s stopping you? 

Erika Eitland: Dignity? Maybe? 

Kimberly Seigel: I think you should really lean into it. 

Kimberly Seigel: When I saw Harbor Fog, I knew you would appreciate it. 

Erika Eitland: Oh, I do. And for so many reasons, you know? You’re bringing up seasonality. It’s there for you when you need it most. You’re bringing up refuge. You can hear, feel, see, its cooling powers, ugh magical. 

Kimberly Seigel: Oh, yeah. I mean, I was so close to calling you. 

Erika Eitland: Oh, no, I wish you had because, you know, I love, you know, a misting art piece. 

Kimberly Seigel: You’re such a fan. I know, I do know this. 

Erika Eitland: They lower the ambient temperature through evaporative cooling. So, if you can’t sweat the art does it for you? How cool is that? (Kimberly: Amazing!) Oh, my God. You know, I think there are a growing number of examples of art and heat communication coming together, though. And if we just cross the Charles River into Cambridge, again, it is its own separate city. There is another temporary public art installation called Heat Blooms, and this is a part of city of Cambridge’s Shade is Social Justice Program, and it’s actually a visual thermometer. 

Kimberly Seigel: Ooh, okay, you just said a lot of things I love and want to hear more about, but tell me more about this visual thermometer. 

[The Meeting by Stefan Belrose – instruments stem] 

Erika Eitland: Oh, this is such a great question. I- The inner nerd in me just was like, “Oh my god, I must understand.” But first, huge shout out to the lead artist and founder of Art for Public Good, Carolina Aragón, and Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at UMass Amherst. 

Kimberly Seigel: Queen, that’s amazing.  

Erika Eitland: Totally. Okay. So, imagine a temporary pergola with these vinyl flowers or blooms hanging above you, and it reminded me of just like giant fuchsias dangling overhead.  

Kimberly Seigel: Wow. That is so cool. 

Erika Eitland: It’s so cool. And what’s really cool about it is it’s a kinetic sculpture. So each of those blooms has smart memory alloy wires that respond to temperature changes. So, when the temperature in Cambridge rises above 85 degrees, the bloom opens, and then as the temperature cools, the wires soften, and then that bloom partially closes, like it’s going to sleep. 

[Lanterns Ascending by Jerry Lacey – Bass Stem] 

Kimberly Seigel: What! Okay, that’s amazing. It sounds like it’s a lot like Harbor Fog in that they’re both responding to their surroundings. (Erika: Mm, yes.) But this isn’t really climate adaptation, right? This sounds like Heat Blooms is more like an alert system. 

Erika Eitland: Yes, exactly. So, the sculpture blooming at 85 degrees is not by accident. In Massachusetts, if the temperature stays at or above 85 degrees for three consecutive days, the Department of Public Health considers this a “high threat” to communities and triggers an unhealthy heat forecast, highlighting that greater risk for children, older adults and those with chronic medical conditions, or pregnant ladies… I would hope. 

Kimberly Seigel: Wow, okay, and that might not even be accounting for our hot pockets. 

Erika Eitland: Exactly. And so, this alert system or art piece could really be a reminder to people — hydrate, seek shade or air conditioning, avoid intense exercise. So, it’s really communicating a lot here.  

Kimberly Seigel: Erika, we’ve been talking about a lot of art in plazas and greenways today, and it got me thinking about landscape architects and how they’re more similar to landscape artists. (Erika: Ooh!) You know, like when you’re wandering down a lush, shaded sidewalk and there are tall grasses you can touch and just flowers that you can smell. My personal favorite is the scent of a star jasmine in bloom. 

[The Meeting by Stefan Belrose – instruments stem] 

Erika Eitland: I shove my nose right up in there. 

Kimberly Seigel: Me too, always! Or just the relief from the heat when you’re enveloped in all this greenery. 

Erika Eitland: Or what we saw with the artists from Art for Public Good, you know, they’ve really proven designers are also artists. You know, they’re shaping how we move, gather, rest within these spaces, but also how we feel. 

Tasha Golden: My name is Dr. Tasha Golden, and I get to work with clients and companies all around the world linking creativity with well being. You know, all along, from the beginning, one of my biggest interests is the idea that we can reimagine even our seemingly most entrenched systems. Like, we can decide, as communities, as populations, as collectives, what do we want health care to look like? What kinds of well-being options do I want to have available to me in my community? And how do I want that integrated with what we’ve traditionally called, quote, unquote, “health care.” 

Erika Eitland: The reason I wanted to bring in Dr. Golden is because she once told me, “We are all artists, but some of us are, perhaps, just bad artists.”  

Kimberly Seigel: Heh. Ain’t that the truth?  

Erika Eitland: When you think like that, though, it opens up a different kind of definition of public art that we can all participate in. 

Kimberly Seigel: You and I have seen that the evolving definition of public art has become more inclusive of who can make it, who can enjoy it, and what makes it art. 

Tasha Golden: Yeah, if we look at the definition of art as being, you know, the things that you’re encountering, if you’re designing a building, a space, an intersection, if that’s being designed, then it is a kind of art. It could be a matter of how creative or artistic you wanted to be about it or were you just going for efficiency and getting it out there. But either way, it’s a kind of art. And so, when you think about it, things that way, you’re like, how would public art be an intervention that supports healing? 

Erika Eitland: And this is why I love Dr. Golden, because within the definition of public art, she’s getting at, how can we improve human health and the quality of life? 

Kimberly Seigel: Yeah, but do artists and designers really see themselves that way? I mean, they’re responding to so many things, codes, commissions, regulations, costs, it’s a lot to juggle while also trying to be creative. 

Erika Eitland: No, I mean, I asked her this exact question, you know, “if we were to treat artists as public health professionals, where does she see them fitting into the larger narrative?” 

Tasha Golden: A lot of artists, you know, they don’t have to be, but a lot of artists are driven by wanting to help people to feel a certain way, or influence how they feel like you know, comedians wanting to make people laugh, you know, musicians wanting to move people and make them feel connected to something bigger than themselves. Well, if you’re doing that night after night at a concert, then that’s having, ultimately, what you could describe as a public health effect on, you know, people’s well-being. And so, yeah, the question, you know, to your point is, what happens if we actually treat them as that from within public health? And I think the first thing is that we see our tool sets expand. What we thought that we could do becomes much larger. 

Kimberly Seigel: I mean, we heard that directly from long time subway busker, Ilana Katz Katz, on last episode when she talked about bringing joy to people who weren’t expecting to hear live music when they woke up in the morning. 

Erika Eitland: But, Dr. Golden shared something that made me think — It’s not enough to have a piece of art like a fountain serve as a cooling device. You also need to feel like you can access it. You’re invited to activate its public health benefits. 

Tasha Golden: You know people might not naturally know exactly what a given experience is supposed to offer to them. “Is it supposed to be hands off sculpture that’s a pretty fountain. I look at it? Am I supposed to engage with it? Am I literally supposed to get into it? How would I know that?” And, you know, “how could I know that not just by signage that’s up, or not just by happening to grow up in this area. So, I’ve been here for 30 years, and I just know, but how might I know that from the way that it’s designed?” 

Erika Eitland: I think that invitation is critical. Last season, we talked about invisible ropes that go up and around public art and public spaces, and sometimes those ropes are simply reinforced by signage. “Don’t do this!” “Don’t do that!” But here’s an example where we need signs, especially in the summer that say, “Please cool yourself. Embrace your inner child. We won’t tell anybody if you jump in.” 

Kimberly Seigel: So many of our colleagues are already deciding with that intention. We just need to embrace that we really do have a ripple effect on other people, especially during this critically vulnerable time.  

[The Meeting by Stefan Belrose – instruments stem] 

Kimberly Seigel: Erika, Dr. Eitland, Doctor of Human Experience. Let me push you a little bit here and let me ask you this thought-provoking question: Is public art just for human consumption? 

Erika Eitland: Oh, uh, well, who else would it be for? I mean, who’s the public here? 

Kimberly Seigel: Exactly. We focused a lot this season on the art part of public art. But if we’re really thinking about our future planet, we need to rethink the public part too. 

Erika Eitland: Oh, I like this. Okay, where are we going? 

Kimberly Seigel: Okay, so art can serve more than humans. It can serve ecosystems.  

Erika Eitland: Oh, it’s serving. 

Kimberly Seigel: Haha, sure, it’s a tool for education and adaptation, but it can also restore and rebalance. 

Erika Eitland: Oh, okay, I can see that. 

Kimberly Seigel: Okay, so heat isn’t just a land issue. It’s an oceans issue, too. (Erika: Mmm.) Oceans absorb 90% of the excess heat trapped in the Earth’s climate system, (Erika: Dang.) which pretty much devastates coral reefs, food systems, and marine life. 

Erika Eitland: That’s wild like, I feel like we could have an entire episode on just that. 

Kimberly Seigel: Umm, we really could, but, you know, imagine art designed with that broader public in mind that also responds to extreme heat.  

[Enchanted August by Bonn Fields – melody stem ] 

Kimberly Seigel: Artist Jason deCaires Taylor creates underwater sculptures that double as habitats. It’s art that’s conservation and a conversation all at once. It is permanent sculptural installations are predominantly shown in submerged or tidal marine environments. They’re like, they’re underwater. They’re not on land. 

Erika Eitland: I feel like I’ve seen this because it was so mind boggling. As you like, (Kimberly: Yes!) all the corals and fish are like, swimming around like people’s heads. But, I mean, that’s a totally different take on the built environment, you know, like, if humans never see it, it’s still art with purpose and serving, I guess, a different public? 

Kimberly Seigel: There’s a real fear around climate change, but this is an example that art can also make the future a little less scary and probably more habitable for people and sea life. It struck me as just being an amazing artistic solution. 

Erika Eitland: Totally. 

Kimberly Seigel: It’s really with these more holistic and inclusive definitions of public art that we can unlock the greatest design potential. 

Kimberly Seigel: Okay, Erika, it’s been super fun to lift up Boston. It’s public spaces, it’s public artists and this year’s triennial. But we cannot say goodbye to this season four without acknowledging that climate change is bigger than Boston. These climate realities are impacting all of us on this planet. 

Erika Eitland: But art is bigger than Boston too. Our public art plays an important role in our collective solutions and bold visions. 

Kimberly Seigel: Ah, so we should call in one last person to talk about how public art, participatory research, and design are intersecting in his city. You know who I’m thinking of, Erika. 

Erika Eitland: I know exactly who you’re thinking of, a certain microclimate nerd. 

Tyrone Marshall: I’m Tyrone Marshall. I live just outside of Atlanta, Georgia, and I’m serving as our lead design researcher here in Atlanta studio of Perkins&Will. 

Erika Eitland: From the practical to the poetic, Tyrone reminds us that resilience isn’t just measured in degrees or dollars, it’s in the ways our cities show up for us. 

Kimberly Seigel: And when we say show up, we mean for everyone, from our kindergarteners drawing Climate Monsters to commuters waiting for shade at the bus stop or to you on that sweltering walk. 

Tyrone Marshall: Oh yeah, this, I think this is one area where we can talk about everybody. And I think when you say that, different people have who they think is most important. I talked to someone here that- that’s kind of north of where we are, and I was like, “what about- what about children? What about older adults? What about outside workers? Are like, No, I’m worried about the unhoused.” And so, it’s just a great way to just figure out, how can we make our design work for everybody? 

Erika Eitland: And that’s where love language number one, policy, comes alive. It’s not just about writing laws. It’s about what happens when local government, school boards and community organizers see climate and health as inseparable and even make art a part of that strategy. 

Tyrone Marshall: If you look at what’s happening on the Belt Line, you can’t help but stop and look at some of the beautiful pieces that are along the walk. We want to embed climate and health — issues that are urgent to us. And so, I think in Atlanta, you get this unique mix of civil rights, history, diversity and creativity, and it just puts us in a great place. We have all of these great programs in these schools, these STEM and STEAM programs, where we can bring this to our students and get them involved at a very early age, and it’s okay. They can handle air quality topics. They can handle health, they can handle climate. In fact, they’re- they’re excited and probably more conversational than- than some of us are. 

Erika Eitland: Okay. Guilty. Youth are absolutely part of this. They are shaping it. They’re driving us forward. Atlanta’s Activate ATL plan is proof in the policy. It’s about equitable access to parks — where shade, trees, and community spaces aren’t a privilege, they’re a right, and that’s a direct hit against urban heat. 

Kimberly Seigel: And then comes our second love language: research! Participatory research isn’t abstract. It’s neighbors mapping their own blocks. It’s students crunching their own climate data, and it’s universities teaming up with residents and local organizations. 

Tyrone Marshall: It’s really great to get everyone involved. They’re helping us gather data and shape that data, because a lot of times that can influence our policy locally and also bring more funding to projects that helps us reach our design expectations. 

Erika Eitland: And like Dr. Fabian in Boston, there are researchers around the world helping us understand this unique relationship to heat. 

Tyrone Marshall: Some great examples of this: Urban Heat Atlanta — this was a venture between Georgia Tech and Spelman College, where they got out in the community and had students and residents use these portable sensors. They mapped urban heat at the street level. It’s just really great. 

Erika Eitland: And those partnerships aren’t just nerdy fun, though, guilty again, they set the stage for real policy wins. So, check out our show notes for more nerding out and other great academic research that inspires us. 

Kimberly Seigel: Which brings us to our last love language: design. 

Tyrone Marshall: We’re really well-versed designers in terms of looking at materials, colors and textures, but I think when you bring in artists to kind of work along with us, we’re able to kind of get to this other place that talks about visual storytelling. It helps us work it into our infrastructure. But the cool thing is, where it goes beyond just being functional becomes meaningful, it gets really exciting. 

Erika Eitland: And what’s cool about Atlanta is that local code is actually requiring reflective roofs that’s ‘design’ directly cooling a city, and not just for today, but for decades. 

Kimberly Seigel: So there it is, policy, research, design. When they work together, you don’t just get a cooler city, you get a city that cares for everyone.  

[Stop Me by White Bones] 

Kimberly Seigel: So, Erika. Big takeaway here, design isn’t just a nice to have. It is a full-on, future planet intervention. 

Erika Eitland: Ooh, absolutely. Every choice we make today, whether it’s a shaded sidewalk or a misting art piece, is shaping how people will cool off tomorrow. 

Kimberly Seigel: And it’s not a one-person job.  

Erika Eitland: Oh, my God, not at all. 

Kimberly Seigel: I mean, we’re talking interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary teamwork. (Erika: Mhm.) Everything is connected. 

Erika Eitland: Oh, my God. A real ‘Avengers Assemble Moment’ of climate and culture solutions we need our artists, our scientists, engineers, city planners, neighbors, or even that kind of goofy kid down the street who’s building their ideal future out of Legos. 

Kimberly Seigel: Oh, yeah, they’re, I mean, they’re pretty cool, actually. (Erika: Yeah.) But that brings us to art. It’s more than just decoration in our built environment. It’s imagination, culture, education and solutions come to life. 

Erika Eitland: It also is a connector. It links technical fixes with real human experiences. And today, Dr. Golden showed us why art is essential for imagining equitable futures. And then, Dr. Fabian showed us how those visions can be materialized in real spaces. So together, they illustrate the full arc from idea, to expression, to built reality. (Kimberly: Yeah.) And we’ve seen this throughout this entire season, right? If we even think about our little Boston kindergarteners who created Climate Monsters, you know, total science fiction thinking that actually helped us imagine and prepare for possible futures. 

Kimberly Seigel: And we saw that again with Kara Elliott Ortega’s city scale vision. You remember? She called them Productive Fictions. And then, we even saw today with Dr. Fabian’s community driven work. 

Erika Eitland: Which is the point! Art brings in all voices: messy, creative, unexpected, and it makes sure solutions are truly from the people, for the people. 

Kimberly Seigel: And just like climate change, art forces us to make decisions now that will shape life for someone later on. So, it’s not just in Boston, but really in every community. 

Erika Eitland: Yeah. All right, Kimi, I’d like to propose a toast. (Kimberly: Okay) A plan of action with my mocktail. (Kimberly: All right) Let’s make those decisions inclusive, joyful, and why not beautiful? (Kimberly: Oh, yeah) Because design can be the bridge between where we are and the future we actually want to live in, 

Kimberly Seigel: Totally. Big or small, each intentional design choice adds up. Bring art into your climate conversations, people, that’s what I’m encouraging you to do. Find a nerd outside of your discipline and really brainstorm together to find those transdisciplinary solutions. 

Erika Eitland: Or just attend public design or zoning meetings in your own community, so you can advocate or volunteer for your future planet intervention. If we multiply this across communities, that’s when the magic is going to happen. 

Inhabit chorus: Inhabit 

[Ambient sounds from the streets of Boston, young voices can be heard playing] 

Kimberly Seigel: Until next time. You are listening to Inhabit. 

Erika Eitland: I’m Dr. Erika Eitland. 

Kimberly Seigel: I’m Kimberly Seigel. We have a great website at inhabit.perkinswill.com. There are show notes, pictures and links to all the resources and references we shared. 

Erika Eitland: Thank you, Doctors, Tasha Golden and Patricia Fabian for sharing your nerdom and to our good friend Tyrone Marshall from our Atlanta studio. 

Kimberly Seigel: Shout out to Dr. Lauren Neefe for producing and editing the show. You really make it a joy to listen to. Our music is from Epidemic Sound. 

Erika Eitland: Please check out our amazing illustrations by Julio Brenes. Find them on Instagram and follow us at inhabit.podcast. Shout out to our human experience research intern and maybe our production assistant, Jacob Williams, for all of their support. You make us look good. 

Kimberly Seigel: Inhabit is a member of the Surround Podcast Network. We’re cousins with some of the best architecture and design podcasts around. 

Erika Eitland: But we really hope that we’re your favorite cousins, because, let’s be honest – ain’t nobody want to be a third cousin removed. (Kimberly Seigel: Laughs) Thank you, as always, to our advisory board, Yanel de Angel, Leigh Christy, Casey Jones, Deidre Mick, Angela Miller, and Rachel Rose.   

Inhabit chorus: People, places, power, design, change, and health. 

[Steel Drum: Courtesy of PanNeubean Steel as part of the MBTA’s Summer Music Series] 

Voice: A Perkins&Will podcast. 

[Surround Mnemonic]