Women in Design 2019 - 20

20

Lorraine G.
Hiatt, Ph.D.
Environmental Gerontologist

They say to truly understand someone you must walk a mile in their
shoes. For New York-based environmental gerontologist Lorraine
G. Hiatt, sleeping in someone else's bed was what did the trick. As
a graduate student at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, she
was awarded a grant to spend time living in eight homes for the
aging. "I was supposed to be studying social behavior," she says, "but
I learned that the combination of regulations, design, and the way
people were forced to deal with each other was creating some fairly
difficult situations for the elderly and their families."
She noticed firsthand the impact of design and layout on sleep:
how in a shared room, the person who slept near the window had a
better experience and more control over the environment than the

Saint John's on the Lake, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
designed by EUA Architects and Blitch Knevel Architects

Women in Design 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Women in Design 2019