Marianne Cusato is a

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

, and urban designer based in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

. She was the designer of the "

Katrina Cottage Katrina Cottages are small residential shelters designed and marketed in the United States in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (August 2005). They were designed as a response to the inadequacies of the trailers issued to flood victims by the Federal ...

," conceived in 2005 as an alternative to the

FEMA The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Ex ...

emergency trailers supplied to some of the newly homeless survivors of

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

along the

Mississippi Gulf Coast The Mississippi Gulf Coast, also known as Mississippi Coast, Mississippi Gulf Coast region, Coastal Mississippi, and The Coast, is the area of Mississippi along the Mississippi Sound at the northern extreme of the Gulf of Mexico. Geography At th ...

. In 2006, Cusato entered into a licensing agreement with the

Lowe's Lowe's Companies, Inc. (), often shortened to Lowe's, is an American retail company specializing in home improvement. Headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina, the company operates a chain of retail stores in the United States and Canada. A ...

Home Centers to make the cottages available in kit form in all Lowe's stores nationwide or the plans alone online. She is a representative of

New Urbanism New Urbanism is an urban design movement which promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually in ...

and

New Classical Architecture New Classical architecture, New Classicism or the New Classical movement is a contemporary movement in architecture that continues the practice of Classical architecture. It is sometimes considered the modern continuation of Neoclassical architec ...

Early life and education

Cusato was born in 1974 and raised in

Anchorage, Alaska Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring ...

and in

Kenai, Alaska Kenai (, ) ( Dena'ina: ; russian: Кенай, ''Kenay'') is a city in the Kenai Peninsula Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is one hundred and fifty-eight miles by road southwest from Anchorage. The population was 7,424 as of the 2020 ce ...

. She holds a

Bachelor of Architecture The Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch.) is a bachelor's degree designed to satisfy the academic requirement of practising architecture around the world. Australia Architectural education in Australia varies depending on the university offering th ...

from the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main c ...

and has said of Notre Dame, “What I learned from Notre Dame was ‘how to learn.’”

Designer

Cusato moved to New York in 1999, taking a job with the firm Fairfax and Sammons, designers of expensive houses with classical detailing. Of the lessons learned there she has said, "You need to know the rules before you know which ones to break." In October 2005,

Haley Barbour Haley Reeves Barbour (born October 22, 1947) is an American attorney, politician, and lobbyist who served as the 63rd governor of Mississippi from 2004 to 2012. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as chairman of the Republican ...

, then Governor of

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

, hired

New Urbanist New Urbanism is an urban design movement which promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually inf ...

planner

Andres Duany Andres or Andrés may refer to: *Andres, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Will County, Illinois, US *Andres, Pas-de-Calais, a commune in Pas-de-Calais, France *Andres (name) *Hurricane Andres * "Andres" (song), a 1994 song by L7 See also ...

to advise him regarding the rebuilding effort. Duany invited a team of architects, including Cusato, to spend part of October with him in

Biloxi, Mississippi Biloxi ( ; ) is a city in and one of two county seats of Harrison County, Mississippi, United States (the other being the adjacent city of Gulfport). The 2010 United States Census recorded the population as 44,054 and in 2019 the estimated popu ...

at the Mississippi Renewal Forum. The architects were challenged to design an alternative to the FEMA trailers then in use. Cusato designed a

vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

, traditional-looking, hurricane-proof house which became known as “the little yellow house” and which won numerous awards and was sold in kit form nationwide at

The design earned her numerous industry and humanitarian awards, among them a People’s Design Award from the

Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum housed within the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New York City, along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile. It is one of 19 museums that fall under the wing of the Smithsonian Inst ...

.” Of the cottage Duany said, "People fell in love with it."

Educator, Public Speaker, Author

Cusato is a public speaker on topics including "The Value of Design," "Sustainability: Community, Home, Architecture, Materials," "Affordable Housing," "Gulf Coast Rebuilding," "Katrina Cottage," "Get Your House Right," and "Is Small the New Big?" Cusato is a member of The

Institute of Classical Architecture and Art The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA) is an American nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the appreciation and practice of traditional architecture and its allied arts by engaging with educators, professionals, students, and ...

and is a consultant for developers, builders, and architects designing and building traditional buildings. She is a proponent of building design that reflects and values classical design in addition to the architectural history of its prospective inhabitants. She is an outspoken architecture critic and theorist Marianne Cusato, “Alaska Deserves a Real Capitol Building, Not an Egg,” ''The Town Paper'', Spring 200

Accessed April 12, 2008. and has authored or co-authored two books on architecture and design.

References

External links

* Marianne Cusato's Websites. http://www.cusatocottages.com/, http://www.MarianneCusato.com/, http://www.NewEconomyHome.com/ * Editorial, "FEMA still doesn't get it: Katrina Cottages," ''Arkansas Democrat Gazette'', Feb. 25, 2006. Accessed April 12, 2008.http://www.iwprgroup.com/arkansasdemocrat.htm

Bibliography

*Marianne Cusato with Daniel DiClerico, ''The Just Right Home: Buying, Renting, Moving - Or Just Dreaming - Find Your Perfect Match!'' Workman Publishing, 2013. *Marianne Cusato with Ben Pentreath, Richard Sammons, and

Leon Krier Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again fro ...

, Foreword by

HRH The Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...

: ''Get Your House Right: Architectural Elements to Use and Avoid''. Sterling Publishing, 2008. *Marianne Cusato: ''The Value of Design''. James Hardie, 2008. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cusato 1974 births Living people Notre Dame School of Architecture alumni Writers from Anchorage, Alaska Urban designers New Classical architects 21st-century American architects People from Kenai, Alaska