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 exper ...

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. w ...

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

, and urban designer based in

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. She was the designer of the "

Katrina Cottage Katrina Cottages or FEMA 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 victi ...

," 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 Exec ...

emergency trailers supplied to some of the newly homeless survivors of

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

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 t ...

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

Lowe's Lowe's Companies, Inc. ( ) 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. As of October 28, 2022, Lowe's and i ...

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 that promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating Walkability, walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has ...

and

New Classical Architecture New Classical architecture, also known as New Classicism or Contemporary Classical architecture, is a Contemporary architecture, contemporary movement that builds upon the principles of Classical architecture. It is sometimes considered the mode ...

Early life and education

Cusato was born in 1974 and raised in

Anchorage, Alaska Anchorage, officially the Municipality of Anchorage, is the List of cities in Alaska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Alaska. With a population of 291,247 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it contains nearly 40 percent of ...

and in

Kenai, Alaska Kenai (, ; Dena'ina: ; , ''Kenay'') is a city in the Kenai Peninsula Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. By road, it is 158 miles southwest of Anchorage. The population was 7,424 as of the 2020 census, up from 7,100 in 2010, the fiftee ...

. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...

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 (United States), Republican Party, he previously ser ...

, then Governor of

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

, hired

New Urbanist New Urbanism is an urban design movement that 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 ...

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 Harrison County, Mississippi, United States. It lies on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast in southern Mississippi, bordering the city of Gulfport, Mississippi, Gulfport to its west. The adjacent cities ar ...

at the

Mississippi Renewal Forum The Mississippi Renewal Forum was a design charrette in which over 200 community leaders and design professionals worked together to plan the rebuilding of the Mississippi Coast post-Hurricane Katrina. In the course of a week in October 2005, the c ...

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

vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...

, 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 at the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New York City, along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile. It is one of 19 Smithsonian Institution museums and one of three Smithsonian facili ...

.” 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, an ...

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 (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Gwynedd who, from the late 12th century, used it (albeit inconsistent ...

: ''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