Marianne Cusato

Designer and author Marianne Cusato is a leading voice in real estate and home design. Her work inspires and shapes trends about the role of the built environment and how it affects us physically, fiscally and environmentally. Cusato’s work addresses the ever-changing needs of homeowners today by striving to balance the practical requirements of economy and durability with the desire to love where we live.

Ranked the No. 4 most influential person in the home building industry by Builder Magazine in its annual “Power on 50” list, Cusato is well-known for her work on the Katrina Cottages and her partnership with Lowe’s Home Centers. In 2006, her 308 s.f. Katrina Cottage won the Smithsonian Institute’s Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum’s “People’s Design Award.” In June 2006, Congress appropriated $400 million for an alternative emergency housing program, based on the idea of the Katrina Cottage.

She and her work are featured often in the media including The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, Associated Press, Reuters, Forbes, Time magazine, InStyle Home, Fitness Magazine, Builder magazine, Architectural Record, ABC News, CNN, CNBC and NPR.

Cusato is the author of two books: Get Your House Right, Architectural Elements to Use and Avoid, with Ben Pentreath, Richard Sammons and Leon Krier, foreword by HRH The Prince of Wales (January 2008, Sterling Publishing) and The Value of Design (February 2008, James Hardie). She is currently at work on a forthcoming book to be published by Workman Press in the fall of 2012.

Currently Cusato is partnering with Clayton Homes, a Warren Buffett/Berkshire Hathaway company, to develop a new series of homes.

Born and raised in Anchorage, AK she is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture. She lives at Icon Brickell in Miami, FL.

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