MARIANNE CUSATO -- PART 1

GETTING YOUR HOUSE RIGHT

Thomas Edison: Light Bulb.

Alexander Graham Bell: Telephone.

Marianne Cusato: Katrina Cottage.

Could it be possible that a century from now, people will link the 33-year-old Cusato with her 300-square-foot piece of perfection as much as they match Bell and Edison with their revolutionary inventions?

Whether the quaint structure named after horrific hurricane remains in the 21^st century’s lexicon or not, it is hard to imagine any single element of the built environment having as much of an overnight impact as the Katrina Cottage.

Name innovation that has caught fire with New Urbanist iconoclasts, turned the heads of builders and catapulted a designer onto the pages of the New York Times, the air waves of television and the bookstores with not one, but two dynamic books pending release.

Growing up in Alaska, the built environment is quite grim,” Cusato said. “Anchorage didn’t start booming until the `60s and the result is glass and concrete buildings and lots of strip malls. The good oil economy came in those years when design was at its worst – nationally and internationally.”

STORY CONTINUES TOMORROW -- FEBRUARY 18