Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative
The University of Notre Dame School of Architecture’s Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative is a “Think-and-Do Tank” that provides assistance to municipalities and nonprofit organizations to improve economic development by reimagining the built environment.
Our work targets immediate local impact as well as national and global influence through three interrelated activities: actionable projects, research, and education. Faculty, students, and collaborating professional teams carry out these activities under the leadership of the school’s dean, Stefanos Polyzoides, and the initiative’s director, Marianne Cusato. The work carried out under the Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative is grounded in the principles of New Traditional Architecture and New Urbanism. Central to this initiative is the belief that, as stewards of our built environment, we must seek to facilitate a robust social infrastructure and create a better world for future generations by developing and promoting beautiful, enduring buildings within human-scale, walkable communities.
Visit the Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative Website
In the Media
-
Bloomberg
Can Anyone Save Gary, Indiana?
November 04, 2025
To rebuild its devastated downtown, the city has a plan to tap local capital and small developers — an approach that might be a model for other Rust Belt towns.
-
Chicago Tribune
Gary council approves resolution supporting new city comprehensive plan
October 31, 2025
At its Tuesday meeting, Gary Common Council members unanimously approved a resolution regarding a new city comprehensive plan.
Mentions
Professor of the Practice, Director of the Housing & Community Regeneration Initiative
Francis and Kathleen Rooney Dean of the School of Architecture and Professor
-
Plan to revitalize Gary with small interventions
July 16, 2025
Notre Dame School of Architecture teamed with nationally known planners and the Indiana city to build on Gary’s good bones.
-
The research is in on New Urbanism—and it’s stronger than you think
July 08, 2025
A survey research project at the University of Notre Dame has painted a remarkably clear picture of the many benefits, but also highlighted the need for smoother implementation pathways.
Mentions
Professor of the Practice, Director of the Housing & Community Regeneration Initiative
Francis and Kathleen Rooney Dean of the School of Architecture and Professor
-
Chicago Tribune
Notre Dame finishes blueprint for downtown Gary with preservation plans, zoning changes
May 27, 2025
The city of Gary now has a master plan for its downtown, so the time is now for developers to commit to its new vision. Mayor Eddie Melton, along with city dignitaries and representatives from the University of Notre Dame’s Housing & Community Regeneration Initiative, announced Tuesday morning that the school has finished the plan it started last August.
-
From blight to beautiful: Gary releases plan to revitalize downtown
May 27, 2025
Once a bustling Midwest steel town, officials in Gary, Ind., are promising to make a comeback and redevelop the city to reverse the trend of population decline, abandoned buildings and blight that is too much a part of its 2025 landscape. Leaders in the Northwest Indiana city of fewer than 70,000 teamed up with the University of Notre Dame to create a master plan of a vibrant, attractive and walkable downtown district.
-
The New Yorker
Gary, Indiana, and the Long Shadow of U.S. Steel
February 10, 2025
U.S. Steel mines iron ore in Minnesota and sends it across Lake Superior on freighters a thousand feet long. At Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, the ships enter the Soo Locks, which provide passage to the lower Great Lakes.
-
Inside Indiana Business
Infill housing development on the rise in South Bend
January 15, 2025
Following his career as a large-scale solar developer, Jordan Richardson, co-founder of Inner City Development, moved into real estate development.
-
Chicago Tribune
‘It’s about improving’: As 2025 approaches, Gary blight elimination becomes priority
December 28, 2024
For Gary Mayor Eddie Melton, improving the city, such as through blight elimination, is a dream come true.
-
Can Notre Dame’s Architecture School Help Revitalize Gary’s Historic Heart?
September 25, 2024
Gary’s downtown was once the crown jewel of Northwest Indiana, and now a partnership with the Notre Dame School of Architecture, city officials are hopeful for its return to glory.
-
Notre Dame architects lay out plan to remake Gary's downtown
August 20, 2024
The University of Notre Dame School of Architecture's Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative has provided Gary residents with a preliminary look at its recommendations for remaking the city's troubled downtown.
-
Chicago Tribune
Gary-Notre Dame partnership yields ideas on rethinking its downtown
August 19, 2024
Gary residents got their first taste of how the city intends to embrace the future without forgetting its heritage on Friday.
A downtown area that mixes the city's architecture with walkability and a robust nightlife are the matching orders of some 200 residents who took part in the city's charrette with the University of Notre Dame's Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative the week of August 5, said its director Marianne Cusato to at least 60 people in the Center Bank lobby Friday evening during a presentation outlining the findings.
-
Inside Indiana Business
Elkhart partners with Notre Dame to unveil Benham Neighborhood Plan
August 07, 2024
“A year ago we began the process of identifying future development opportunities that would strengthen the community and economic foundations of the Benham Neighborhood while protecting the integrity, culture and people that have given life to this area of Elkhart,” chamber President Levon Johnson said. “With community input and guidance, we will focus on supporting a heightened quality of life and place through new housing, rehabilitation and by reconnecting the Benham Neighborhood from Main Street to Oakland Avenue to restore a more walkable and undivided neighborhood.”
-
Gary to hold public workshops as part of downtown planning process
August 02, 2024
Gary residents can weigh in on what they'd like to see for the future of the city's downtown. Public workshops will be held, as the Notre Dame School of Architecture helps the city put together a downtown master plan.
-
WNDU
Officials seeking input on Benham Neighborhood Initiative
July 29, 2024
Levon Johnson, president and CEO of the Greater Elkhart Chamber of Commerce and Marianne Cusato, director of the School of Architecture’s Housing & Community Regeneration Initiative, joined us in the studio to talk all about this new partnership.
-
Inside Indiana Business
Notre Dame initiative helps Michigan city land federal grant
July 29, 2024
“This grant is but one of an extraordinary total of $98 million the city has received based on the design, visions, ideas and final recommendations of the project completed by the Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative,” Kalamazoo Assistant City Manager Rebekah Kik said in a Notre Dame news release.
-
Chicago Tribune
Gary partners with Notre Dame to reinvigorate its downtown core
July 24, 2024
“This team has the insights, instincts and expertise, and the city has members of the community who know what the city was before it suffered its losses. They know what makes Gary, Gary.”
-
WNDU
Gary launches partnership with Notre Dame for downtown revitalization
July 24, 2024
The city of Gary Tuesday launched the first phase of its downtown revitalization project in collaboration with the Notre Dame School of Architecture’s Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative.
-
Inside Indiana Business
RealAmerica begins construction on Diamond View Apartments in South Bend
July 17, 2024
“South Bend, like everywhere, struggles with housing costs and not not just at a subsidized level, but across all spectrums of affordability, both lowercase and uppercase,” Marianne Cusato, director of the Housing & Community Regeneration Initiative at the University of Notre Dame, said. “So right now housing is very difficult to afford, costs are skyrocketing and they don’t align with wage growth.”
-
Inside Indiana Business
Elkhart officials, Notre Dame partner to envision future for urban renewal
August 30, 2023
In mid-August, dozens of architects, civil engineers and experts in urban design working with the Notre Dame School of Architecture convened in Elkhart for an immersive study of the Benham area to explore ideas for downtown redevelopment.
Mentions
Associate Professor of the Practice
-
ABC57
Community invited to upcoming engagement sessions for South Central Elkhart
August 03, 2023
City of Elkhart and the Greater Elkhart Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture is inviting community members, organizations, and stakeholders on the city’s southeast side to participate in community engagement sessions about the City of Elkhart’s Thrive Plan.
Originally published at news.nd.edu.
-
Healthcare Foundation of La Porte Final Listening Session Presentation 2023
June 02, 2023
Last week, La Porte was home to a professional team from the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative as they conducted a charrette, a weeklong collaborative, in-depth design process, looking at housing, preservation, transportation, and parking within the downtown area of the City.
-
WVPE
Some 60 years later, South Bend taking another step away from Studebaker past
May 18, 2023
“There are many, many bad wounds from the 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond that had to do with this new car-based urbanism that crept in and this infrastructure is now completely useless,” Polyzoides says. “And removing this infrastructure and redeveloping the edges to the river, and reconnecting with the neighborhoods behind the infrastructure could be a tremendous advantage for the city.”
-
Live Chat with Lou Nanni and Marianne Cusato
November 16, 2022
Live chat with Marianne Cusato ’97, ’17 MBA, Professor of the Practice in the School of Architecture and Director of Housing & Community Regeneration Initiatives at the University of Notre Dame. Cusato will discuss disaster recovery, Notre Dame’s Fitzgerald Institute for Real Estate, and more.
-
WNDU
Notre Dame, Mishawaka, Habitat for Humanity fine-tune affordable housing project
October 20, 2022
"We want to build a house that will have lasting value. We want a community that will have lasting value,” said Professor of Practice at the University of Notre Dame Marianne Cusato.
-
WSBT TV
University of Notre Dame, Habitat for Humanity join for Mishawaka housing effort
September 29, 2022
Habitat for Humanity is teaming up with the University of Notre Dame in hopes of creating more housing in Mishawaka.
-
Revitalization begins with cloverleaf demolition plan
September 08, 2022
In the City of South Bend, getting rid of absurdly failed highway infrastructure may be the key to revitalizing a district. The federal government is betting $2.4 million on it.