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Boardman native working for Prince Charles
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Neighbors | Submitted.Prince Charles of Wales (left) greeted Katie Casanta as she prepared for her position in The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment. Charles is the foundation's president.
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Neighbors | Submitted.Katie Casanta spent time on the site where the pavilion she helped draft was being built. She will remain in London working as an architect until 2011.
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Neighbors | Submitted .As an architect, part of Katie Casanta's duties is to draft building structures. Casanta and her team constucted a community pavillion that was completed this year.
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Neighbors | Submitted.Cardinal Mooney High School alumnus Katie Casanta spent the past year in London working with The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment as an architect. She holds a Bacholer of Architecture from the University of Notre Dame.
By SHAIYLA HAKEEM
Cardinal Mooney alumnus Katie Casanta, 28, is working as an architect for The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment based out of London. Prince Charles is the foundation’s president and works closely with Casanta and her architectural team.
Casanta said she was initially surprised by the prince’s passion for architecture and his genuine efforts to built structures that will help the community, not just certain individuals. He is also very down-to-earth.
“He makes you feel like he knows a lot about you and honesty cares that I’m from Ohio,” Casanta said. “I very much respect him and his views of architecture.”
She obtained a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Notre Dame and used her degree to land a four-year job at Robert A.M. Stern Architects firm in New York. After working for a professional architectural firm, Casanta decided it was time to pursue a graduate degree.
She is a member of Graduate Fellowship where she works for Prince Charles in one of his charities, The Prince’s Foundation. She is pursuing a master’s degree in Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism through the University of Wales and working for the prince is one of the requirements for the fellowship program.
The most recent project Casanta completed was a collaborative effort with craft apprentices in Scotland where they designed a community pavilion. She spent five weeks living in Scotland overseeing the project. The pavilion is complete and was opened to the public last weekend.
“That was an exciting project to see from the very beginning to the end,” Casanta said.
Traditional architecture, according to Casanta, involves designing, engineering, choosing construction material and on-site supervision. The Graduate Fellowship program exposes its students to a different side of architecture.
“The Graduate Fellowship has an holistic view on life,” she explained. “We want to design towns where people won’t be car dependent and make way for more public transportation.”
The community’s opinion is taken into consideration when drafting and building structures in their neighborhood. Casanta said the program requires studying the history of the area, talking to residents and planning informational conferences to inform the community of their construction plans.
“The last part, sitting down and designing it, is sort of the easy part. Everything else leads up to it,” she said.
Casanta is unsure of what she will do once she obtains her graduate degree. The Graduate Fellowship is a two-year program and she only has one year left. For now, she is enjoying her life and taking it one day at a time.
“I love the ability to travel and explore the different neighborhoods in London,” Casanta said. “I go out painting and sketching almost every weekend when it isn’t raining.”