Brad Pitt shows “green” New Orleans housing design

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Actor Brad Pitt on Thursday
unveiled a “green” housing design for New Orleans’s Lower Ninth
Ward and said he was appalled by the slow pace of rebuilding
since Hurricane Katrina hit last year.

Two New York City architects won a contest, underwritten by
Pitt, for an affordable, environmentally sound housing design.

Their complex of single family homes and apartments would
be built from modular pieces into long houses on a site that
connects to the neighboring Mississippi River levee with a wide
pedestrian ramp.

But Pitt said the recovery would not work if the city did
not assure critical services such as schools, and that he did
not see much progress in the area that needed it most.

“I am appalled and embarrassed that residents still do not
have the opportunity … to decide if they want to get back
into their neighborhoods and recreate their communities,” Pitt
told a news conference.

While historic and tourist-friendly areas such as the
French Quarter look barely touched by the storm that hit a year
ago, killing about 1,500 across four states, many parts of New
Orleans remain sparsely populated and full of ruined houses.

There is a housing shortage, which Pitt and partners said
they hoped to help address.

Environmental group Global Green USA, which sponsored the
effort with Pitt, is raising money to build the project for
roughly $3.5 million to $5 million, a spokesman said.

Ninth Ward resident Pam Dashiell, a community association
leader who was part of the jury for the contest, said that it
was the first quasi-commercial development in the area since
Katrina roared through, flooding 80 percent of the city.

Architects Andrew Kotchen and Matthew Berman of
Workshop/APD dubbed their design Greenola, which plays on the
nickname for New Orleans, Louisiana — NOLA.

The plan, modified after discussions with the community,
calls for six houses, two multifamily units and services such
as child care and a community garden.

Using resource-saving appliances and fixtures, solar
electricity and hot water heaters, and recycled building
materials, the team hopes to cut pollution and decrease
operating energy use by 50 percent to 60 percent compared with
traditional homes.

Whether the new homes will look like they belong in New
Orleans may depend on the eye of the beholder. Berman said that
exterior materials and the addition of porches, as well as the
long forms, could make them echo other buildings in the area,
but the core building is intended to be reproducible anywhere.

Global Green USA’s Web site is
(http://www.globalgreen.org).