Brad Pitt Commissions Designs for New Orleans

Thom Mayne of Morphosis in Los Angeles designed a house that would float if the city floods. James Timberlake of KieranTimberlake Associates in Philadelphia created a house with native vines climbing up the side walls to provide shade and coolness. Steven B. Bingler of Concordia in New Orleans envisioned a house with wide front steps ideal for a traditional crawfish boil.

Those are three of the designs by 13 architecture firms commissioned by the actor Brad Pitt to help rebuild New Orleans’s impoverished Lower Ninth Ward, one of the neighborhoods hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The project, called Make It Right, calls for building 150 affordable, environmentally sound houses over the next two years. In a telephone interview from New Orleans, where he plans to present the designs today, Mr. Pitt said the residents of the neighborhood had been homeless long enough. “They’re coming up on their third Christmas,” he said.

Mr. Pitt said he had been attached to New Orleans for more than a decade. “I’ve always had a fondness for this place — it’s like no other,” he said. “Seeing the frustration firsthand made me want to return the kindness this city has shown me.”

Rather than bemoan the slow pace of redevelopment in the Ninth Ward, Mr. Pitt said he decided to address the problem directly by teaming with William McDonough, the green design expert; Graft, a Los Angeles architecture firm; and Cherokee, an investment firm based in Raleigh, N.C., that specializes in sustainable redevelopment. John Williams of New Orleans is the executive architect for the project.

“If you have this blank slate and this great technology out there, what better test than low-income housing?” Mr. Pitt said. “It’s got to work at all levels to really be viable.”

>>The rest of the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/03/arts/design/03pitt.html

And the Make It Right website: http://makeitrightnola.org/

so over the weekend i went to new orleans.
it was pretty depressing.
just to see all the destruction. its shocking, and you dont get the full scale of it all until you go there.
everything in the flooded areas was destroyed.


im going to post a few pictures, because im just so.. blown away.. by the destruction, i couldnt talk to you about it.
and im sure you all know the story of how the leeves broke and such.
but ONLY MAN MADE CANALS caused problems. lake ponchatrain, the mississippi and the other bayous were perfectly fine.
we went on a guided tour of the flooded areas. i wanted to see it and hear the story of what happened to these people. the tour guide, isabelle, had so much love for the city that she feels she has to tell this story and the people of NOLA need to get their stories told. she started her own tour company and drives people around in a van to show them the areas. shes been getting a lot of shit for "victimizing the victims" but i think she's doing a wonderful thing. because of her, residents of the 9th Ward got commercial tours outlawed in that area. but she took some journalists from all over the world around in there for free to tell the world what happened. and the guy sitting next to me was an engineer and was surveying destroyed houses in the disaster zone and he knew so much about it. it was inredible.

there are incredible legal issues to deal with since peoples property got washed away and everyone is scattered. if your boat is on my roof do i have to wait for you to come before i can remove it?
if your house is in the middle of the street can FEMA move it or is it still your property?

i took at least 150 pictures but these are my favorites.

<sup>i thought that was pretty incredible.

the people in these communities were so tight knit and they got scattered everywhere.

the garbage means these people gutted their house and that means theyre coming back.

see look! house in street!

MR BUSH, WHERE ARE YOU SLEEPING TONIGHT?

yeah theres a shrimp boat on someones house...

a relief organization.

see those blue FEMA roofs? that means people have come back.

aww bubba gump shrimp! yayy!!

i like that picture from a photography stand point and i thought id share it with you.</sup>

thats probably my favorite picture of all of them. it shows so much hope and perserverence in the people of New Orleans. those people have suffered a lot, but they still have hope. some of them dont though, some of them are just like "this is to much for me to handle" they sell their house and they leave. but not everyones like that. there are so many people that want to see that city at its full glory again. it will take a lonnng time, but that city will return. it has before. it can again.

hahah on a lighter note, my favorite dress store in the french quater was open!!! ahh i was sooo happy to see that! and of course, i helped the local economy and bought some cute dresses.

a little bit of uhh, retail therapy? hahahahahahah. im just kidding.

im trying really hard to be positive here. im sorry if that little joke offended anyone. really i am.
normallly i dont care if i offend people but this is different. so much destruction.

but the quater was so eerily quiet that night. well, it was quiet for the quarter. and there were more cops than people on burbon street! haha not really but still. you could get a table at cafe du monde with out having to wait.
it was crazy. but the beginets were still fabulous!

hmm wow. new orleans has a long way to go.
but i want that city to come back. i really really do.  my dream is to go to Tulane and get a job in a little dress shop in the quarter. wooww that would be the life.
its on its way, these things just take time.

im sorry if me posting pictures of the destruction offended anyone. im not trying to exploit these people. i just think thier stories need to be told. how else are they going to get the help they need? even after its off the news these people still need help. i swear to god, ill go and rebuild every house myself if thats what it takes.

okay. im exaggerating. but i love that city and want it to come back okay??
im sorry if im offending anyone. BUT IF YOU THINK IM BEING DISRESPECTFUL I DONT WANT TO HEAR IT. *see below*
but im not sorry if your depressed. it is depressing, but there is hope.

UGH THAT REMINDS ME. i was talking to nick about this and he was like "since you've got family there you should show some fucking respect" and then i asked him how i wasnt and he doesnt respond and then signs off. hmm wtf? idk ill myspace message him or something. i could rant about how pissed off i was but i wont. more important things to talk about than him.

he said i'd be better off with someone else.
but i wasnt.
now hes all bitter and angsty,
and im all alone.

mmhmm yeah. im a poetic genious eh? oh well. ill talk to you guys later.
I LOVE YOU AND IM GLAD TO BE HOME.