New Orleans - In a novel and ambitious effort to return New Orleans homeowners to their own neighborhood, an international consortium of architects led by film star Brad Pitt announced plans Wednesday to develop at least 150 storm-safe, environmentally sound houses in the section of the Lower 9th Ward reduced to rubble by a massive levee breach. Working lot by lot instead of amassing huge development tracts, the project, dubbed Make It Right, will take applications from homeowners who want to rebuild their own properties with model homes now being designed, said Virginia Miller, a New Orleans spokeswoman for the project.
"Make It Right isn't buying big parcels of land," she said. "We don't have an interest in being a developer. We have an interest in building houses for people." Unlike other plans, including recovery director Ed Blakely's $1.1 billion blueprint to rebuild the city starting in 17 target zones, Make It Right is not designed around a traditional commercial center, nor does it aim to expand an area already beginning to thrive.
Instead, it focuses squarely on a neighborhood that has become an icon of New Orleans' destruction: the blocks just east of where a powerful storm surge crashed through the Industrial Canal floodwall during Hurricane Katrina, obliterating dozens of homes and reducing hundreds more to piles of splintered rubbish. Miller said the project area will extend across the 11 blocks between North Claiborne Avenue and the Florida Avenue Canal, and several blocks to the east, though precisely how far is in flux.
In an effort to bolster that initial investment, Pitt went to New York on Wednesday to solicit donations at the official unveiling of Make It Right during a meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, an endeavor by former President Clinton to engage world leaders in tackling environmental problems. Pitt asked participants to match his and Bing's contributions in hopes of raising $20 million for the project, Miller said. She did not know whether they managed to reach that goal.
Like another Lower 9th Ward project that Pitt has spearheaded -- the Global Green USA contest to develop "green" housing and community/retail space in the Holy Cross neighborhood -- Make It Right is rooted in principles of environmentalism, including using solar power for heat, installing energy-efficient appliances and allocating space for recycling and composting.
Home designs for the project also will include features to keep residents safe in a hurricane, including waterproof building materials, roof-level patios that can serve as safe havens and attic storage space for emergency equipment such as food and rafts, documents show. At the same time, the homes will reflect traditional New Orleans architectural styles, such as shotguns, camelbacks and Creole cottages, and will incorporate high ceilings, front porches and gingerbread details.
Thirteen architects, including five local firms and others of international renown, are working now to develop prototype houses that will vary in size and include yards and parking areas, Miller said. Though she did not know when designs are due, Miller said project directors will begin working with applicants to begin construction as soon as blueprints are complete. "One of the missions is to be quick about this," she said, adding that substantial progress should be under way within a year.
Source: Times Picayune