Rebuilding New Orleans
Pitt on building an eco-friendly New Orleans
TODAY. SEPT 5, 2006. By Ann Curry
The ‘Today’ show’s Ann Curry talks with the actor about his efforts to bring housing to the region on the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina
The design by Matthew Berman and Andrew Kotchen of Workshop/APD won the sustainable design competition sponsored by Global Green and Brad Pitt.
All week, we've been looking at the shocking devastation that still remains in New Orleans, as citizens there mark one year since Hurricane Katrina struck. On Thursday, actor Brad Pitt announced a major step forward in his effort to bring back housing in one of the hardest-hit parts of the city. Not only did he vow that it will be built, ground-breaking is expected in a matter of months. I caught up with him in New Orleans on Thursday for an exclusive interview:
Brad Pitt: The first responsibility is to help those that are the most vulnerable. And we failed — and failed miserably. And to some extent we're still failing.
Brad Pitt, disappointed by the pace of recovery in New Orleans, is a movie star playing a new part in the future of this city.
Pitt: We're a country of great ingenuity. And the fact that we can't get in there and clean up this quagmire is ridiculous. And it's shameful.
Together with the environmental non-profit Global Green, Pitt sponsored a housing design competition, and Thursday he helped select the winner.
This winning blueprint is low-income housing planned for the neglected, still almost deserted, lower 9th ward.
Ann Curry: What do you love about this design?
Pitt: I love that it can be replicated, and not in a cookie-cutter style. At the same time, where it really wins is that, if done properly, we can completely get rid of the idea of an energy bill.
Curry: People listening now are thinking, Oh, come on.
Pitt: It's not that difficult.
Curry: Come on. How?
Pitt: You can cut your energy bill down 65 percent just by the way you position your house, the way you structure it for air flow and insulation and shielding from the sun, and again, the material that you use.
Curry: You're suggesting that people living in these homes will pay zero.
Pitt: That's right.
The winning architects — Andrew Kotchen and Matthew Berman of Workshop/APD in New York — created a versatile model of energy efficient design, using the sun's rays for power, rain for the water system and energy from the earth.