Posted on 12/05/2009 11:51:21 AM PST by EveningStar
...In 2007, frustrated by the slow pace of rebuilding in the Lower Ninth, Brad Pitt set up a foundation called Make It Right; the foundation then commissioned 13 architecture firms to design affordable, green houses...
Indeed, from the main route into the Lower Ninth, the Claiborne Avenue Bridge, it’s impossible to miss the Brad Pitt Houses, as everyone here calls them. They are sprawling, angular buildings in bold hues not usually seen outside a gelateria...
(Excerpt) Read more at travel.nytimes.com ...
Those are the ugliest houses I have ever seen.
One of them kinda looks like the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library and Massage Parlor.
These houses may be ugly, but at least Pitt is using his own money to try to help people. I applaud him for his effort.
You dont understand..we have to bow down to the feel good stuff by our “gods”: actors, celebrities etc.
Agreed. Pitt doesn’t use his name to get others to cough up money. He used his own money for the project. Whether or not he is spending it wisely is another issue.
Anybody who rebuilds a home in this area that isn’t up pretty high on stilts is a moron.
The leftovers from Katrina are uglier.
I agree. Egads with as much money as they spend you’d atleast expect them to look a little nicer!
“You shouldn't speak until you know what you're talking about. That's why I get uncomfortable with interviews. Reporters ask me what I feel China should do about Tibet. Who cares what I think China should do? They hand me a script. I'm a grown man who puts on makeup.”
-Brad Pitt
Kudos to Brat Pitt, but he needs a new architect, these are eyesores among the genteel old homes. Plywood flies real well in high winds.
I applaud him for putting his money where his mouth is.
That said, he and his architects have atrocious taste and one has to wonder if those houses will end up being liabilities for the inhabitants. Once the area recovers and the market improves, how many people are going to pay good money for one of those clown houses?
Also: how were the residents selected? Has anyone been inside to verify the houses are being cared for or have they been trashed out?
A far better thing would have been to build “theme” housing designed to promulgate the culture of New Orleans in an intelligent way. Start with a “cooking district”, an area featuring regional restaurants, a hundred small restaurants set up like a co-op. No national chains, no non-regional food, with a bulk purchasing agency among them to keep the prices low.
Not an easy design task, a district designed to feed tens of thousands of people every day and night, on one side, and to provide wholesalers and staff entrance on the other side.
The next district would be music oriented. Like a Tin Pan Alley but for the New Orleans “sound”. The musicians live there and practice and are exposed to each others work. There are music schools, studios, music libraries, etc. A destination for musicians from around the country, like Nashville, but for jazz and blues.
I don’t think the housing market in New Orleans, especially in holes like the 9th ward, was ever great or is ever going to recover.
Ah, classic New Orleans architecture. By third graders.
He could have bought nice plans online for a ‘pitt’ance instead of spending a likely fortune having some egotistical architect design dreck.
I just wonder what they are like inside.
The one on the right looks like a single-wide.
What is that stuff on the front lawn? What will it look like in 5 years?
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