Casa Verde: How Brad Pitt Is Helping "Green" New Orleans

CasaSugar — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 05:29:36 -0700

Hurricane Katrina may have faded from the headlines, but there are still plenty of people without housing in New Orleans. Enter the Holy Cross Project, an affordable and sustainable housing development now under construction. (Thanks to Shelterrific for the tip.) Holy Cross is a partnership between environmental nonprofit Global Green and needs-no-introduction Brad Pitt (pictured below with Global Green's Matt Petersen).

The actor and the organization got together in 2006, sponsoring a design competition to develop a zero-energy housing development in the devastated Lower 9th Ward. The winning design, created by Matthew Berman and Andrew Kotchen of Workshop/APD in New York, includes five single family homes and a multi-unit apartment complex that will run on solar power. The first home is currently under construction in New Orleans, with the Home Depot Foundation footing part of the bill and Pitt still playing a hands on role. I think this sounds like a great green solution; how about you?