Brad Pitt still trying to 'Make It Right' in New Orleans

There’s not too much to add to this Architectural Digest promo for its new issue featuring New Orleans advocate Brad Pitt on the cover.

So I’ll just let the mag's PR speak for itself.

But first, I just want to say thanks to Pitt for taking on this challenge with his Make It Right Foundation and keeping this issue in the spotlight. We need to remember that the Katrina victims' lives and homes are still being rebuilt and that they still need help.

Here's the whole enchilada:

Brad Pitt fell in love with New Orleans in the early 1990’s while filming Interview with the Vampire. “New Orleans has its own mind … its own thing. It has a real spirit. It’s the most authentic of all American cities.”

In its January ’09 issue, Architectural Digest catches up with Pitt when he returns to welcome Katrina victim Gloria Guy back to her new home built by the actor’s Make It Right Foundation.

A year after the New Orleans storm, Pitt was horrified at the lack of progress in repairing the damage it wreaked, especially in the devastated African-American populated Lower Ninth Ward. “I couldn’t believe nothing was going on. I recalled the pictures of people on roofs, begging for help and I couldn’t believe that this was our America.”

Determined to put his dual passions for architecture and environmentally-sound development to work, he and several partners started the Make It Right Foundation, whose aim is to build 150 homes for residents of the lower Ninth Ward -– one of the hardest hit during the ’05 hurricane. He invited architects from around the globe to New Orleans to submit sustainable -– and affordable housing solutions.

Pitt convened a meeting with the architects, residents and community leaders to establish guidelines for rebuilding the neighborhood. “I never had any idea that so many people would show up for this.  The model works and it’s replicable.”

Although many thought the Lower Ninth Ward should be abandoned because its land was below sea level, Pitt argued that other wards -– some populated by white and middle class were on lower ground and nobody suggested abandonment there. “It seems to me that this is about fairness. We may have been designed equal, but we certainly weren’t born equal. I feel great happiness whenever we level the playing field.”

Six of the originally-planned 150 homes have already been built through the Foundation. Looking to the future, Pitt believes Make It Right is a model for projects around the world. “We’ve cracked something here … these houses redefine affordable housing … this is a proving ground for a bigger idea that could work globally. This project is not mine anymore. It’s so beyond me.”

But the day AD talked to Pitt, the day he helped Gloria Guy and her family move back in, crystallized why he put his passions and his celebrity behind the Foundation he created. “You have no idea,” he says, “what a high it is for me to see the delight on people’s faces when they see how these homes work.”

Photo courtesy of Architectural Digest

Comments

[Justin]

This makes me happy.

[claudia]

my god i love this man!!!!!

[Alison Knighton]

I aplaud Mr. Pitt in his concern over the horific aftermath of Katrina. FEMA did not follow through as they should have and in the manner that they should have.

I aplaud Mr. Pitt in his concern over the horiffic manner that people were treated.

I am asking now, that all of his humanitarian beliefes be given to the KIDS of Katrina..those that are now living in the ramshackled FEMA trailers who are ill and distraught.

There are kids all over this
continent...how about OURS? In your humnaitarianisim WILL YOU YOU HELP OUR LEFT OVER KIDS SUFFERING HERE IN THE USA?

WE HAVE NEEDS TOO.

In Human Compassion
Alison form Houston,Tx.

[fairness]

One heck of a guy. Hats off to both himself and Angie.

[Linda Allison]

Dear Brad from a fellow Springfieldian. Merry Christmas. Just saw you on TV announcing Make It Right Nola. It is an admirable project. My son was just in New Orleans working and he said there were HELP WANTED signs everywhere and men standing on street corners doing nothing. MY SUGGESTION IS your foundation find the people that are going to move into these nice houses and have them help build their own home, no matter what the job. Then they will take care of it. People need to feel worthy and proud of themselves.
I enjoy your work.
Linda

[scott]

Hi,
I own the store on the corner of frostall and claiborne. I am trying to reach Brad Pitt in regards to the redevelopement of this site and the posibility of naming it the pitt stop. If any one knows a way to get intouch with Brad on this it woould be apreciated.

[Mary Dayton]

Mr. Pitt,
After visiting New Orleans and your Project in the Ninth Ward last weekend I do not see how "Make It Right" will work when it is wrong! It is inevitable that the same flooding issues will happen again and your project supports "good money spent on a bad idea" As a professional and a taxpayer with common sense your program makes no sense.