Pitt Lends His Star Power to Bourbon Street

More than a year later, New Orleans is still struggling mightily from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. On a recent trip to review the city and outlying areas with an eye toward helping the rebuilding efforts, actor Brad Pitt said he was shocked at the devastation that remains almost a year later.

“I was not prepared,” Pitt said, describing how he drove for miles and saw street after street of devastation.

Pitt, an architecture and environmental enthusiast sees an opportunity to rebuild New Orleans using energy-efficient building materials and appliances that would improve quality of life, particularly in low-income communities.

Teaming with Global Green USA, a national environmental organization, Pitt has organized a design competition that will choose the top five best environmentally friendly projects out of more than 100 submissions.

While the designs will be friendly for the environment, they may not have quite the same flare as previous city structures. But, he said, it’s time to look to the future.

“It’s impossible to replicate the past,” Pitt said. “The original designs are really good. They’re really efficient.” But, he added, “We can do better.”

Global Green USA is also providing technical assistance in green standards for 10,000 buildings in New Orleans. It opened a resource center in the city last month to give residents free design advice and information about environmentally friendly building products and strategies.

Pitt, who is a committed advocate for architecture recently narrated "Design: e2," a series about environmentally friendly architecture which aired on PBS in June.

"His involvement will allow us to educate more viewers than we had ever hoped about the importance of green building," executive producer Karena Albers said in a statement.

The six-part series focuses on worldwide efforts to build environmentally friendly structures through sustainable architecture and design.

For more information: www.globalgreen.org or www.design-e2.com