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Make It Right Update
The ambitious operation initiated by Brad Pitt continues to move forward with more houses in construction.
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| Photo courtesy Make It Right |
Some Make It Right houses, designed by local and out-of-town architects, have been criticized for their modern designs. But the community is still growing, with first-generation houses embraced by occupants. |
It’s been nearly three years since homeowners were given keys to the first group of new houses built in their storm-ravaged New Orleans neighborhood by actor Brad Pitt’s Make It Right (MIR) foundation. But the project’s architects and builders are still pushing the boundaries of modern residential design with cost-effective sustainable and storm-resistant construction techniques.
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With 80 of the 150 houses planned now completed or being built, the neighborhood has evolved from a cluster of edgy architectural experiments that stood out—miragelike—against their desolate surroundings, into a real neighborhood with flags flapping in the breeze, flower beds, and toys on porches. To be sure, the new designs are as eye-popping as their predecessors. Their often lively Caribbean-inspired colors add a layer of local tradition to the decidedly nontraditional look of this part of town.
The modern designs have taken their hits — mostly from outsiders. But even to New Orleanians who have never seen the houses in person or don’t share the actor’s taste in forward-thinking design, Pitt is a local hero. The actor did what government would not or could not do: He resuscitated a working-class neighborhood engulfed by water from a break in the Industrial Canal wall. Before Katrina, homeowners were underinsured or didn’t have insurance at all. Now the houses have earned a celebrity following of their own. The MIR houses are even part of some commercial, post-Katrina sightseeing tours.
The project in the city’s Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood has spurred more homeowners to rebuild without MIR’s help. Still, the numbers are not yet high enough to bring badly needed retail development and services to the area that seems like a city satellite.
In 2007 Pitt presented owners who lost their homes with a portfolio of designs by leading architects saying, in essence, “Choose a design and your house will be built.” With the architects providing designs free of charge and Pitt’s foundation subsidizing the reconstruction, MIR hoped to build them for about $150,000 each. They average 1,400 square feet and most have threebedrooms. While the first generation exceeded that budget, economies of scale have brought the costs down to about $150 per square foot. An original mandate for the designs was for vastly improved safety with the highest LEED standards the budget would allow.
To begin with, the houses were raised at least 3 feet. The first generation of structures (13 prototypes) included solar photovoltaic systems and groundwater heat pumps for both heating and cooling. Among this group were those designed by Billes Architecture and Concordia, both New Orleans firms, along with KieranTimberlake of Philadelphia and GRAFT of Berlin and Los Angeles. Because of the narrow lots, most houses, such as ones by Billes and KieranTimberlake, resemble the shotgun type indigenous to the region. However, Concordia and GRAFT also took visual and spatial cues from deep porches and pitched roofs common to New Orleans architecture.
The blueprints for the second round include some duplexes and innovations, such as SIP modular construction and advanced framing techniques, that have reduced both materials, costs, and time.
Buyers had the option of tweaking the designs, and tweak they did. Some changes reflect personal taste, but more often they have been dictated by family circumstances or because the bells and whistles the architects envisioned cost too much.John C. Williams, principal of the New Orleans firm Williams Associates, who is guiding the project, acknowledges that they have walked a fine line melding the architects’ concepts with the buyers’ needs and building costs.
“We’ve been talking to the architects as often as possible and I think we’ve been good stewards of their designs,” Williams says. KieranTimberlake, for instance, designed its house to have elaborate metal art pieces fronting the porch and at the banister. But a less expensive railing was used.
The two-story house designed by Byron Mouton of Bild Design in New Orleans was to be among the first duplexes built. But the owners opted for a single-family residence with a small artist’s studio replacing the second unit. Mouton’s design, in step with the neighborhood’s contemporary silhouettes, has a roof line that swoops dramatically from a single level in front to two stories in the rear. A side porch is sheathed with a metal screen providing shade and visual interest. Mouton’s house was built by second-year students at Tulane University’s School of Architecture, where he is a professor. The duplex by Atelier Hitoshi Abe of Japan, constructed largely as designed, is inspired by the double shotgun, an iconic side-by-side residential style of the area.
Departing from the design of the traditional static facade, Abe has carved a space out of the middle that dramatically distinguishes each unit and allows a front porch.
The tradeoff for the straightforward, boxy design by Adjaye Associates of London is a top level that serves as both a luxurious outdoor room as well as a rescue place in a worst-case scenario.
“We’re improving our technique and cost savings with every house constructed here,” says Williams. “But we are demonstrating that affordable, sustainable houses can be built anywhere.” Indeed, Williams claims MIR houses now form the largest LEED-Platinum community in the country. Overall, the housing project initiated by Brad Pitt is still proceeding along its intended path.
Shawn Kennedy is a former reporter for the New York Times who is now a freelance writer based in New Orleans.
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