July 17, 2006

Today the environmental organization Global Green USA will reveal the finalists of its Sustainable Design Competition for New Orleans. The public is invited to help determine the winner by logging onto www.globalgreen.org and voting for their favorite. The winner will be announced August 30. Screen star and architecture aficionado Brad Pitt chaired the design jury; he is also one of the contest’s co-sponsors.

Global Green received more than 100 entries to the competition, which seeks to build a series of green model projects that influence the course of redevelopment in New Orleans. Applicants were directed to conceive of a net-zero-energy apartment complex with integrated daycare facility for a 1.25-acre site in the city’s Lower Ninth Ward. To help visitors make informed voting decisions, Web presentations of the finalists’ submissions will be accompanied by an explanation of sustainability criteria.

Pitt hatched the idea of the competition with Global Green President Matt Petersen in September 2005; since then they assembled a design jury that includes architects Thom Mayne and Marion Weiss, University of Virginia Professor William Morrish, landscape architect Walter J. Hood, environmental educator David Orr, and Studio Sumo co-founder Yolanda Daniels, as well as Petersen. The competition jury also comprises local and technical contingents.

In addition to $25,000 cash prizes, winners will have their entries exhibited in New Orleans at the Ogden Museum, and at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

David Sokol

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