CITYSPACE: SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NEW ORLEANS

Greenola could become a template for sustainable communities along the Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast writes LISA ROCHON

LISA ROCHON Saturday, May 11 2007

You already know about the star system of architects. Frank Gehry is hired to do an office tower or an art gallery because his name seduces and sells. Norman Foster, Jean Nouvel and Santiago Calatrava are given carte blanche to grace the planet with their inventions.

But now Hollywood stars want a piece of the exotic world of design, and I couldn't be happier. Sign them up to play the intense architect destined to radically change the way we occupy Earth. It might turn more people on to the significance of architecture.

In this new scenario, Brad Pitt gets to dabble in Gehry's Los Angeles office, applying a glue gun to a model while Gehry merrily looks on.

Forearms flexed, Pitt becomes just another incredibly hunky architect with a model to construct. Women are felled by jolts of electricity zinging through the studio. Achilles is here! Let me help him with his armour! But everybody look relaxed, as if it's just a regular workday.

Okay, I admit to being temporarily distracted. I'm not writing this because of Brad Pitt. Not a chance. Not when it comes to the cerebral, asexual business of architecture. What I want to talk about is a development in New Orleans that broke ground this week, just 10 months after Pitt announced the results of an international design competition that aims to advance the sustainable rebuilding of New Orleans and other communities on the Gulf Coast that were devastated by hurricane Katrina. Pitt served as the jury chair and patron of the competition, turning up last year to review the design submissions with fellow jury members such as landscape architect Marion Weiss and architect Thom Mayne.

"Brad Pitt's involvement got the project much more recognition that it would have," says jury member Keith Butler, a native of New Orleans and property developer. "I thought Brad Pitt did a very good job of taking off his Hollywood costume and joining everybody else with sleeves rolled up and thoughtful questions."

The winning design (photo) for the Holy Cross neighbourhood in New Orleans bears the cheesy name of Greenola. Otherwise, it's an important initiative offering a prototype for sustainable housing for a city in search of an economy and a stable population. Designed by Workshop/APD, a studio whose partners split their time between high-end residential projects in Nantucket and loft conversions in New York, the development consists of five single-family homes, an 18-unit apartment building, a daycare facility and a community centre. It occupies less than half a hectare of land.

The winning scheme was initially designed to resemble a kind of train wreck of buildings rammed up against each other in an effort to grab sunlight and provide a jumble of outdoor garden spaces. Judging from the plans and renderings, the final scheme has shifted from an initial collision of structures to one that favours clarity and expresses many reasons why people would want to live in such a community.

The family homes are modern interpretations of traditional buildings in the area, such as the shotgun houses and the creole cottages notable for their high ceilings and front porches. To further the project's sustainability and reduce the cost of energy, the wood-frame buildings (sourced from renewable forests) are topped with roofs of solar panels. Large cisterns collect rainwater to use on collective gardens.

It's located close to a levy, so a reinforcing gabion wall also serves as a community bench. A communal barbecue pit is another reason to gather.

Greenola's client is Global Green USA, the savvy American affiliate of Green Cross International, which was founded by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1993. Matt Petersen is the president and front man of Global Green - he's the guy who convinced Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz to drive energy-efficient cars to this year's Academy Awards gala rather than travelling in gas-guzzling limousines. A tireless agent of change, Petersen has just sent out invitations announcing the upcoming Global Green dinner in New York, where supporters can chow down with Gorbachev.

You don't have to convince me. Intelligent architecture, sustainability and the glamour of Hollywood - it's a red hot combination.

On Thursday, builders of the first of the single-family homes in Greenola's eco-development broke ground. In a city where so many infrastructure and housing projects have been delayed or cancelled, where bureaucratic incompetence has paralyzed vital reconstruction, and where federal money has been slow to reach the people who need it most, this is a remarkable achievement. Without a doubt, having Pitt push the project with all of his celebrity might have helped get the shovels in the ground.

"Our project certainly would not be getting the national and international attention," said Matthew Berman, founding principal of Workshop/APD, who joined partner Andrew Kotchen at the groundbreaking. "Having Brad Pitt has been great for the project in that respect. Everybody down here knows about it, and the political will has been very strong."

To be sure, the Greenola project will be carefully scrutinized as it takes shape. Advocates for affordable housing will be watching, as well as experts on sustainability. Once completed, the first house will serve as an interpretative centre so that locals and visitors can learn about the makings of a sustainable house. It's a critical demonstration, especially given that buildings are the main contributor to global warming: They generate an estimated 30 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States.

Sign me up. I'm willing, like Global Green, to play along with whatever it takes to sell more advanced, healing design. Besides, it's easy to imagine.

Brad Pitt, as the architect with the devouring eyes and an etched six-pack behind his crisp white shirt, crusades through the rubble of Troy, I mean, New Orleans. How to repair the city, how to deliver more sustainable, inspired architecture that even the poor can afford, leaves Pitt sleepless at night. Actually, the mix of sustainability and sex makes a lot of us feeling a little breathless. Clearly, where Pitt is concerned, the possibilities for architecture are endless.