Friday, August 10, 2007

Great Things are Happening in NOLA!



A single-family, eco-friendly home from
Global Green USA and workshop/apd's New Orleans project.

I Wanted to post a pict here about Holy Cross Neighborhood Association, Global Green and Brad Pitt and the creation of the first of the Green houses in Lower 9th. This is an amazing project financed by Pitt and HomeDepot. The Holy Cross Project consists of 5 single-family homes, an 18-unit apartment building, and a community center/sustainable design and climate action center.

As part of my trip to New Orleans I plan to visit the construction site, do some drawings and will upload photos of this fantastic project.

Global Green USA and New Orleans – an Overview
After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the inadequate response of the US Government, Global Green USA made a dedicated commitment to sustainable building in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. As part of that commitment, Global Green, in partnership with Brad Pitt, sponsored an international design competition during the summer of 2006, with more than 125 entries competing to design a zero energy affordable housing development in the Holy Cross Neighborhood of the Lower 9th Ward. Matthew Berman and Andrew Kotchen of Workshop/APD in New York created the winning design. With the Home Depot Foundation as lead sponsor, Global Green is now working with Workshop/APD and a dedicated and highly skilled team of sustainable design and building experts together with the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association to translate the winning development proposal into a reality.

Charles Allen Speaks
08-16-2007
The Holy Cross Project symbolizes renewal and rebirth of the Holy Cross/Lower 9th ward community. Given the fact that this community housing/multi-use project is very modern and state of the art in its appearance and technological design/features, it sends a strong message to the world that the people of this community have fully embraced sustainable redevelopment and wish to serve as a model community in this regard. We in this community wish to no longer be seen as being relegated to substandard conditions for living and working in this community. We want nothing but the best. And, we wish to proclaim commitment to helping preserve the global environment.

-- Charles Allen - President of the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association

FILM
If you haven't seen Spike Lee's film "When the Levees Broke" try to see it soon.

TRIP UPDATE
looks like the dates will be Oct 10-17. Not a lot of time to cover everything but I plan to get as much packed in as possible.
Might not be sleeping much as I intend to create as much work there as possible.

Thanks for all your support
--Suzanne