Brad Pitt Thinks "Green" In New Orleans

In using his celebrity status for the good, actor Brad Pitt and a group of influential architects met on Friday during a press conference to select several new “environmentally friendly” housing project designs to be constructed in the hurricane ravaged city of New Orleans. Brad Pitt, who recently returned from Namibia with girlfriend Angelina Jolie and new daughter Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, revealed that various construction and housing projects around New Orleans were contributing factors to the ongoing pollution problem in The Big Easy.

According to Reuters, Brad Pitt is attempting to turn the ongoing environmental problems in New Orleans into a positive for the city's future in relation to construction and housing, "There is a real opportunity here to lead the nation in a direction it needs to be going, and that is building efficiently."

The new environmentally friendly housing project, which is still seeking financing, saw 126 candidates bid for the top multiple family design plans, but a panel of architects narrowed the field down to five finalists to be revealed online at Global Green USA. Brad Pitt, along with award winning architect Thomas Mayne and Holy Cross neighborhood association president, Pam Dachell, on Friday made an attempt to get get New Orleans to "think green."

Brad Pitt, who is heading up the rebuilding project that will begin in New Orleans' Holy Cross district, also revealed that the devastation left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina is a clear sign that we can all do better in helping to rebuild New Orleans, something Brad Pitt wanted to do himself only weeks after the disaster. As the Chicago Tribune reports, it was Global Green's Matt Peterson that approached the actor for his help last September at the Clinton Global Initiative.

The ecologically efficient designs are a direct attempt to chart a new direction for rebuilding New Orleans and its many disaster stricken neighborhoods since much of the city is still floundering with construction several months after Hurricane Katrina.

[Additional Sources: Reuters, Chicago Tribune]