Make It Right

Surreal, beautiful„ wacky, sustainable, hopeful, and Brad Pitt. You should go.

I realize that this review will most likely draw some heat, but Unilocal is about varying opinions, right?
While I really appreciate what the Make it Right Foundation is doing, these houses are downright ugly. Maybe I am not a forward thinking conservationist. Maybe I liked the way the old houses in this neighborhood looked. Maybe I am just a fool. Regardless of what I am, I think these houses look funky.
While ugly, these houses are supposed to be incredibly energy efficient. They have also drawn the focus of the national media onto an area so devastated by Hurricane Katrina. I am slightly disappointed that so many people focus on this one area when other areas were affected as significantly, but that is the way it works.
If you want to see them for yourself, head over the Claiborne bridge, you can’t miss them.

Everybody knows the main story behind the Make it Right project: Brad Pitt and a lot of other awesome people put their time and money into making sure the people of the lower 9^th ward got the good hurricane proof housing that they deserve for an affordable price.
I recently was able to pass through and see for myself the work that has been done here. It’s amazing. The houses are beautifully made and the lower 9^th ward is more gorgeous than ever. The houses almost look like works of art. The houses are raised up and most of them have an area under the house for parking cars. A lot of the houses have solar panels on the roof in an effort to keep everything as «green» as possible.
I think that Make it Right is an amazing foundation and the work that they have done is to be admired. The people who took the time and money to do this for this community should be commended. It is my hope that other flood prone communities follow the lead of Make it Right and work to provide safe housing for their residents.

Make It Right began as an effort to rebuild safe, sustainable homes in New Orleans’ Lower 9^th Ward after Hurricane Katrina. Our work in New Orleans has led to innovations in affordable homebuilding — proof that high-​quality, healthy homes can and should be available for everyone.
While the project on a whole is great it would be nice to have built houses more fitting of NOLA home styles. Overall it’s just great to see the city moving forward.

This is 1 of the best places to visit and 1 of the best places to live. Make it Right has really outdone themselves.

We stopped by the lower 9^th ward sans-​tour. I truly believe this is something every tourist in New Orleans should check out. To start, it was depressing to see so many lots where houses must have been when Katrina hit some six years ago now overgrown with tall weeds. There was a gate that had rusted through and through; remains of a porch that sat in the middle of an eerily empty lot without a house attached; dilapidated roofs and abandoned houses with gaping windows. All of these contrasted sharply with the bright and airy «Brad Pitt Houses» as they have become known as. We saw a handful of them. They are modern, architecturally interesting, and very colorful. They made our eyes pop in an otherwise bleak landscape.

My 1500^th Unilocal review (!) takes me out of my San Francisco Bay Area comfort zone and smack dab in the middle of the Lower 9^th Ward in New Orleans. When I planned a trip for me and Jamie W. to come down here, it was pure coincidence and rather serendipitous that we should find ourselves here on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. In fact, we decided to take a bus tour to see for ourselves the devastation and the speed of recovery from that mega-​disaster.
The tour was poignant and somewhat depressing for the little change we saw throughout the affected areas except for the one glimmer of hope that shone as a beacon at the end of our journey. Gray Line gave us a special addendum to the tour which allowed us to visit the neighborhood being rebuilt by the Make It Right Foundation. For those who have been sitting under a magnolia tree when the levees broke, this is the effort initiated by Brad Pitt in 2006 to build new homes for the previous residents in a manner that focuses on green-​friendliness. You can tell from my photos that the results since the plans were first drawn up have been impressive. These are beautiful, architecturally stylish homes.
The foundation’s mission is clear — to be a catalyst for the complete redevelopment of the Lower 9^th Ward by building these homes with an emphasis on safety, sustainability, and high quality design, while preserving the spirit of the community’s culture. The goal of 150 houses completed is to accomplish this quickly in order for residents to be able to return to their homes as soon as possible. Forty-​two have been completed according to our local guide Caesar, so progress is being made. We were fortunate to be allowed to see the interior of one of the nearly completed homes to see all the sustainable touches built into the house. It’s a significant achievement and one that should make Angelina Jolie feel like she married more than just a pretty boy.