makeitrightpressrelease

Aspiring Writers Christmas 2007 Edition

Make It Right Press Release

Not many people have seen
one of these. The Spectacled
Bear of South America.

The American Brown Bear.
He's a big un, isn't he?

Press Release
Contact: Virginia Miller
vmiller@ontargetwithbmf.com

Brad Pitt, Steve Bing Plan New 150-Home Community in New Orleans' Lower
Ninth Ward

First Effort of Pitt's "Make it Right" Project Announced at Clinton
Global Initiative, Where He Challenges Gathered Leaders to Join Him
Brad Pitt expanded his commitment to New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward today
by announcing plans for a new community of homes in the area hardest-hit
by the worst natural disaster in American history. He is partnering with
Steve Bing in creating the 150 affordable and sustainable homes, which
are the first effort of Pitt's "Make it Right" project.

Pitt announced his plan at today's meeting of the Clinton Global
Initiative, where he challenged attendees to join him and Bing in
rebuilding the Lower Ninth Ward. Pitt pledged to match $5 million in
contributions to the project. Bing has pledged to match $5 million in
contributions as well, for a total of $10,000,000 in matching funds.

The spirit of the community's culture is central to Make It Right. "The
heart and soul of New Orleans, specifically the people of the Lower 9th
Ward, are paramount to this project," said Pitt. "The words of one
elderly man who is determined to return to New Orleans led to the name
of our organization: he asked us, directly simply and profoundly, to
help make it right. So that's what we're doing. We're going to help to
make it right with 150 sustainable, affordable houses—houses that stand
out for their design both aesthetically and structurally, so that these
people can live in beautiful safe structures that respect their spirit
and provide a good quality of life."

Pitt became a part-time resident of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
After seeing the devastation first hand and meeting with the hardest-hit
residents, he began the Make It Right project to catalyze the rebuilding
of the Lower 9th Ward.

The community Pitt announced today will address the dire need for
single-family housing in the Lower 9th Ward and further spark rebuilding
efforts in one of the richest cultural communities in America, an area
that saw houses not just flooded by water, but swept off their
foundations.

Pitt and Bing said Make it Right is committed to:

Building 150 houses in the Lower 9th Ward
Ensuring a green, affordable, sustainable, and replicable community to
serve as a model for further rebuilding
Including the Lower 9th Ward community as an integral part of the process
Forming a core team of local, national and international architects
Utilizing sustainable construction practices; William McDonough +
Partners, an internationally recognized practitioner of Cradle to
Cradle* design, will lead this effort.

A finance plan that ensures that residents who wish to return to the
Lower Ninth Ward can do so without further financial hardship
Core Make It Right team members also include Graft, an innovative
architecture firm that Pitt has collaborated with on projects around the
world; Cherokee Gives Back Foundation, the nonprofit arm of Cherokee, a
firm that specializes in remediation and sustainable redevelopment of
environmentally impaired properties; and Trevor Neilson and Nina
Killeen, advisors to the Jolie-Pitt Foundation.

Make It Right's mission is built upon catalyzing redevelopment of the
Lower Ninth Ward by building a neighborhood of safe and healthy homes
that incorporates modern, high-quality design and construction while
preserving the spirit of the community's culture.

Last year, Pitt worked with Global Green in developing sustainable green
multi-family housing in the Lower 9th Ward. In addition to replacing
housing destroyed by Katrina, the sustainable design incorporated into
the homes will help ease the financial burden of high energy costs and
reduce their environmental impact.

The effort, which began with an architectural competition, sought to
bring opportunity out of the devastation of Katrina by creating
something better than was there before. Make It Right is taking this
project a step further by committing to a community of safe, sustainable
homes that incorporate the spirit and culture of the Lower 9th Ward and
encourage it to flourish.

###

Make It Right is collaborating with William McDonough + Partners to
develop the environmental criteria guiding the project, using Cradle to
Cradle thinking to influence design and materials selections for the new
homes. This philosophy, developed by William McDonough and Michael
Braungart in Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (North
Point Press, 2002), was inspired by natural systems. In the natural
world, the sun continually generates new growth and feeds living
systems. One organism's waste nourishes another—waste equals food.
Ideally, all products could be reused as nutrients in either biological
or technical systems, indefinitely recycled back into comparable
products. This is the next-generation goal we are working towards using
today's products and technologies.

Click Here to Visit MakeItRightNola.org

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