According to Nola, "Brad Pitt will remain as a defendant in a lawsuit that alleges shoddy construction of some of the homes his foundation helped build in the Lower 9th Ward after Hurricane Katrina, an Orleans Parish judge has ruled."
In the midst of the allegations, Pitt and other members of the Make It Right Foundation requested to be removed from the suit that was filed by two homeowners, as they felt they could not be held personally responsible for the construction of the homes.
The actor's foundation built over 100 affordable homes in response to Katrina in an effort to show how good design could help address the threats of natural disaster. The two homeowners filed their suit against Make It Right in September of last year, claiming "deficient construction that caused mold, poor air quality, structural failures, electrical malfunctions, plumbing mishaps, rotting wood and faulty heating, ventilation and cooling." It was during this same time that the foundation sued their architect in Civil District Court for defective design work.
As Miles often says, in lawsuits the only winners are the lawyers.
It would be nice if the homeowners suing could just be given new houses that will meet their needs and all the lawsuits are stopped and we all - in the discipline and in the humanitarian sphere - could chalk this situation up to "learn from our mistakes". Because if a second round of Make It Right houses could be built they would be built Right this time, I am sure. That's how design works: it's iterative, you do something once so you can learn how to do it better the next time.
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What a shame this has happened. Trying to do the right thing, but getting seduced by the romance of starchitects who are more concerned with path breaking form than well built and attractive architecture.
Starchitects who had never designed for the heat and humidity of New Orleans and were above asking those who had....
maybe, but the architect being sued is the local architect who did the cd's and ca for these. if he saw problems he certainly wasn't effective in resolving them.
yeah that is an important point. I get the feeling he is being included because he is the only person with serious money .
No good deed goes unpunished.
Amen to that.
As Miles often says, in lawsuits the only winners are the lawyers.
It would be nice if the homeowners suing could just be given new houses that will meet their needs and all the lawsuits are stopped and we all - in the discipline and in the humanitarian sphere - could chalk this situation up to "learn from our mistakes". Because if a second round of Make It Right houses could be built they would be built Right this time, I am sure. That's how design works: it's iterative, you do something once so you can learn how to do it better the next time.
A second round won’t be built - and other similar projects as well - because of this. It was an heroic endeavor in a toxic environment. It was easy to see from the shit designs where this was headed. Good-hearted Brad didn’t know any better. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Interesting to compare this to the sinking tower in S.F. where taxpayers are subsidizing half of the repair cost.
Taxpayers are paying to fix that SF project?! FFS.
People in that part of the country have been designing iteratively for three centuries, responding to local climate and tastes, learning what works and what doesn't. Most of these architects chose to throw all of that accumulated wisdom right out of the window.
It's hard for me to imagine how any of this is Brad's fault.
Lawyers are going to pursue whoever has money and can be attached to the case ("deep pockets"). I assume Pitt has a few bucks. I don't know about the financial health of the architects and contractors.
Another way to look at this is consider how Pitt would have benefitted in cultural status had there not been this foulup. (I'm skeptical—I think the project was ill conceived from the start.) He can enjoy benefits but not hold responsibility?
"WTF? What retard uses flat roofs in a wet climate?"
Gropius, LeCorbuiser, and all those who thing a sloped roof is historicist.
Which does not make the practice correct, efficient, practical, or intelligent.
those men used them on concrete and steel buildings though, which generally handle it ok. the prevalence of flat roof big box stores in the southeast attests to that, even for low budget construction. not so good on wood frame construction.
These houses were sold, not given, to the residents and the mortgage companies expect their monthly payments. The wider question is what input did the owners have as to the design of their homes. I suspect most would have chosen a local vernacular that has worked well for generations. This is a case of Brat Pitt's 'virtue signaling' going off the rails. Other houses built by other groups and the ubitiquous 'Katrina Cottages' are not falling apart.
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/brad-pitt-make-it-right-foundation-new-orleans-katrina-lawsuit
“In the dazed months and even years after Katrina, when 70 percent of the housing in New Orleans was damaged, there was a deluge of out-of-state developers and contractors as well as plenty of do-gooder types who wanted to help out.”
who wanted to to cash in.
There, fixed it.
This issue is infinitely more complex than anyone here is willing to recognize, or admit. Pitt and his organization is flawed across the board, no doubt about that, but to suggest a non-profit was in it for profits, um how?
We're all to blame. The Katrina problem, is the Sandy problem, is the Wildfire problem, is the...we allow people to rebuild in areas that shouldn't be rebuilt, we don't own up to our responsibilities to one another, and our tax policies reflect that.
To expect non-profits, and charitable organizations to solve problems that governments should, and know how to navigate complex government organizations, really??
It's not the on-profit that I was talking about, but rather "deluge of out-of-state developers and contractors".
A “good deed” with a heavy dollop of attention seeking on top...and...the architects need for novelty overpowering common sense and vernacular knowledge...lesson to take away...form and aesthetics shouldn’t fuck up function at the very least
jla-x: Take note. Your boy Kanye’s low income housing program will inevitably suffer a similar and hilariously face-palm-worthy fate.
The problem is that we shouldn’t need a natural disaster for celebrities like Brad Pitt to walk around a blighted neighborhood in America and wonder why enough isn’t being done to address the problems there.
Affordable housing has—get this—two components. The affordable part requires that products and policies exist that make it so that there is equitable access and freedom to choose between goods available on the market. That’s actually the hard part—getting all of the economic players to agree on how to equally divide the pie. There’s also oodles of red tape—permitting, zoning, and contracting issues that are enormous hurdles to delivering a product to the client to begin with.
The housing component is the easy part that we constantly want to muck around with because we think we have a better way of doing things than simple, straightforward vernacular construction. We could build an almost endless supply of prefabricated homes in a vernacular style that address issues of climactic performance and pointed use of materials that isn’t frivolous or excessive. Alternatively, work with the manner of construction familiar to local trades and skilled labor to rebuild the community from within.
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90037639
Architects also need to work on their messaging. Despite the aforementioned red tape, the design for the Katrina Cottage was a resounding success and an example of $400 million dollars of public-private partnership money being well spent. The other most significant challenge this project faced was that some residents couldn't get over the sense that they were now living in a "trailer park," and that bigger means better in America, so downsizing was not met with enthusiasm, either.
http://www.placemakers.com/2015/08/10/remember-that-katrina-cottages-thing-whatever-happened-to-that/
_
Also...
I don't think there's another celebrity foolish enough to try to make low income hous—'SCUSE ME IMMA LET YOU FINISH.
OH F*CK ME IT'S KANYE AGAIN
https://archinect.com/news/article/150150706/kanye-west-s-domes-lack-permits-face-potential-demolition
In the US economic system housing prices are determined by "the free market" in which developers get massive tax benefits that nobody else is eligible for and often receive public subsidies in the form of tax abatements and public funding for their developments.
The real issue here is whether or not the people get restitution. As I understand it, the forces in play push responsibility down the hierarchy, to the least powerful—and least likely to pay.
The American Prospect on the Hard Rock Hotel collapse:
When things go wrong for workers on construction sites, here’s what too often happens: The developer disclaims responsibility, pointing a finger at the general contractor, who in turn points to a subcontractor, and on and on, until finally there’s someone relatively powerless (and cashless) at the bottom of the totem pole who will ultimately be blamed.
https://prospect.org/labor/har...
We have the best justice system that money can buy.
Lawyers will be the only winners.
So much for celebrities helping out in the future.
Most humanitarian aid projects need some kind of publicity to generate added donations.
This is just one big (endless) sad story.
90% of the architects tapped to produce the initial designs were not appropriate choices for the project. Most of them had no experience in low-cost construction, design for hot-humid rainy climates, and having projects built by a low-skill workforce. The decision to use a second architect to "translate" the designs into something constructable was also very problematic.
Looks like we're going to see how these houses hold up to a hurricane.
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