Competitions
Global Green Competition
Global Green USA held a competition to design a sustainable community in New Orleans, aided by the financial assistance and star-power of Brad Pitt.
The Holy Cross neighborhood of the Lower Ninth Ward was the site of the competition, where multidisciplinary teams were asked to design six single-family houses, a mixed-use building which included apartments and community services, and the site itself. Though entrants were encouraged to think beyond the site, balancing sustainability with affordability was a key component of the competition.
The entry by Litmus Architects stressed the site’s adjacency to the Mississippi River by locating the mixed-use building at the southern edge, creating a River Boulevard and open-air amphitheater (Slides 1,2) at the levee for concerts and parades.
The organizing strategy for the site (Slide 3) was a north-south grid of walls that could rise at the north end to become pre-engineered foundations for houses (saving the owners time and money), define the playgrounds, wetlands and public gardens (Slide 4) at the heart of the site, and extend south across the levee into the river to become breakwaters to control erosion of the banks.
See the competition boards for full information, or see us online at the Global Green Semifinalists pages.
Litmus Architects is Ben Gauslin, Jim Goodspeed, and Dave Hampton. Biological and landscape consultation was provided by Michael Repkin Designs.
Learn more
- Latest news on the competition results.
- Blog entry on New Orleans sustainable design competition.