QUICK TAKES - July 7, 2009

Brad Pitt’s New Orleans architecture project is rolling full speed ahead with the unveiling of 14 designs for duplex houses. The actor’s Make It Right Foundation recently revealed the designs that are part of a multimillion-dollar initiative to help rebuild the city’s Lower Ninth Ward, devastated in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina. The foundation has been working with architecture firms from around the world to design single-family homes and duplexes.

The newly unveiled duplex designs, intended for two or more families, include such elements as solar power, outdoor recreation space and structural protection against floods. The foundation originally offered only single-unit homes to residents of the Ninth Ward, but the foundation said demand prompted the addition of duplexes to its design catalog.

-- David Ng