Brad's Big Easy Pitt Stop

A river runs through it and Brad Pitt wants to do everything he can to shore it up for future generations.

The Hollywood hunk visited New Orleans on Thursday to reveal the winner of a design contest he sponsored to build eco-friendly housing in the Crescent City's devastated neighborhoods.

Pitt, who headed a jury made up of architects and city residents, announced that the winning blueprint was submitted by Matthew Berman and Andrew Kotchen of Workshop/APD of New York City.

The 42-year-old actor praised the pair's plan for using environmentally sound architectural concepts to construct low-income, affordable housing for poor residents in New Orleans' hard-hit Lower Ninth Ward.

Berman and Kotchen's winning design features six single-family housing units, 12 multifamily units, a community center and playground along with a pedestrian bridge that traverses the neighborhood to the top of the levee.

Pitt, who has said in the past he would have become an architect if it weren't for his early acting success, said he was committed to helping rebuild the Big Easy from the havoc wrought by Hurricane Katrina.

"This is a social justice issue," Pitt told reporters. "In a catastrophe, you help the most vulnerable first, and we failed to do that."

So, in April he teamed up with environmental nonprofit Global Green USA to launch a design competition, which he partly underwrote with $100,000 of his own money. More than 100 individuals and architectural films submitted their plans and, by July, contest officials had whittled down the list to six finalists.

Pitt appeared at the conference alone, although Angelina Jolie accompanied him to the bayou.

"We're going to be spending a lot of time down there," he said, expressing hope that construction would be underway this fall.

Pitt said the couple planned to spend the next several months in New Orleans, since he's due to start filming The Curious Case of Benjamin Button on location in the city in November. The fantasy drama is based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel and will reunite him with his Fight Club director, David Fincher. Pitt is currently wrapping up filming in Los Angeles on Ocean's Thirteen.

The actor, who said he would stop by to oversee the project, also chipped in an extra $100,000 that would cover the cost of the prize money, $75,000 of which will be awarded to the winning architects, while the two runner-ups received $7,500 each and certificates of commendation.

The winning plan featured distinctive New Orleans-style architecture and such building materials as recycled textiles aimed at reducing energy consumption and lowering health risks like asthma, while exceeding city and state codes for hurricanes and floods.

In a separate interview on NBC's Today show, Pitt expressed dismay at the slow pace of recovery in New Orleans and said eco-friendly designs can play an important role in the region's revitalization.

""We're a country of great ingenuity. And the fact that we can't get in there and clean up this quagmire is ridiculous. And it's shameful," Pitt said.

He explained that he was a big fan of Berman and Kotchen's design because it could easily be applied to other neighborhoods.

"Where it really wins is that, if done properly, we can completely get rid of the idea of an energy bill," Pitt continued. "You can cut your energy bill down 65 percent just by the way you position your house, the way you structure it for air flow and insulation and shielding from the sun, and again, the material you use."

Pitt also said it was rewarding "to actually be able to have some small hand in improving anyone's life."

"I'm a father now. What that does to you is make you more aware of other children and the plight of other families," he added.

"I believe that there is a responsibility if we truly believe--and that's the question that this is putting to the test, especially here in New Orleans--do we really believe that someone else's life matters as much as our own? And the answer to me is obvious."