If you’ve been near a news source this weekend you know that there’s been large and at times violent protests in St. Louis over the weekend. But the unrest goes back to before most of us were born.
Pruitt Igoe was a dream of modern architecture designed to replace the low cost housing crisis of poverty stricken slums and impoverished rural areas (as farming was being replaced by automation) that were being further stressed by post WW2 housing needs.
It didn’t go as planned. Many complex reasons and dynamics are given in the 2011 documentary, “The Pruitt Igoe Myth“. Questions and damning context – but few answers as to what should have been done differently.
The Pruitt Igoe housing complex was first occupied in 1954. Demolition began before 20 years had passed. There seems to be an abundance of resources to design, develop, demolish and eventually document such a monumental the urban housing project. But there seems very little to maintain the vision. It’s a…