Pruitt Igoe Demolition between Myth and Facts?!
by: Omnia Magdy Mahmoud
Student at Credit Hour B.SC. Programs, Architecture and Engineering Technology AET Program,
Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University.
March 2013
AERIAL VIEW OF THE PRUITT-IGOE IN ST. LOUIS.
COURTESY STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI
Source: http://www.archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=5539
An aerial photograph of the Pruitt-Igoe site taken in March of 1968.
Image courtesy of the USGS.
Source: http://www.aia.org/practicing/AIAB092656
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: an Urban History – Official Trailer
The Pruitt Igoe movie poster
Photograph courtesy of Daniel T. Magidson
Source: http://www.archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=5539
Pruitt Igoe was considered an act of the modern movement. Yamasaki, the same architect who designed the world trade center in New York, designed it and it was completed in September 1955. It was designed under the supervision and constraints of the federal Public Housing Authority (the size and location of the site, the number of units, and the project density). It consisted of 33 11 story building, 2,868 apartments split into two complexes, the Pruitt complex and the Igoe complex on 55 acres in central St. Louis. Pruitt was originally meant to be for African-American residents and Igoe was for the whites, segregating the old city. Shortly after moving in, the white residents no longer wanted to live too close and in a closed community with the African Americans and moved out. The Pruitt Igoe became completely inhabited by black people.
The project was for slum clearance, urban redevelopment and public housing; as the economic health of downtown real estate was threatened by the decline in property values because of slums nearby. Financial problems and the refusal of municipal loan lead to the design plan turned into a high-rise complex with low quality execution. There was an elimination of amenities such as children’s playground, landscaping…etc. That played a big role in the deterioration of the state of Pruitt Igoe; Windows got broken from ice dropping on them or by the effect of wind pressure, heaters got broken, door knobs fell, pipe lines got broken…etc. All lead to the creation of unlivable environment.
The design team was trying to increase the livability of the high-rise units through the following features: Skipstop elevators, glazed internal galleries to create individual neighborhoods within each building. These features received the most attention and praise. All the apartments were clean, new and had all of the modern appliances, furniture and amenities. It really was the Le Corbusier idea of the modern living machine. In the anchor floors that the elevator stops in there are laundry rooms, garbage chutes and communal rooms.
Pruitt Igoe was designed for middle class together with poor people, but the plan did not go well. The government was supposed to fund the maintenance and repair by the rents collected from middle class tenants. Instead single parent families, low incomes and unemployment were abundant in the site. Shortly after residency the site became a breeding place for crime, the large hallways as well as the skipstop elevators (elevators that only stopped on every third floor) and stairways were all the reasons of turning those places to places for vandalism, crime and general antisocial behavior. It was the perfect place for criminals to hide from authority. The community rooms, the large shared hallways, the stairways and the outside spaces were sources of fear and violence.
Architect's vision of communal corridor
Source: http://www.defensiblespace.com/book/illustrations.htm
Actual 3rd floor communal corridor of Pruitt-Igoe
Source: http://www.defensiblespace.com/book/illustrations.htm
On March 16 1972, the gradual demolishment started by explosion of one of the buildings. Many, including Charles Jenks mark that moment as the death of modernism. The architect Yamasaki never mentioned the scheme in his autobiography and has been known to say it was a project he wishes he never did. The final structure was demolished in 1975 and since then the land is abandoned and there is nothing found but the power station and green areas that grew up naturally.
The site nowadays
http://splacebook.blogspot.com/2012/02/pruitt-igoe-now.html
Form, scale, design according to the people’s lifestyle, ownership and fund of the premises, would have made poor people climb the ladder of society. Politicians and officials are responsible for that too. In addition, Racism by segregating white and black people instead of making them feel as a part of the community led to vandalism, poverty and other unwanted acts. Considering that, most of the residence will be middle class and will be responsible for the maintenance and keeping a certain standard of the premised. However, the fact that most of them left the premises made things worse. Maintenance was a major point of the deterioration occurred. The public refused Pruitt Igoe as a public housing.
Photo courtesy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Source: http://www.pruitt-igoe.com/urban-history/
References
K. G.Bristol., (1991), "The Pruitt-Igoe Myth", Journal of Architectural Education (1984-), Vol. 44, No. 3 (May, 1991), pp. 163-171, Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, Inc. The documentary film "The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: an Urban History"
Further readings:
Visit The Pruitt-Igoe Myth website.
A screening of the documentary film The Pruitt-Igoe Myth followed by a conversation between Catherine Fennell, Columbia University Anthropology, and Reinhold Martin, GSAPP.
Alexander von Hoffman, "Why They Built the Pruitt-Igoe Project", Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University.