Pruitt-Igoe Case Study

Pruitt-Igoe housing project is the most shameful public housing project ever built. This postwar federal public-housing program was completed in 1956. Pruitt-Igoe was designed as a massive high-rise project. Some blame the Swiss architect, Le Corbusier, and his conception of a modern city of high rises. Others point to segregationist policies aimed at confining African-American residential areas to the inner city. The complex was supposed to put the modern ideals of Le Corbusier into action. The main architect was Minoru Yamasaki, who would go on to design another monument that would also be destroyed, but for very different reasons, and under very different circumstances. The World Trade Center went up in the early 1970s, right around the time that Pruitt-Igoe was pulled down. Some people believe that the federal Public Housing Administration's (PHA) restrictive cost guidelines for public-housing construction required the construction of a high-rise project. (Wikipedia.com) The density of Pruitt Igoe was far below

If one is familiar with similar projects, some much, much bigger, in New York and other cities, it is evident that this building type is not prone to failure. (Hoffman, Alexander) Other things played a factor also like: economics, social dynamics, maintenance to name a few, caused Pruitt Igoe to become run-down. The federal government funded an overbuilt project expecting urban growth when the postindustrial wave hit the city, causing St Louis to lose a portion of its population and tax base. Pruitt-Igoe did not have enough tenants to pay rent, the shrinking city had no tax revenue to take care of it and the federal government was hands off after construction.( Pixie, Mile) As expected, the building fell into disrepair and became notoriously unsafe. There are many lessons from this painful urban