Pruitt-Igoe, St. Louis: technology and place

Pruitt-Igoe, St. Louis; 'Technology' & 'Place'

Pruitt-Igoe is the symbol of death of modern architecture.

The construction of Pruitt-Igoe was completed in 1956. It consisted of 33 buildings each of 11 stories set up on 57 acres. It comprises of 2,870 units to accommodate about 12000 low income residents. The most prominent technical feature was 'skip-stop' elevators that stopped at every three floors, with stairs accessing the unreserved floors. The project as a post World War II federal housing program as an effort to bring people back to the city, however, within a very few years it rapidly become vulnerable to disrepair, disuse and vandalism by its own resident. It was declared uninhabitable and started demolition on March 16, 1972.

Discussion

The varying relation between people and their government at the local, state and national spheres is the prevailing themes of American History. Individuals have more and more personal and continuous link with government and its activities. They put forth their needs with the local and federal government that are varied with the development process and industrialization. Such varying roles have a major influence on the appearance and lifestyle in St. Louis of the late twentieth century. The New Dealers visualized provision of public housing as a medium to entail a minimum housing standard for Americans. By the 1930s government taking into consideration the need of the individuals, desired to eliminate the worst housing in cities like St. Louis by means of policies like slum clearance, however without leaving any place for displaced poor to shift. The Housing Act permitted local governments to establish public housing authorities to utilize government funds for housing with rents charged in proportion to their respective incomes. In accordance of such Act the St. Louis Housing Authority came into being during 1939 to carry out such programs. The fresh inflow of federal dollars through the Housing and Redevelopment Act of 1949 encouraged public housing in greater magnitude. This gave rise to the birth of Pruitt-Igoe, in St. Louis that won national acclaim in architectural circles at the initial days of 1950s representing an innovative approach to urban housing attempting to build communities within the complexes. (The Relationship between People and Government)

Pruitt-Igoe occupied a significant real-estate on the St. Louis riverfront in the 1960s-70s. It was raised taking the hypothesis into account that varying the environment of the poor, the problems generated out of moral and social parameters, like drug use, crime, and poverty could effectively be avoided. The project became a mammoth failure and rather than helping the poor, it generated a 'worse place to live in comparison to the slums that it replaced'. (Responsibility: (www.makemindshift.com) Pruitt-Igoe was designed by Minoru Yamasaki, much before he created the ultimately short lived imprint on New York's skyline with the twin towers of the World Trade Center. The twins of Pruitt and Igoe complexes, bisected by Division Street, represented a national symbol of the death of Modern architecture upon their implosion. Pruitt-Igoe was completed in 1956. It comprised of 33 buildings each of which were 11 storied and encompassed about 57 acres i.e. 23 hectares. The complexes have 2870 units to accommodate about 12,000 low income residents. (An anniversary of sorts)

The Pruitt-Igoe housing project, constructed in St. Louis Missouri, USA in the 1950s has been considered to be one of the most infamous failures of public housing in American history. The complex was named after St. Louisans Wndell O. Pruitt, an African-American fighter pilot in World War II and William Igoe, an ex-representative in Congress. The project was nationalized as a part of the post-World War II federal housing program, as an effort to return back the people to the city. It took five years to complete. However, within a few years it rapidly fell into disrepair and disuse, extremely vandalized by its own residents and finally had to be demolished to become a national symbol of not only bold innovations but also public funded folly. (Pruitt-Igoe. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

The FORUM in its publication of April 1951 narrated the St. Louis Public Housing Project that it claimed had already started to alter the public housing pattern in other cities. The prediction of FORUM emphasized that the project Pruitt-Igoe would not only save people but also the money. The FORUM was quite impressed by the effective slab buildings of the project including skip stop elevators opening only on every third floor, which allowed generous galleries, which were a deep of about 11ft. By 85 ft. long, at each of the stop floors. Also remarkable were the refreshing site plan and design of the landscape that required at least 200 ft. between buildings and a river of open space which were winding among them. The attribute that was most impelling were visualized by the architects to be 'vertical neighborhood' serving varied purposes like a close safe playground for small children when the mothers were performing housework or laundry, like an open air hallway, like a porch in spring, autumn and summer and like a laundry, a storage for such commodities as bicycles, washing machines, and tools. (The case history of a failure)

The architectural design of Pruitt-Igoe followed the principles of Le Corbusier and the International Congress of Modern Architects. Irrespective of comparatively low density, only 50 units to one acre, the occupants were raised into the air in 11 story buildings. The inherent philosophy was to keep the grounds and the first floor free for the purpose of community activity. The design was to ensure flow of a river of trees under the buildings. Each building was allotted with communal corridors every third floor to have a laundry a communal room and a garbage room that also had garbage chute. (Evolution of the concept: Pruitt-Igoe and Carr Square Village)

All these features of architect design were intended to make the Pruitt-Igoe to become 'Godsend' at the first instant. Irrespective of such 'creative economies' however, Pruitt-Igoe was considered to be too expensive for Public Housing Administration that had to scrutinize the design with severe cutbacks prior to the initiation of construction. The landscaping was practically reduced to nothing, and the luxuries like paint on the concrete block walls of the galleries, stairwells, insulation on exposed steam pipes, screening over the gallery windows, and public toilets on the ground floors were eradicated. However, the basic scheme was constructed in consonance with the designs made by architects. Even in a city suffering from acute shortage of low income housing, it was astonishing to find about one third of the houses vacant after a decade of its completion. (The case history of a failure)

Its buildings appear sound over broad expanses of scrubby grass, however, with broken glass and litter, containing hundreds of shattered windows. The congested elevators are brutally worn out and became reek of urine from children those judge the time it takes to reach their apartments. The elevators stop only at every third floor thereby offering convenient settings of Crime. Very often the assailants afford to jam the elevators while they rob, mug of rape victims, then remain at one of the floors and send the elevator on with the victims inside. The breezeways at the entrances are favorite places for teenagers those often engaged in teasing women and children and disturb those in near-by apartments with their noise. The galleries are used to be cheerful social enclaves, which was termed by the tenants as gauntlets which they were required to pass through to reach their doors. Steam pipes are mostly exposed in the galleries and the apartments often occurring severe burns. The laundry rooms were considered unsafe and rarely used and therefore locked. The Storage rooms were also locked and empty.

Even though St. Louis Housing Authority managed seven other public housing developments, it claimed that none of them were closer to the Pruitt-Igoe in terms of crimes and acts of vandalism. The reason attributed by Charles L. Farris was the fact that Pruitt-Igoe was simply too big. In the words of Farris, its size and scale threats all the efforts at effective management. Even the architect Minoru Yamasaki admits that its size is objectionable. His original design required for garden apartments along with high rise buildings encompassing - a density of 30 per acre however, the PHA compelled to almost double the density to 55. Yamasaki opined the low rise could have effectively eliminated and more slabs were to be conveniently added. Dr. Lee Rainwater, professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, conducting an exhaustive five-year social study on Pruitt Igoe, with grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, brings out some of the non-human treats posed by physical design of public housing. According to him in apartments where there are six or more families whose doors open onto a common hallway, there prevails a greater sense of availability of help should trouble come then there is in buildings where only two or three families with their doors open onto a small hall way in a stairwell. (The case history of a failure)