“Pruitt-Igoe, Now”, by Nora Wend

Reading aligned with lecture: 
   Postmodern Architecture: Rober Venturi, and the American discourse, Pop Art. 28/01/2015

Personal summary of reading: Pruitt-lgoe, Now and http://www.pruittigoenow.org/about/

Pritt Igoe was a development that consisted of 30 high-rise buildings that were demolished. Media and marketing were cleverly used to highlight this event for its ‘re-birth’, to attract architects and designers. However this backfired and the rebirth never blossomed for St. Louis. Naturally with the world’s blame culture, theorists and critiques blamed architects Helmuth, Yamasaki and Leinweber for the “death of Modernism” which was put down to political and economic issues.

The first demolition started in 1972 and by 1977 all 30 high-rise buildings had been demolished. Its inhabitants never returned to the 57 acre plot and it remained a dormant eye sore to the city until 1989. To celebrate the 40^th anniverisary of the first demolition, in 2012 the competition was re-opened and new design ideas has been proposed but whether or not we see any realisation on this site, only time will tell.

http://financingcities.ifmr.co.in/blog/2014/02/03/the-pruitt-igoe-myth-of-public-housing/