Pruitt-Igoe

Pruitt-Igoe was a solution to public housing in St. Louis, Missouri. Pruitt-Igoe started out as a dream for most of its new tenants. It was a better opportunity for a lot of people, it gave them space, rooms for everyone, appliances, and access to green spaces. 

However, the only reputation that has stuck with Pruitt-Igoe, is that it was a failure. Going through architecture school, we are given examples and shown buildings and told of their successes and failures, all we heard about Pruitt-Igoe was its failures. Which, I think is unfair. I do not believe that it was the population that lived in it or the buildings themselves that led to this failure of a project. I think the external factors of management were what really caused Pruitt-Igoe's failure. 

I think people are simple creators. When we see something nice, we treat it nicely, with care and respect, when we see something that does not look taken care of we become a little less careful with how treat it. It is not the best mentality but it is the truth. I think that is why the vandalism started there, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Once things start to slip it is like a domino effect. After a while, people started to move out, because who would want to live in some place where the elevators are not clean, and the lightbulbs in the hallways are always broken and smashed. Once people started moving out, the rent had to be increased so as to make ends meet, causing even more people to leave, because why would people want to live in a place that is not taken care of, vandalized, and drawing in the wrong type of people for money?

The idea of Pruitt-Igoe is not the issue. I think people, management, who are not invested in upholding the care of an establishment, are going to be the initial problem. I think for a project like Pruitt-Igoe to be successful needs people who are invested in it, and should be run by a council of the residents, the people who should care most about their living arrangements. 

Pruitt-Igoe did succeed in its job for a while. People left there with good memories and the feelings of a better future. Pruitt-Igoe is a learning lesson, about the management of space and the consequences of not continuously improving and maintaining a development.