Towers of Dreams: One Ended in a Nightmare
I’ve seen this photograph many times, but I just now noticed the arch in the background. Ironically, the dedication of the Gateway Arch, May 25, 1968, was the same year that the federal department of housing began removing the last residents of Pruitt-Igoe in preparation for its demolition in Deceber, 1971.
Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who dedicated the arch, declared it ”a soaring curve in the sky that links the rich heritage of yesterday with the richer future of tomorrow” and brings a “new purpose” and a “new surge of urgency to wipe out every slum. Whatever is shoddy, whatever is ugly, whatever is waste, will be measured and condemned in comparison to the great arch.”
Cost of Pruitt-Igoe: $36,000,000 (designed to house over 3,000 families)
Cost of St Louis Arch: $13,000,000
K-Residence, su11 architecture + design, New York
My professor’s apartment looks like a rendering. Maybe one day if I work hard enough, I can live in a rendering too…
Home!
And visiting Chicago for the day. God this city is clean…where are all the abandoned buildings?
Metabolism is much less fun when you get to page 20…ugh papers!
Well, I always wondered what sort of project I would get if I were allowed to continue unchecked…
The facade of an apartment building in Shanghai, one of China’s fastest-growing urban areas. The city has about 23 million people, or the equivalent of the eight biggest cities in the United States combined.
