Event: Pruitt-Igoe Housing Complex Imploded
Brief Description: The Pruitt-Igoe Housing Complex was a series of 20 high-rise apartment buildings which was hailed as an innovative national model when first built in the mid-1950s. By the early 1970s, it had become a symbol of failed urban housing policies. Years of crime and decay finally caused local housing officials to decide the time had come to end the experiment. In 1972, two buildings were imploded as part of an effort to reduce density in the complex as a step towards renovation. When this plan failed to achieve the desired results, the rest of the complex was imploded in 1975. Pruitt-Igoe became a symbol of St. Louis´ decline in the 1960s and 1970s. The area where the apartments once stood iremains partially vacant, although a public school complex was erected on part of the site in the 1990s.
Year: 1975
Decade: 1970 - 1979
people
• structures • events
• sources • home
about
historic preservation• new entries• 4 kids only• map it!
This
site was made possible by: the City of St. Louis Planning and Urban Design Agency and
the City of St. Louis Community
Information Network.
This site was funded in part by Federal funds administered by the Missouri State Historical Preservation
Office, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, The National Park Service, and the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Version 1.0