Pruit-Igoe Public Housing

The first design for one of the largest public housing projects in the country by the then young architect, Minoru Yamasaki had many of the bells and whistles of modern design.  It also cost considerably more than the federal government wanted to pay.  So significant value engineering ensued; the buildings were redesigned.  They became identical slabs and construction materials were downgraded.  They were designed to be skip-stop where the elevators stopped every third floor and residents had to walk up or down a level to access their small apartments.  Widely praised at its completion, it didn't take long for its multiple problems to appear which included poor maintenance and on a larger urban scale the racial tensions of big cities during the sixties. 

The tenants moved out and demolition started with the first three buildings in 1972.  It finished three years later at a cost of $3.5 million.