Construction
Pruitt-Igoe's Architects
"In 1950 the St. Louis Housing Authority commissioned the firm of Leinweber, Yamasaki & Hellmuth to design Pruitt-Igoe. The architects' task was constrained by the size and location of the site, the number of units, and the project density...
...Their first design proposals called for a mixture of high-rise, mid-rise, and walk-up structures...A field officer of the federal Public Housing Administration (P.H.A.) intervened and insisted on a scheme using 33 identical eleven-story buildings." -Katharine Bristol
...Their first design proposals called for a mixture of high-rise, mid-rise, and walk-up structures...A field officer of the federal Public Housing Administration (P.H.A.) intervened and insisted on a scheme using 33 identical eleven-story buildings." -Katharine Bristol
"Skip-stop elevator sevice will be combined with open galleries every third floor to build vertical neighborhoods..."
-Architectural Forum, "Slum Surgery in St. Louis" Construction quality was compromised by the cost of purchasing and clearing land, labor union wages, and policy limits. Many ammenities that were once part of the plan disappeared.
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"Financing was not available to completely carry out the design and many compromises were made that scarificed amenities such as children's playgrounds and green space between buildings."
-J.A. Stoloff
-J.A. Stoloff
"...Construction unions had developed a range of highly-restrictive practices in an effort to conserve available work for their own members....
…The cost of constructing Pruitt and Igoe was about 60 percent above the national average…”
–Eugene Meehan, Public Housing Policy: Convention Versus Reality "The quality of the hardware was so poor that doorknobs and locks were broken on inital use, often before actual occupancy began. Windowpanes were blown from inadaquete frames by wind pressure. In the kitchens, cabinets were made of the thinnest plywood possible..."
-Eugene Meehan, The Quality of Federal Policymaking |