The former Pruitt Igoe on Google Earth

[matthew6]

Interesting.... at least I think it is ....


http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=Pruitt%E2%8...3Igoe,+St.+Louis,+MO,+United+States&z=18

[MolsonExport]

• Video Link

[Centropolis]

behold - an urban forest (w/ needles and dogpacks).

[Austinlee]

"Former?" I don't get it.

[Centropolis]

everybody put on a black turtleneck and hush koooooyaanisqaaaaaaaaaatsiiiiiiiiiiiiii.

• Video Link

[animatedmartian]

Seems like it was only yesterday that a city was there.

[photoLith]

^
What a fucking terrible shame, all of that area above is completely gone today save a few stand alone structures. What an incredible loss.

[Cirrus]

The current aerial really illustrates how Pruitt Igoe was the epicenter of decay in the surrounding neighborhoods. The further away you get from Pruitt Igoe in every direction the better it gets.

[Centropolis]

its amazing that the polish church that practically touches an east side building of pruitt igoe in the aerial is still there with services still in polish - practically having survived armaggedon.st stanislaus kostka.


http://a0.twimg.com/profile_images/1638871612/stanislaus.jpg

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by photoLith

^
What a fucking terrible shame, all of that area above is completely gone today save a few stand alone structures. What an incredibly loss.

yeah and that was repeated in many other cities as well. its mind boggling that a handful of jackasses were allowed to do things like clear-cut cities.

[M. Brown]

My dad grew up in Pruitt-Igoe. His stories are amazing.

[KevinFromTexas]

Damn. 33 highrises bit the dust. In Austin that would be a 5th of our stock.

I was checking out that Google link, lotta empty grass lots.

[Don B.]

The before and after of this area is amazing.



--don

[Lecom]

What's more terrifying is the destruction of the rowhomes all around Pruitt-Igoe. It's one thing to implode a bunch of failed Modernist towers, yet it's a much more subtle yet powerful sight to see all those blocks upon blocks of surrounding rowhomes decimated into an urban wasteland.

[MolsonExport]

Dissertations could be written on the Pruitt Igoe story. Fascinating.

Other places, albeit with extremely different circumstances, have shown that not all of these projects are doomed to failure. Take this dystopian complex in HK:
• Video Link

Despite its wretched appearance the place is fully occupied of gainfully employed people. Some of my former students live in the complex.

[matthew6]

faaaaack!

It does look like it is surrounded by wilderness though. No suburbia 'problem' here.

[matthew6]

This is just down the street

http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=Pruitt%E2%8...vQ3Lj2zMaxcg8YVZQ&cbp=12,14.94,,0,-11.39

A row of abandoned houses. A shame since it is one of my favourite types of housing stock.

[Centropolis]

when i was in high school, i helped to landscape those hope vi townhomes just to the east of the former pruitt igoe property but I had no idea what the significance was of that weird forest in the middle of the city until later - not to mention that I had no idea that there was all this...


http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341bfae553ef0162fbf10ea4970d-800wi

[photoLith]

^
Almost everything in that photo is gone today, makes me fucking sick to my stomach.

[KevinFromTexas]

Did you see that population sign in the video? 800,000+ in St. Louis at the time. Isn't St. Louis around 400K now? It's half the city it was then. I don't mean that in any disparaging way either.