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Pruitt–Igoe was a large urban housing project first occupied in 1954〔Checkoway, p. 245〕 in the U.S. city of St. Louis, Missouri. Living conditions in Pruitt–Igoe began to decline soon after its completion in 1956.〔 By the late 1960s, the complex had become internationally infamous for its poverty, crime, and segregation. Its 33 buildings were demolished with explosives in the mid-1970s,〔Mendelssohn, Quinn, p. 163〕 and the project has become an icon of urban renewal and public-policy planning failure. The complex was designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki, who also designed the World Trade Center towers and the Lambert-St. Louis International Airport main terminal. ==History== During the 1940s and 1950s, the city of St. Louis was overcrowded, with housing conditions in some areas resembling "something out of a Charles Dickens novel".〔Larsen, Kirkendall, p. 60〕 Its housing stock had deteriorated between the 1920s and the 1940s, and more than 85,000 families lived in 19th century tenements. An official survey from 1947 found that 33,000 homes had communal toilets.〔 Middle-class, predominantly white, residents were leaving the city, and their former residences became occupied by low-income families. Black (north) and white (south) slums of the old city were segregated and expanding, threatening to engulf the city center.〔Bristol, 164〕 To save central properties from an imminent loss of value, city authorities settled on redevelopment of the "inner ring" around the central business district.〔 Decay was so profound there that gentrification of existing real estate was considered impractical.〔 In 1947, St. Louis planners proposed to replace DeSoto-Carr, a run-down black neighborhood, with new two- and three-story residential blocks and a public park.〔Ramroth, p. 169〕 The plan did not materialize; instead, Democratic mayor Joseph Darst, elected in 1949, and Republican state leaders favored clearing the slums and replacing them with high-rise, high-density public housing. They reasoned that the new projects would help the city through increased revenues, new parks, playgrounds and shopping space.〔 Darst stated in 1951: We must rebuild, open up and clean up the hearts of our cities. The fact that slums were created with all the intrinsic evils was everybody's fault. Now it is everybody's responsibility to repair the damage.〔Ramroth, p. 164〕 In 1948, voters rejected the proposal for a municipal loan to finance the change, but soon the situation was changed with the Housing Act of 1949 and Missouri state laws that provided co-financing of public housing projects. The approach taken by Darst, urban renewal, was shared by the Harry S. Truman administration and fellow mayors of other cities overwhelmed by industrial workers recruited during the war.〔Larsen, Kirkendall, p. 61〕 Specifically, St. Louis Land Clearance and Redevelopment Authority was authorized to acquire and demolish the slums of the inner ring and then sell the land at reduced prices to private developers, fostering middle-class return and business growth. Another agency, St. Louis Housing Authority, had to clear land to construct public housing for the former slum dwellers.〔 By 1950, St. Louis had received a federal commitment under the Housing Act of 1949〔( Pub.L. 81–171 )〕 to finance 5,800 public housing units.〔 The first large public housing in St. Louis, Cochran Gardens, was completed in 1953 and intended for low-income whites. It contained 704 units in 12 high-rise buildings〔 and was followed by Pruitt–Igoe, Darst-Webbe and Vaughn. Pruitt–Igoe was intended for young middle-class white and black tenants, segregated into different buildings, Darst-Webbe for low-income white tenants. Missouri public housing remained racially segregated until 1956.〔Larsen, Kirkendall, p. 62〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pruitt–Igoe」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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