Concept

The city of St. Louis, Missouri lives in infamy due to its 1960s Federal Housing program in the now demolished site of Pruitt Igoe.

As part of Inner City Urban Renewal, it was characteristic of the 1960’s urban projects. Designed in 1955 by architect Minoru Yamasaki it had 33 buildings with 11 stories each, with a total of 2,870 residential apartments.

However, despite much excitement and publicity, the conditions on which the Pruitt Igoe was built quickly became unattractive. It soon started to decompose and become a symbol of housing failure and instability in the area.

The very day of its demolition was called, The Day Modern Architecture Died. The original layout was demolished in April 1972. Since then part of it was developed, but mostly grew into an urban forest.
Currently the urban forest posses no direct threat to the city, nonetheless the area has grown to be a depressed part of St. Louis.

The conceptual approach came from the idea of mixing uses. This approach takes the original Pruitt Igoe footprint, evolving it into interior courtyard housing.
Incorporating the commercial layout, in these residential courtyards, result in the hybrid Restitching of the site.