Pruitt Igoe Now
Growing Renewal
MARIANE LIN
3/16/2012
Growing Renewal – from the former Pruitt-Igoe site towards the city
From afar, the former Pruitt-Igoe seemingly sits lifeless in the east side of Saint Louis, frozen in time. However, closer inspection reveals that it has moved forward and, through piles of waste, beauty has arisen, day by day, year by year. It is nature, life that has found its way through destruction and deserves to be shown. Let the Pruitt-Igoe site be more than just a patch of green in the gloomy grays of Saint Louis, let it bring back life and joyful memories.
The proposal of this design is to allow nature to continue its process of recovery, and not try to go back to what it was as a built environment. It is about renewing its meaning to the people that lived there and in the surroundings. Yet the effects of the decay of population and economy are not limited to the site alone. Other parts of the city have suffered with similar issues, though perhaps not with the same intensity or repercussions. Therefore, this design seeks to extend nature’s ability to recover to other parts of the city, going beyond the borders of the site.
The vegetation is to overtake, in phases, open and unused spaces, generating a rezoned city. The starting point is the former Pruitt-Igoe site, but other areas, near I-70 and I-64, are added as focal points. As the vegetation expands, one large and connected green area is formed. The old grid remains as the main paths, privileging the identity and the history of the moments there lived, but new paths are also superposed, enhancing existing fluxes and connecting the public buildings around the former Pruitt-Igoe site. The objective is high-density integrated urban nuclei, a new city grid that breaks away from rigid orthogonal streets, and an ever expanding field that shelters and encourages diversity of flora and fauna as well as its relationship with human life.
Growing Renewal
MARIANE LIN
3/16/2012
Growing Renewal – from the former Pruitt-Igoe site towards the city
From afar, the former Pruitt-Igoe seemingly sits lifeless in the east side of Saint Louis, frozen in time. However, closer inspection reveals that it has moved forward and, through piles of waste, beauty has arisen, day by day, year by year. It is nature, life that has found its way through destruction and deserves to be shown. Let the Pruitt-Igoe site be more than just a patch of green in the gloomy grays of Saint Louis, let it bring back life and joyful memories.
The proposal of this design is to allow nature to continue its process of recovery, and not try to go back to what it was as a built environment. It is about renewing its meaning to the people that lived there and in the surroundings. Yet the effects of the decay of population and economy are not limited to the site alone. Other parts of the city have suffered with similar issues, though perhaps not with the same intensity or repercussions. Therefore, this design seeks to extend nature’s ability to recover to other parts of the city, going beyond the borders of the site.
The vegetation is to overtake, in phases, open and unused spaces, generating a rezoned city. The starting point is the former Pruitt-Igoe site, but other areas, near I-70 and I-64, are added as focal points. As the vegetation expands, one large and connected green area is formed. The old grid remains as the main paths, privileging the identity and the history of the moments there lived, but new paths are also superposed, enhancing existing fluxes and connecting the public buildings around the former Pruitt-Igoe site. The objective is high-density integrated urban nuclei, a new city grid that breaks away from rigid orthogonal streets, and an ever expanding field that shelters and encourages diversity of flora and fauna as well as its relationship with human life.