Pruitt Igoe Now
Pleasure Boating
JEROME MORLEY LARSON SR.
2/25/2012
PRUITT-IGOE NOW -- ST LOUIS, MO — NARRATIVE
To solve Pruitt-Igoe, re-solve St Louis and its area—anything less is foolish. White flight decimated the city fabric —Planning, Zoning and Red-lining nailed the coffin shut. Pruitt-Igoe was simply a fancy coffin — its destruction, the burial — this competition is for the tombstone. But I defy that — a real city needs ALL people integrated and living together in normal human disharmony that sparks creativity and vitality, so I bring ALL people back by making St Louis more attractive than its out-burbs; a place people really want to habituate.
St Louis is the center of the plains from Appalachians to Rockies where four great rivers converge — three right there. It's perched on a mesa that requires the Missouri, due west, to veer north, forming a peninsula that encloses the city.
Saaranens incredible ARCH is exactly where city meets water; its axis greets the Missouri 18 miles west and the Ohio 140 miles east, deserving GATEWAY TO THE WEST. Pruitt-Igoe's sole contextual value, other than notoriety, is location 3/4 mile north of this axis and 1½ miles west of the ARCH — a forty minute brisk walk (or ten minute bike).
18 miles west, where it starts its bend north, the Missouri lies 50' (+/-) higher than the Mississippi; I propose a 300' wide feeder canal at this level carved through the city to Pruitt-Igoe; there, water level will be some 90' below grade. At this point create a circular basin 1/2 mile in diameter as a wonderful in-city lake for pleasure boating, with city buildings rising above and cascading down its slopes, a feeling similar to Zaitunay Bay in Beirut (pictured). This basin is large enough for sailing regattas, powerboat races, fireworks barges, delightful sunrises, marinas, moorings, jazz festivals etc.
Put a matching basin south to balance the axis; wind the canals around the University and snuggle them into the heart of the city; connect all to the Mississippi with a series of locks. In East St Louis, opposite the ARCH, place a similar basin 50' in the air over all the industrial stuff below (use the 40' clear underneath as distribution centers for the port) using the water spout to keep it filled and extend the canals into East St. Louis to complete the formal design surrounding the arch that knits the two cities together; so attractive, it will become the hottest place in the two States to live - for ALL!
Suddenly, greater St Louis is re-water oriented! — and East St Louis is reborn as an attractor in its own right, competing with and complementing downtown.
Now, let developers build whatever they want along the waterways so long as it is 80% housing for ALL and features 80% retail/ entertainment/ food at street and canal levels. Plug in water taxis, get the hell out of the way and watch the sparks fly! Waterfront land value pays for the waterways and then some; let the spoils sculpt East St Louis and be levees as needed.
Now, what to do with all those silly boxes we built out in the cornfields….
Personal info as required: I first visited the ARCH in the 70's with two pre-teen sons during a road trip to Colorado; then 20 years later at an AIA RUDC three day conference on St Louis where I learned about Pruitt-Igoe and that the white people had moved 60 miles west, desolating the city.
In the 70's I did pro bono architecture for a community in Bed-Sty Brooklyn - the worst slum in the country - 160 bed day care center in an abandon two story concrete garage - we did not get a building permit because … — But we had to get a C of O to get State funding for the kids. The inspector would not sign off; Detroit had just burned and I said Bed-Sty, um, might burn if he didn't — he signed and we opened.
We were having a celebratory dinner when thugs from Detroit came in to burn Bed-Sty — you can't; I gave my word (in the ghetto, your word is sacred) — Bed-Sty didn't burn — thus began a long relationship with people of color in the ghettos of Brooklyn, Jersey City, Newark, Asbury Park and Red Bank.The welfare mothers wanted the day care center to free them so they could get a job and save enough money to get out of the ghetto.
I'm convinced that the only solution is the integration of ALL people in ALL neighborhoods - a design problem solved like I do here at Pruitt-Igoe NOW! LET'S ROLL!
Pleasure Boating
JEROME MORLEY LARSON SR.
2/25/2012
PRUITT-IGOE NOW -- ST LOUIS, MO — NARRATIVE
To solve Pruitt-Igoe, re-solve St Louis and its area—anything less is foolish. White flight decimated the city fabric —Planning, Zoning and Red-lining nailed the coffin shut. Pruitt-Igoe was simply a fancy coffin — its destruction, the burial — this competition is for the tombstone. But I defy that — a real city needs ALL people integrated and living together in normal human disharmony that sparks creativity and vitality, so I bring ALL people back by making St Louis more attractive than its out-burbs; a place people really want to habituate.
St Louis is the center of the plains from Appalachians to Rockies where four great rivers converge — three right there. It's perched on a mesa that requires the Missouri, due west, to veer north, forming a peninsula that encloses the city.
Saaranens incredible ARCH is exactly where city meets water; its axis greets the Missouri 18 miles west and the Ohio 140 miles east, deserving GATEWAY TO THE WEST. Pruitt-Igoe's sole contextual value, other than notoriety, is location 3/4 mile north of this axis and 1½ miles west of the ARCH — a forty minute brisk walk (or ten minute bike).
18 miles west, where it starts its bend north, the Missouri lies 50' (+/-) higher than the Mississippi; I propose a 300' wide feeder canal at this level carved through the city to Pruitt-Igoe; there, water level will be some 90' below grade. At this point create a circular basin 1/2 mile in diameter as a wonderful in-city lake for pleasure boating, with city buildings rising above and cascading down its slopes, a feeling similar to Zaitunay Bay in Beirut (pictured). This basin is large enough for sailing regattas, powerboat races, fireworks barges, delightful sunrises, marinas, moorings, jazz festivals etc.
Put a matching basin south to balance the axis; wind the canals around the University and snuggle them into the heart of the city; connect all to the Mississippi with a series of locks. In East St Louis, opposite the ARCH, place a similar basin 50' in the air over all the industrial stuff below (use the 40' clear underneath as distribution centers for the port) using the water spout to keep it filled and extend the canals into East St. Louis to complete the formal design surrounding the arch that knits the two cities together; so attractive, it will become the hottest place in the two States to live - for ALL!
Suddenly, greater St Louis is re-water oriented! — and East St Louis is reborn as an attractor in its own right, competing with and complementing downtown.
Now, let developers build whatever they want along the waterways so long as it is 80% housing for ALL and features 80% retail/ entertainment/ food at street and canal levels. Plug in water taxis, get the hell out of the way and watch the sparks fly! Waterfront land value pays for the waterways and then some; let the spoils sculpt East St Louis and be levees as needed.
Now, what to do with all those silly boxes we built out in the cornfields….
Personal info as required: I first visited the ARCH in the 70's with two pre-teen sons during a road trip to Colorado; then 20 years later at an AIA RUDC three day conference on St Louis where I learned about Pruitt-Igoe and that the white people had moved 60 miles west, desolating the city.
In the 70's I did pro bono architecture for a community in Bed-Sty Brooklyn - the worst slum in the country - 160 bed day care center in an abandon two story concrete garage - we did not get a building permit because … — But we had to get a C of O to get State funding for the kids. The inspector would not sign off; Detroit had just burned and I said Bed-Sty, um, might burn if he didn't — he signed and we opened.
We were having a celebratory dinner when thugs from Detroit came in to burn Bed-Sty — you can't; I gave my word (in the ghetto, your word is sacred) — Bed-Sty didn't burn — thus began a long relationship with people of color in the ghettos of Brooklyn, Jersey City, Newark, Asbury Park and Red Bank.The welfare mothers wanted the day care center to free them so they could get a job and save enough money to get out of the ghetto.
I'm convinced that the only solution is the integration of ALL people in ALL neighborhoods - a design problem solved like I do here at Pruitt-Igoe NOW! LET'S ROLL!