This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Feb. 12, 2012 - Exactly 40 years after the first building of St. Louis' Pruitt-Igoe housing projects was demolished, a group of designers, historians and other professionals is pulling together ideas about how to use the 57 acres where the failed development once stood.
On March 16, 1972, the St. Louis Housing Authority dynamited the first of 33 high-rises. On Thursday, March 16 of this year, a group called Pruitt-Igoe Now will close the window on submissions for re-imagining the area.
Pruitt-Igoe Now is asking architects, urban planners, writers, filmmakers and other creatives to submit alone or in teams. In judging proposals, organizers will look not only for completed projects, but for processes for moving the site forward.
