Pruitt Igoe

Pruitt–Igoe was a large urban housing project first occupied in 1954 in St. Louis, Missouri. Living conditions in Pruitt–Igoe soon began to decline after its completion in 1956. By the late 1960s, the complex had become internationally infamous for its poverty, crime, and racial segregation. Its 33 buildings were demolished with explosives in the mid-1970s, and the project has become an icon of failure of urban renewal and of public-policy planning.

The public housing complex was designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki, who also designed the World Trade Center towers and the Lambert-St. Louis International Airport main terminal.