The Pruitt-Igoe Myth

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth is a documentary that explores the fabled Minoru Yamasaki designed public housing project in St. Louis, Missouri. Demolished only twenty years after its construction, Pruitt-Igoe is often referred to as a failure of modernism. The project consisted of thirty-three, eleven-story buildings that spanned four city blocks. Originally built to solve a housing crisis, Pruitt-Igoe became a haven for crime, drugs and violence. My mother spent her youth living in Pruitt-Igoe. Her family fit the profile; black, single-parent, average of four children. Although her stories of living in the building are terrifying—and in stark contrast to my suburban youth in Southern California—she has an attachment to the project. It was her home. A few years ago she told me she wanted a shirt that read "Pruitt-Igoe Class of 1972." I'm excited to see The Pruitt-Igoe Myth tonight at Gene Siskel because it seems to get at the complicated story of public housing. In a recent interview, landscape architect Kathryn Gustafson remarked, "[M]yths don’t go away—they become silent because nobody is listening." With the last Cabrini-Green demolotion earlier this year, it's a particularly relevant time to start listening again.

TONIGHT: The Pruitt-Igoe Myth, 6:15pm, Gene Siskel Film Center