The Pruitt-Igoe Myth
99% Invisible
00:00
The Implosion of Prud Igo
The image of the implosion, with the saint louis gateway arched in the background, became infamous. The only human reaction to beg presented with an unbreakable object is to try and break it. There's something about that building, an free fall, that acts as better evidence than anything else for failure. That image was so powerful, so full of emotion, that it could easily be used to support any previously held beliefs or prejudices about federal housing or modernist architecture.
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