THIS MONTH IN ENGINEERING | September 1975 - When the Systems Break Down, the Building Goes With It

In September 1975, the last tower of St. Louis’s Pruitt-Igoe housing development was demolished. Once celebrated as a bold new model for public housing, the project became a global symbol of failure — not because of its design alone, but because everything that was supposed to support it broke down.

Completed in 1956, the 33 high-rise towers were designed by Minoru Yamasaki, the same architect who would later design the original World Trade Center. At its peak, Pruitt-Igoe housed more than 15,000 people and reached 91% occupancy. For many families, it was their first time living with running water, electricity, or their own bedroom. Former residents remember it as green, modern, and full of life.

But the systems collapsed. Poor-quality construction. Broken plumbing. Failing lifts. Heating outages. Skip-stop elevators that restricted access. A rent model that couldn’t sustain maintenance. Security and cleaning services cut back. Over time, the buildings themselves became uninhabitable.

Responsibility is often placed on the architect. In truth, this was the product of cost-cutting by federal agencies, low-grade build quality delivered under pressure, and a housing authority unable to fund upkeep. Architecture took the blame. But what failed were the systems, services, and policies around it.

Yamasaki’s legacy is unusual. Two of his most ambitious projects became known more for their destruction than their design. Pruitt-Igoe lasted less than 20 years before demolition. The World Trade Center, completed in 1973, stood just 28 years before the 9/11 terrorist attacks brought it down.

What would Pruitt-Igoe have looked like with coordinated services, reliable maintenance, and sustained investment? Engineering doesn’t just support buildings. It protects them. —

Sources: The Pruitt-Igoe Myth, The Guardian, Unseen St Louis, Milwaukee Independent

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Archival images: U.S. Geological Survey, Wikimedia Commons