Architecture of St. Louis, Missouri - Residential Forms - Urban Renewal

Urban Renewal

After the 1950s, suburban expansion reduced the commercial and residential density of the city, while in the early 1960s, nearby Clayton, Missouri eliminated its height limitations on buildings. Clayton, which is the county seat of St. Louis County, Missouri, became an alternative to downtown St. Louis for commercial construction in the 1960s and 1970s. Various urban renewal projects cleared several low-income areas of St. Louis for residential housing projects.

The first of these projects was the relatively successful Cochran Gardens, constructed in 1953 and home to white residents until 1956, when the project was integrated. Shortly after the construction of Cochran Gardens, the later-infamous Pruitt–Igoe project replaced the DeSoto-Carr neighborhood with its 33 eleven-story towers. By the mid-to-late 1960s, these projects had become decayed themselves. Although Pruitt–Igoe was designed by Minoru Yamasaki with several innovative living features, the project ultimately was demolished in the 1970s. Although Cochran Gardens' management was turned over to a tenant association in 1976, it later returned to city control in the 1990s and was demolished in 2008 after several years of decay.

In recent years, several organizations have attempted to promote preservation of historic structures of St. Louis. These include the Landmarks Association of St. Louis (a private organization operating since the 1960s) and the Cultural Resource Office (a city government agency which maintains a list of St. Louis city landmarks).