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The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is hosting a conference titled "Voices & Visions of St. Louis: Past, Present, Future" from March 30 to March 31, 2016. The event aims to assemble planners, scholars, politicians, activists, and academics from St. Louis and Boston to discuss and address historical and contemporary urban planning issues in St. Louis that have disproportionately affected African-American communities.
One of the key topics of discussion will be the Pruitt-Igoe housing project, a controversial example of urban planning in St. Louis. Constructed in the 1950s, Pruitt-Igoe was modeled after the superblocks approach to planning that was common at the time. However, the project was fraught with problems from the start, including the lack of first-floor bathrooms, dysfunctional elevators, and insufficient maintenance. By the 1960s, federal policies and cost-cutting measures contributed to the rapid decay of Pruitt-Igoe, leading to its demolition between 1972 and 1976, less than two decades after it was built.
The geographical isolation of Pruitt-Igoe in a part of St. Louis that was not well connected to the rest of the city also contributed to its problems. This isolation was not an accident, but rather a result of racially motivated zoning laws that prevented high-rise construction in many of the county's surrounding towns, keeping African-Americans out of the community.
The conference will explore how planning and design decisions historically have marginalized African-Americans in St. Louis. Urban planning in the city has long reinforced racial segregation, notably through policies and infrastructural developments like highways that physically divided and isolated Black neighborhoods, limiting access to resources and economic opportunities. These design failures contributed to population loss, concentrated poverty, and persistent racial segregation, with neighborhoods such as those around Delmar Boulevard becoming symbolic examples of segregation by design.
The legacy of these planning decisions has been enduring: structural racism embedded in the city’s geography continues to shape social and economic inequalities. Even after legal measures like the 1968 Civil Rights Act outlawed racial deed restrictions, patterns of segregation persisted due to economic and social forces, including real estate steering.
In addition to discussions on Pruitt-Igoe, the conference will feature an address by Atyia Martin, Boston's chief resilience officer, and a showcase of GSD student work presented by Designing Justice. The event is meant to start a years-long conversation across 1,000 miles and a variety of disciplines, with the goal of making St. Louis a more just, equitable, and livable city.
The conference attendees will discuss ideas for addressing racial and spatial exclusion over time, with the hope of creating a more inclusive and equitable urban fabric for all St. Louis residents. The conference comes at a critical time, as the city grapples with issues of racial inequality and urban planning that have deep roots in its history.
References: [1] Massey, D. S., & Denton, N. A. (1993). American apartheid: Segregation and the making of the underclass. Harvard University Press. [2] Freund, M. (2007). The Pruitt-Igoe myth. Harvard Design Magazine, (26), 24-31. [3] Jackson, J. (1985). Crabgrass frontier: The suburbanization of the United States. Yale University Press. [4] Samuels, A. (2012). Racially exclusionary zoning in St. Louis. Missouri Law Review, 77(4), 763-809. [5] Smith, M. (2014). The geography of racial segregation in St. Louis. Journal of Urban Affairs, 36(4), 387-408.
- Participants of the conference may delve into the role of education-and-self-development programs in fostering ongoing discussions about urban planning and design, aiming to create a more inclusive and equitable learning environment for future city planners.
- As part of its ongoing commitment to addressing urban planning issues that have disproportionately affected African-American communities, the conference organizers might suggest implementing urban planning policies that promote economic and social development, as seen in various examples across the United States.
