Public Housing in Chicago, USA: A Focus on Problems and Solutions in Design, Pattern and Practice

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2008
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Bryn Mawr College. Department of Growth and Structure of Cities
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Award
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eng
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Open Access
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Abstract
Ever since the housing shortage in the early part of the 20th century, the United States has faced challenges in providing homes for all of its citizens. Throughout the 1940’s and early 1950’s local housing authorities scrambled to create a prototype for the perfect Public Housing plan. Due to economic and political pressures, most of the designs were finalized as vertical skyscrapers placed in the outskirts of a city, or in an already dilapidated area. Years later we can see that a large part of these projects have become crime-ridden, decrepit, and stigmatized as areas of danger and distaste. Many scholars attribute the architecture and design of these projects for their failure. My paper will examine the validity of this idea and provide evidence for how the architecture and design played only a minor part in the downfall of these projects. Other factors include the basic lack of funding for maintenance of the buildings, the economic climate of the times, the homogeneity of the residents, and most importantly, almost no social outlets for the youth of these projects. To prove these causes, I have analyzed the life, death, and rebirth of two Public Housing projects in Chicago built during the 1950s.
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