Why did we build high-rise public housing projects?
October 17, 2017
1,791,966
32,071
5,222
2.08%
Search the Record
IndexedEvery word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
City Beautiful Episodes Around October 17, 2017
See what was published immediately before and after this episode.
6:49Now PlayingWhy did we build high-rise public housing projects?
YouTube Description
as posted by the channelWatch this video adfree on Nebula
In the spring of 2007, the Chicago Housing Authority demolished the last of the 28 buildings in the Robert Taylor Homes housing project. Robert Taylor Homes is one of several high profile housing project demolitions, from St. Louis’s Pruitt-Igoe to fellow Chicago project Cabrini Green. The demolitions serve as an admission that high-rise public housing wasn’t a good idea. The housing that replaced them are all low rise projects better integrated within existing neighborhoods. So why did anyone back then think it was a good idea? Why did housing authorities build these high rise projects in the first place?
Resources on this topic:
Hunt, D. B. (2001). What Went Wrong with Public Housing in Chicago? A History of the Robert Taylor Homes. Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, 94(1), 96–123.
"DemolishedThe End of Chicago's Public Housing" by David Eads and Helga Salinas.
"When Public Housing Was Paradise" by Joy Connelly
"Elizabeth Wood, 93, Innovator In Early Days of Public Housing" by Bruce Lambert
"A Brief History of Public Housing" by Jennifer Amy Stoloff
Video sources:
- Archive.org, Prelinger Archives
Photo sources:
- Wikimedia Commons
- Flickr user Samuel A. Love
Zahiri, N., Dezhdar, O., & Foroutan, M. (2016). Rethinking of Critical Regionalism in HighRise Buildings. Buildings, 7(1), 4.
Filmed in sunny Sacramento, California.
Guests & Subjects Covered
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.









