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Sunday, May 29, 2005

Re-roofing the projects

The St. Louis Housing Authority is remodeling the low-rise Clinton-Peabody housing project south of downtown. Part of this redesign includes the ludicrous addition of hipped roofs to the formerly flat-roofed buildings of the project. Some of the new roofs are in place, and the result is not pleasant. The buildings, once very modest and modern, now sport distracting hats. The point of the project eludes me. What do new roofs have to do with the lives of residents? If anything, they degrade the Clinton-Peabody project further through pure bad taste.

My other question is concerning the hipped roofs: Are they supposed to emulate those on the City Hospital? I can't see any other connection with the surrounding Near South Side, on which the hipped roof is not unusually prevalent.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I always had an appreciation for the simple modern design of those buildings, regardless of their current state. I just noticed the new roofs the other day and they are awful.