This project is located on the vacant site that was once the Pruitt Igoe Housing Complex. Now, due to many complex political, social and economic circumstances, the 56 acres has become an urban forest. Yes, a forest, 20 minutes walk from the Gateway Arch. As the fact that the land has now returned
to both the landscape and the city, we decided to embrace the site’s unique spatial environment and introduce a learning annex in the middle of the site. In planning, the main axis follow the natural paths that have been formed through the site that have a dialogue with the former street grid, former landscaping, and present day landmarks, such as the Stephanopoulos Church. The plan includes a large scale lecture hall and research library surrounded by smaller scale classrooms and seminar rooms.

One important aspect of this project was a formal exercise that consisted of applying organic shapes to an industrial process, in our case a vacuum-form machine. These tensile and undulating shapes inspired the double-skin tensile roof structure that undulated over the program below, and created a light cloud-like form that baths the interior is a soft glow from the sun above. The courtyard surrounds and fetishizes the former champion trees that once landscaped Pruitt-Igoe.