America’s public housing, born in the 1930’s, looks refreshing to the eye even today. . .
What’s wrong with the above sentence? By and large, the average eye sees and remembers massive tower blocks that appear old and depressing rather than refeshing.
This is particularly true of the well-built but recognizably institutional architecture that still survives from the urban renewal era when public housing was conceived as liveable long term housing for workers.
So, does public housing deserve a makeover? Would a national revival of public housing be helped along with an image uplift? Could a new architectural style help distract from all public housing’s worst memories? Could it herald a shiny new future for all those features which, over the years, have proven valuable about this form housing for citizens with low or no incomes?
In making a case for a forward-looking national architecture for a new Biden administration, the following article can’t help but make an argument for the benefits of a new-look public housing, in fact it even hints at the possibility, although it does seem to tiptoe around the issue.
Read more in The New Republic: Why the Democrats Need an Architectural Vision to Counter the Right’s
