Syeda Fatima Ms. Bochenek APLAC 18 May 2015 WHAT ROLE DID ARCHITECTURE PLAY IN THE FAILURE OF THE ROBERT TAYLOR HOMES?

 My interest in public housing  “Gang Leader for a Day”  History fair project  Architecture in Chicago PROCESS

 Newspaper articles  Books focus on public housing in general  Difficult to find books specific to the Robert Taylor Homes SOURCES

 Began with internet sources  Discovered the three main reasons for the failure of the Robert Taylor Homes  Chicago Housing Authority  Institutionalized racism  Architecture RESEARCH PROCESS

 Architecture was the greatest factor in the failure of the Robert Taylor Homes  28 high-rise buildings, housed 27,000 people  Built by the Dan Ryan Expressway ARGUMENT

 Youth disorder  Maintenance issues  Lack of schools  Illicit activities RESULTS OF THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROBERT TAYLOR HOMES

 Many cite tenant selection as the reason for the failure of the Robert Taylor Homes  Institutionalized Racism  CHA wanted the Robert Taylor Homes to fail COUNTERARGUMENT

 RTH were demolished by 2007 after new legislation was passed in Congress  Residents were relocated to scatter site housing projects  Large scale public housing projects were never again constructed  Failed due to its architectural structure CONCLUSION

 Biles, Roger. Richard J. Daley: Politics, Race, and the Governing of Chicago. DeKalb:  Northern Illinois UP, Print.  Brodt, Bonita. "Dream of Progress Died Quickly at Taylor Homes." Chicago Tribune 3  Dec. 1986: 13. Print.  Hunt, D. Bradford. Blueprint for Disaster: The Unraveling of Chicago Public Housing. Chicago: University of Chicago Print.  Jacobs, Scott, and Edward T. Pound. "Elevator Repairs-- a $2.5-million-a-year CHA  Expense." Chicago Sun-Times 23 July 1975: 21. Print.  Kamin, Blair. Why Architecture Matters: Lessons from Chicago. Chicago: U of Chicago Print.  Prince, Alice. "The Robert Taylor Homes: Failure of Public Housing." The Urban Fringe. Berkeley Planning Journal, 04 June Web. 22 Mar  Urban, Florian. Tower and Slab: Histories of Global Mass Housing. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, Print.  Venkatesh, Sudhir Alladi. American Project: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, Print. WORKS CITED

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