Intended as a paradise, Pruitt-Igoe is remembered today as America's most notorious housing project. "Modern architecture died in St Louis, Missouri on July 15, 1972, at 3.32 pm,” wrote architecture critic Charles Jencks of the Pruitt-Igoe housing projects. Completed in 1954, the 33 11-story buildings replaced entire neighborhoods of slums in inner city St. Louis and were initially advertised by the St. Louis Housing Authority as a paradise of “bright new buildings with spacious grounds,” indoor plumbing, electric lights, fresh plastered walls, and other “conveniences expected in the 20th century.”