The start of urban renewal in the Rose Hill and Kips Bay area was marked by the closing and demolition of the last gas plant in the Gashouse District in 1945. That year, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company began construction of the enormous Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village housing projects between 14th and 23rd Streets, First Avenue and the East River. This required the relocation of over 12,000 residents and demolition of hundreds of buildings from a twenty-seven-block area. With City assistance in obtaining property and closing public streets, MetLife constructed fifty-six towers containing 11,250 apartments for low and middle-income residents. When completed in 1947, MetLife adopted the discriminatory policy of restricting the rental of apartments to whites only, which was not reversed until 1950.
