Much racial strife is catalogued here, alongside the requisite thumbnail sketches of playwright Tennessee Williams, who achieved a symbiotic relationship with the city; Armstrong, a native son who eventually scornfully declared, "They treat me better all over the world than they do in my own hometown"; and Ruby Bridges, whose integration into the city's schools unwittingly led to segregation via gentrification.

Following a steady decline since its heyday servicing bustling trade on the Singapore river, and an unsuccessful conventional gentrification of the heritage site in the 1980s, Alsop was appointed in 2002 with a brief to rejuvenate the three-hectare diamond shaped site.

A lot of neighborhoods that are experiencing gentrification at the moment haven't progressed enough to keep those gains through to the next downturn in the real estate cycle.