This shot of downtown Chicago was taken from the shoreline rocks in Lincoln Park, near Diversey Harbor. At one time, nearly the entire lakefront (all 29.8 miles of it) were wreathed with huge blocks of limestone and granite--even the beaches had them in spots. This man-made fortress had a stark, rough-hewn beauty that both complimented and contrasted with the ever-changing moods of Lake Michigan. I don't know when the rocks were installed, but it was around around the turn of the 19th/20th century. By the time my family moved to Chicago in the mid 1970s, the rocks were nicely time-worn and covered in graffiti. A riot of color--including illustrations, poetry, and corporate logos of street gangs, and love-pledges: lots and lots of lover's pledges of undying love, stretching back a half-century or more. Some were chiseled in, rather than written with paint. Even though the going was occasionally precarious: like having to jump over gaping holes, the rocks were a lot of fun. You could travel along them for miles, and the views of the lake, parks, and skyline were frequently spectacular. Starting in the late 1980s, years of erosion began to take their toll. Block long sections of the rocks would shift or collapse, frequently taking the surrounding park-land and sidewalks with them. The problem worsened over the next decade and around the year 2000, the city began to replace the rocks with a nondescript concrete shelf, rather like tiered amphitheater seats. The new break wall is obviously a more secure and efficient way to keep Lake Michigan out of people's living rooms, but aesthetically speaking, it has all the charm of a loaf of stale bread. As with any public works project this massive, it'll take a long time to reach completion. After nearly a decade, the break water is only about 50% finished. Large sections of the rocks still exist, but they are dwindling all the time. When I made this picture in August of 2007, the Diversey Rocks were still intact. I visited the same area the other day and it was blocked off by the familiar wall of chain-link fence covered in green security cloth that is the calling card of construction workers throughout the city.