The Final Cabrini Green Tower in Chicago Falls

The end of the story has come for one of the last standing highrises in Cabrini Green known as "the whites." Residents were relocated to recently built housing in other parts of the city and the building was taken out of service. I've been documenting CG for 6 years now. It's unbelievable to think projects once towered where new rowhouses, lofts, and condos now stand.

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This afternoon was sunny and nice. I left work early and rode over to Division and Halsted on my bike. There were many cars surrounding the building. I expected to see a photographer or two, but there were over a dozen. People were walking around the building with expensive SLR's, people filling their cars up with gas across the street had the cameras out. Next door patrons at a burger joint shot photos through the window on their cell phones.

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Today was an especially important day. Tomorrow large parts of this building will come down and one of the most horrible and notorious housing projects in US history will only be remembered in pictures and descriptions.

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Halsted Street is very different today than it was nearly two decades ago. Then, nearly all the projects were operating buildings. The massive Ogden viaduct would be looming overhead in this photo, and traffic would still be crossing the rusty old bascule bridge that was removed earlier this year. Today, Halsted is lined with new lofts and condos, and far more businesses than the area could have ever imagined.

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I'll continue to document this building as it comes down. I will also show the new buildings going up.

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It's nice to see that project fade into Chicago history. I was around there a bit during the 80's and early 90's. I hate to say it, but it always reminded me of Communist Russia. Very similar construction. 15,000 people packed into those boxes.
I'd like to think they're tearing them down because they realized what a bad idea it was. I guess that is partially the reason, but it has more to do with the fact that it's become very high dollar real estate.

public housing has devolved from whatever its original intentions/designs were, into traps for the poor, uneducated and unemployed/underemployed.. facilitating generational poverty.. Detroit needs to raze those towers downtown.. encourage more mixed-income developments.. improve public school systems..