The Robert Taylor Homes, completed in 1962 to house the large influx of migrant blacks from the south, was a huge sprawl of public housing located on Chicago's South Side over what was the Bronzeville slum next to the Dan Ryan expressway.
The Projects consisted of 28 identical 16-floor towers that stood in an urban desert that served as an open air market for drug sellers and a war-zone for the local gangs that collected extortion, sold drugs and fought for territory. Each tower was often controlled by a different gang to the next, nobody outside of the projects had to put up with this because of Robert Taylor's remote location, it was completely isolated fom the rest of the city.
Having garnered a reputation over the years as the nation's largest and most crime-ridden housing project, work began in the late 90s to tear down the Robert Taylor Homes, today only one court of 4 towers still stands.
The projects take their name from Robert Taylor of the CHA who resigned after discovering that the powers-that-be had no intention of creating unsegregated public housing, ironic that America's worst ghetto bears the man's name.