I was at Promontory Point in the Hyde Park neighborhood this summer. Sometimes it's great to be on Chicago's lakefront in some hot weather during the summer. Look at some of the sights I saw this pit. Looks perfect for BBQ but it looks impossible. Either way it does look like someone was burning something here then I found out what they were for thanks to another Flickr photographer...
These are called Council Rings, if memory serves. Alfred Caldwell, Promontory's landscape architect, thought this was a democratic way of having a fire. Everybody around the ring with the fire in the middle and everyone is equal distance from the fire. It is also designed to foster discussion, fraternity, etc.
And there you have it.
