most look like that.
i know new orleans has interesting marinas on the lake side, but theyre only cool because of the levees surrounding them, you may have a hard time finding pictures though.

maybe think "shipyard" instead of marina and then scale down to fit program... theres much more interesting stuff that happens at our large ports than happens at normal marinas

much of the time the interesting things at marinas, at least where my family keeps our boat, have to do with other processes that go on at the marina other than the slips the boats sit in.

Calling Steven Ward....let's see that project of yours!

thought about it, but i didn't think it was relevant.

really this is a project for mooring ONE boat, if it happens to be a paddlewheel riverboat on the ohio river and the mooring needs to be fully accessible, is at the bottom of a 40' bluff, and has to accommodate 20'+ of change in river elevation.

if that's your situation, here's an answer:flickr set

Wow, guess what, my situation IS a mooring for one paddlewheel river boat on the Ohio River accommodating changing river elevation and slope!! How lucky.
All jokes aside, it's a lovely project. The New Orleans suggestion was interesting too - I don't think this is what you meant, unless that's one big lake:
http://petewelch.com/BiloxieBeauRivageMarina.jpg
but it caught my eye as being non-totally-perpendicular, which is a start I guess.

You mean something like this?

Good luck with your search!

Ha! Good one. But I think that will be reproduced at considerable peril... To architecture I mean.

shiny - Just throwing this out there, but would any Panama Canal images help. That whole thing is about boats w/ changing elevations. Perhaps a bit industrial, but you never know.

SW - a fenicula - really?! Where exactly do you get a fenicula these days? An underutilized solution to a tricky problem - and they're fun too. Bravo, sharp looking project.

yep, a funicular. we always just called it 'the lift', and it was the only way we could see - short of hundreds of feet more of ramping - to get people down the bluff. this lift was pretty much all custom, built by a local old-school elevator company, murphy elevator. they were great.

thanks for your comments.

the other thing that i didn't mention and which has had a major impact on this project is that it is underwater for almost six months of every year. they remove the lift and all of the lights at the end of each season and shovel and power wash the mud off at the beginning of each season.

not quite the same thing... but how 'bout looking at the falkirk wheel...

Golly, that is quite possibly the coolest thing I have ever seen. Entirely irrelevent, but awesome. Wish I DID have a situation of changing water levels. Then I would build a GIANT FERRIS WHEEL FOR BOATS.