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The Biography of Chicago’s Marina City

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Introduction

The story of Chicago’s Marina City does not end in the 1960s. After it was built, people moved in – and kept the story going through good times and bad. Marina City is a riches-to-rags-to-riches story. It may be an important part of Chicago’s past but it is still relevant today. It is not just a Chicago icon. It is Chicago.

General 01-Jun-14
A blank slate

To understand how Marina City and all of Chicago’s unique architecture took shape, we have to be familiar with the most significant event in Chicago architecture – the time the city was almost destroyed.

October 8, 1871 01-Jun-14
Slowing the suburban exodus

The post-war exodus to the suburbs was a trend no little plan could fix.

1945-59 01-Jun-14
Bertrand Goldberg’s meandering path to Marina City

You really have to wonder if Marina City would have existed at all had its architect not very nearly been blown up in 1942.

1913-59 02-Jun-14
Planning begins

They were wrong about the price, number of buildings, number of floors, number of apartments, and number of boats. And there were going to be other complexes just like it in seven other cities. But “Marina City” is announced to the world. The name sticks, despite the architect wanting to call it something else.

September 14, 1959 05-Jun-14
A brief history of 300 North State Street

Every owner of Chicago’s Block 1, from the king of Cobweb Castle to the railroad that sold it to Marina City.

19th & Early 20th Century 10-Apr-16
The shape of things to come

The inspiration for cylindrical towers most likely came from a railroad car.

November 3, 1959 11-Jun-14
$2.5 million buys the lot and railroad tracks

The 135,000 square foot lot in downtown Chicago came with its own railroad tracks.

December 17, 1959 10-Jun-14
A mixed-use laboratory

It is February 29, 1960, and Marina City is coming into focus.

February 29, 1960 18-Jun-14
Central City Plan

A two-page manuscript typed on April 15, 1960, makes the case for caution but then dares people to invest in Chicago’s center. Making downtown more habitable would not only have economic benefits but it would make people happy.

April 15, 1960 1-May-16
Paying for Marina City

Two-thirds of Marina City’s income would go to pay back investors. The rest would have to cover operating expenses. This was not going to end well.

June 22, 1960 15-Jun-14
Groundbreaking

It must have been fun. Hundreds of people in a circus tent on State Street. A phone call from president-elect Kennedy. Mayor Daley riding on construction equipment. They could have plumb forgot to break ground on a $36 million project to revolutionize urban housing.

November 22, 1960 16-Jun-14
Laying the foundation

As complex as Marina City was above ground, it was going to be challenging underneath, too. Fortunately, the foundation consultant was “the godfather of soil mechanics.”

November 1960 16-Jun-14
Marina City starts to rise

March 1961. With an appetite for concrete and glass, Marina City starts to rise. Crews work in a continuous 48-hour cycle. When they get good at that pace, the construction schedule accelerates. Good thing they had mullions.

March 1961 21-Jun-14
$5 million for two garages

The 18-story spiral parking ramps get its first manager, the first car drives up the east tower ramp, and how to ride a manlift.

August 1961 23-Jun-14
43-story plunge

The first fatalities during the construction of Marina City.

September 15, 1961 23-Jun-14
The 16-story fence

Bertrand Goldberg described the 16-story office building on the north edge of the site as a fence, separating Marina City from “the slum property to the north.”

October 3, 1961 24-Jun-14
Topping out

On Marina City’s one year anniversary, a “topping out” ceremony is held to note the last bucket of concrete making the core of the east tower the tallest concrete structure in the world.

November 22, 1961 25-Jun-14
Tower on top of tower

On December 1, 1961, a 12-foot-tall double-barred cross weighing 600 pounds is hoisted to the 53rd floor of Marina City’s east tower to promote Christmas Seals. It becomes the first in a long history of things that have been built on top of the towers.

December 1, 1961 17-Dec-14
Clarence Ekstrom, McHugh Project Manager

The architectural plans were not quite finished. The forms for the concrete had unusual shapes. There were no barriers to catch anything or anyone who fell. In the morning, he climbed the tower crane to check the wind. By evening, he got a diverse mix ofunion contractors to agree on a schedule. It was all in a day’s work for Clarence Ekstrom, project manager for McHugh Construction Company on the job building the nation’s tallest apartment building.

1962 26-Jun-14
Mock-ups and models

It’s hard to imagine today an 896-unit apartment complex – that isn’t even open yet – receiving 3,500 rental applications. Even tougher to imagine that despite such demand, the rental agent spending $400,000 to show prospective tenants what two of the units will look like.

January 9, 1962 26-Jun-14
First fires, and Marina City sinks its first bridge

Residents of Marina City in 1962-63 have to put up with construction throughout the complex and the occasional small fire.

February 20, 1962 28-Sep-14
The world anxiously waits

In early 1962, news outlets around the world eagerly watched Marina City take shape – Life magazine, Time, even Weekly Reader.

February 23, 1962 29-Jun-14
Seven injured in second accident

In 1962 it was not safe, not legal, but not uncommon for construction workers to ride hoists intended for lifting materials. At Marina City on June 19, this was costly as seven workers fell ten stories when a gear shaft holding a hoist broke.

June 19, 1962 28-Jun-14
Banking on Marina City

Started with $2 million, Marina City Bank had $12 million in deposits within two years. And it had a Teleview Teller, the 1960s version of an ATM.

August 3, 1962 29-Jun-14
Another worker falls

William Jones was a 44-year-old plasterer who had been working at Marina City for about five months. He was married and had two children, and he was the fourth construction worker to die while building Marina City

September 24, 1962 30-Jun-14
National Design Center signs lease

Before Merchandise Mart became paradise for professional decorators and the do-it-yourself crowd, Marina City was where they went. The National Design Center, where BIN 36 is currently located, offered three floors of home furnishings, fabrics, appliances, decorative items, and building products.

September 27, 1962 29-Jun-14
Moving Day

Daniel and Jo Ann Aguilar thought they were going to be the first residents to move into Marina City on October 14, 1962. They must have been very surprised to arrive and be greeted by their neighbor, Louise Hance, who got there first.

October 14, 1962 30-Jun-14
Star map buried

Two years to the day after the groundbreaking ceremony, on Thanksgiving Day, November 22, 1962, dignitaries gathered again at Marina City. This time, to bury into the foundation a celestial map showing the position of the stars and planets when ground was broken two years earlier.

November 22, 1962 01-Jul-14
The pioneers

3,500 people wanted a slice of Marina City but only 896 pie-shaped apartments were available. The lucky ones moved in to new apartments between October 14, 1962, and December 23, 1964. They walked across muddy wooden planks, through common areas lit by bare bulbs and heated using butane tanks, to get to their apartments. No laundry room, storage areas, or even mailboxes. The hallways were cold and damp from the concrete that had not yet cured. And then there was the time one of the butane tanks exploded.

January 31, 1963 07-Jul-14
Desperate burglars steal doorknobs

Burglary reached new heights.

February 20, 1963 28-Sep-14
Hilton signs on to run the first restaurant

Whether you ate at Galley & Grog, which had a bar made of wine barrels, the more formal Parlours with its crystal chandeliers, Viennese Coffee Shop with its red and white striped ice cream parlor chairs, or Pier Too where the servers wore Mandarin dresses, you wanted to be at Ship’s Lounge, a bar built like a ship, at 5:30 p.m. when the bell rang.

May 8, 1963 06-Jul-14
Marina City’s theatrical flourish

A fan of the arts, Bertrand Goldberg had high hopes for his theater building on the Dearborn side of Marina City. It would be designed for live, modern theater “for the next generation,” and have a state-of-the-art sound system. He was hoping the Goodman Theatre could be lured to Marina City.

May 1963 06-Jul-14
Marina City backdrop as CTA shows off new bus

CTA shows off its new bus in front of Marina City.

1963-64 20-Jan-16
The incredible shrinking marina

All that separated the marina at Marina City from the Chicago River was a 280-foot-long concrete and steel seawall. For a few days in 1963, beginning on November 27, the riverfront was punctuated with blasts from 80 pounds of dynamite used to blow the seawall out of the water.

November 6, 1963 07-Jul-14
Closer Look: The Teleview Teller

P.J. Hoff braves the cold to try the Teleview Teller at Marina City. And 350 North State Street through the years.

February 25, 1964 07-Jul-14
Battle for control of Marina City

William McFetridge was ok with not being president of the Building Service Employees International Union. He could get by without a consulting job that paid today’s equivalent of $115,000. He just didn’t want to give up control of Marina City. The deal he offered the union was this – all or nothing.

May 5, 1964 09-Nov-14
From Marina City

Marina City’s first newsletter issues covered the movie that had recently been filmed there, a marina that could launch a boat in five minutes, how many people lived at Marina City and how much money they made.

May 1964 29-Sep-14
Meet Mike Kobluk: Former Marina City resident and voice of a generation

Meet Mike Kobluk. When he lived at Marina City from 1963 to 1967, he captured some quality images of not just Marina City in the skating rink days but a surrounding neighborhood long before its skyscrapers. As a photographer, he was quite competent and perhaps he should have pursued that further. But no, he was probably too busy singing as a founding member of Chad Mitchell Trio.

May 1964 09-Nov-14
The executive board decides

The union that built Marina City gets out of the real estate business, selling to Charles Swibel for today’s equivalent of $20 million. Peanuts compared to what his company still owes on the mortgage, $136 million in 2014 dollars.

July 10, 1964 09-Nov-14
Marina City Promenade

A benefit during which the public could tour Marina City.

September 25, 1964 10-Nov-14
‘Downtown at Marina City, it’s 30 degrees at WCFL’

Bob Dearborn, Dick Biondi, Dick Orkin, Larry Lujack, Wolfman Jack. These radio legends all worked at Marina City at one time. From 1964 to 1987, through four music formats, WCFL fought Chicago radio ratings wars from the top floor of what is now Hotel Chicago.

Fall 1964 30-Nov-14
Life In The Round

The November 1964 issue of Ebony included articles on jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong, gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, and Marina City, where its ultra-modern housing was a “radical departure from conventional apartment living.” Life In The Round followed six African-Americans living at Marina City, including real estate broker Albert Gaskin and grade school teacher Geraldine Johnson.

November 1964 07-Dec-14
Dinner this Evening at Marina City Restaurants

Marina City restaurant wedding dinner menu presented to Larry and Carolyn Lorren, married on November 28, 1964.

November 28, 1964 07-Dec-14
Bertrand Goldberg on the architect, in his own voice

What did Bertrand Goldberg sound like?

December 2, 1964 07-Dec-14
Marina City strikes deal for bowling alley

William Spencer signs $1 million lease for 38 lanes.

December 18, 1964 07-Dec-14
Marina City stars in its first movie

Goldstein was Philip (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Right Stuff, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Henry & June) Kaufman’s first film and it included scenes at Marina City.

May 7, 1965 05-Dec-16
Mickey One

The film starred Warren Beatty as a nightclub comic fleeing the Detroit Mob for Chicago. (Yes, you read that correctly.) It is considered a cult classic today.

September 27, 1965 5-Dec-16
This Is Marina City

In 1965, Arthur P. Mandler brought his wind-up Bolex H-16 film camera and wife to Marina City and produced for Portland Cement Association the most detailed historical account of the construction of Marina City. When the 19-minute film was professionallyrestored in 2010, its quality and value were even more in focus.

1961-63 8-Jan-18
Station of Tomorrow

WFLD, one of Chicago’s five UHF channels and located at Marina City.

January 4, 1966 10-Nov-14
“Things to see and do at Marina City”

By the end of 1964, Marina City had a bank, grocery store, pharmacy, florist, gift shop, travel agency, skating rink, restaurants, and a cocktail lounge.

1964 07-Dec-14
Explosion of The Unbearables

A 35-foot cabin cruiser explodes and burns in Marina City’s marina.

October 9, 1965 07-Dec-14
Polyphony II

12-foot sculpture on the plaza.

November 1, 1965 07-Dec-14
Richard Hauff, Marina City resident and a ‘friend of ours’

Marina City’s first mobster.

November 15, 1965 08-Dec-14
Murray The Camel

The sad story of Murray “The Camel” Humphreys, mobster and high-rolling apartment dweller. His run from justice ended on the 51st floor of Marina City’s east tower, on the wrong end of a vacuum cleaner.

November 23, 1965 08-Dec-14
Ten-year-old boat thief foiled before reaching Cleveland

William Blasio steals a boat after school but does not get far.

December 1, 1965 08-Dec-14
You Live Better Electrically

A two-page magazine ad that appeared in the December 24, 1965, issue of Life magazine included a photograph taken from the living room of a west tower unit.

December 24, 1965 08-Dec-14
Marina City: The Brochure

In 1966, the property manager printed a brochure about Marina City that it sold to the public for 25 cents.

January 1966 20-Dec-14
Skating around Marina City

In the 1960s, shopping malls were becoming not just retail centers, but places of recreation. Ice skating rinks were the latest thing and so, naturally, Marina City had to have one.

October 12, 1966 04-Jan-15
Flying down with the garbage

Think your job is tough? We found a guy who used to climb into garbage at Marina City to free stuck refuse. It was dirty, dangerous work and made his job later on NBC’s The Today Show seem almost easy.

July 5, 1967 29-Sep-19
On the cover of National Geographic

In 1967, Marina City was among the most interesting things in Illinois. The June issue of National Geographic that year caught it all – Marina City’s lofty pie-slice apartments, its views all the way to Indiana, and its sky dancers.

June 1967 01-Feb-15
Calculated move by Univac

Before BIN 36 served wine flights there, Univac had offices on the west side of what is now Hotel Chicago.

November 1967 02-Feb-15
Snapshots of 1967

What a year 1967 was. A map was published that showed what they meant when they called it Marina City. The police bust a Bingo party. The parking garage might have mob connections. An art exhibit features eclectic work of Illinois artists. WFLD sets up shop and a Christmas tree sings. John Denver sure picked an interesting year to move to Marina City.

1967 02-Feb-15
Rental office robbed

In 1968, two polite, well dressed men with a flowered shopping bag and a shotgun robbed the rental office.

September 21, 1968 08-Feb-15
Marina City’s first murder

Marina City was a crime scene on January 13, 1969, when a man despondent over health issues shot his mother and then himself.

January 13, 1969 08-Feb-15
The lobby of tomorrow

Marina City’s original lobbies offered a feature common now but new then – the ability for a visitor to call up to a resident.

June 1969 08-Feb-15
Bob Gibson’s demons

Folk singer/songwriter Bob Gibson lived at Marina City at the peak of his career. He was arrested for drug possession there, too.

August 14, 1969 15-Feb-15
Back safe from Vietnam

Seven friends gather at Marina City in 1969 to celebrate a safe return.

August 16, 1969 15-Feb-15
Braless Friday

Braless Friday brings 1,500 men and 14 women to Marina City.

September 5, 1969 15-Feb-15
69 stories