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January 17. (Left) Pro wrestler Nasty Boy (center) consults with a referee at Marina City’s House of Blues. The second match of “Extreme Midget Wrestling” was a roller coaster but after plenty of punching, kicking, tossing, jumping, chasing, choking, and what we suspect were illegal wrestling moves, Nasty Boy defeated Lil Rampage, seen here flat on the mat.
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February 5. (Above) Actors dressed as Chicago firefighters film a scene for the NBC television show Chicago Fire on State Street right next to Marina City. From Wacker Drive north to Kinzie Street, Chicago’s great street was shut down so it could appear in an episode that aired on February 27. (Click on image to view larger version.)
On October 15, a scene was filmed at Marina City’s Tortoise Club and on October 20, the crew was back on the State Street Bridge to film a scene for a spin-off of Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., that debuted on January 8, 2014.
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March 12. Marina City is recognized as a “Chicago Classic” by the morning television news show Good Day Chicago.
WFLD “Fox 32” news anchor Corey McPherrin (seen in above video frame) and videographer Sean Gibbons were at Marina City on February 27. They interviewed Julie Michiels – an architect whose one-bedroom unit has been featured in various publications and websites – and Betty Hogeorges, who had lived at Marina City since 1963.
“It was an instant hit and it’s still relevant,” says McPherrin in the three-minute-21-second segment. “It’s always reminded people of the sort of place the ’60s cartoon show family The Jetsons would [have] lived, spacy-agey and futuristic.”
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March 15. (Above) Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day weekend, the residential lobby of Marina City’s west tower re-opens after a ten-week renovation project that resulted in a new floor, security desk, walls, and ceiling. This is the main lobby from just inside the concourse-level doors.
Many residents did not like the new design and questioned how the project was managed. The dissent would lead to a petition by residents that tried to stop the work, the resignation of the residential property manager, and replacement of five condo board members.
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(Left) The west tower lobby, pre-renovation on January 2. Click on images to view larger versions. |
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April 7. (Above) The Shamrock Shuffle, Chicago’s first marathon of the year that traditionally passes Marina City, is rerouted by an odd incident in which a man threatened to jump from the underside of the State Street Bridge into the Chicago River. The man was talked out of jumping – it was never clear if he was in any serious danger. Chicago fire personnel clear the bridge in time but the barricades do not get moved fast enough and race officials send runners south on Wabash instead.
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May 1. The east residential lobby opens after a six-week renovation. The main entrance to the new lobby is seen above. The outer lobby transitions around the cylindrical core to an elevator lobby at right. Renovating both the east and west tower lobbies will cost condo owners at Marina City $258,599.
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(Left) East tower lobby on March 17. (Click on images to view larger versions.) |
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May 21. (Above) Open for six months and two days, Marina City’s new Tortoise Club shows off 5,562 square feet of what was once utterly empty space, transformed into one of the city’s fanciest upscale restaurants. At left, only the purple canopy remained on November 28, 2011, of a Crunch fitness center that was at Marina City from 1999 to 2008.
At right, the same area on May 21, 2013. (Click on images to view larger versions.)
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August 4. (Above) Nice day for a drive on the river. This photo, by an unknown photographer, shows four jet skis dressed in the shells of Fiat 500s, driving east on the Chicago River past Marina City for a television commercial.
Marina City got a close-up in the commercial that was also filmed near Navy Pier, Miami, San Francisco, and southern California.
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August 22. (Above) New artwork is unveiled on the new public plaza in the median of North State Street, just south of Marina City. Give, a 14-foot-tall steel sculpture by Chicago artist Dusty Folwarczny, was previously located on the lakefront near Monroe Harbor. “The Gateway” plaza, which opened on June 7, was built by Chicago Loop Alliance, a nonprofit organization, and is part of a Chicago Department of Transportation program.
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August 25. Seen from the west tower of Marina City, a helicopter, doing “second unit” filming for Transformers 4, flies low over the Clark Street Bridge. The bridges at Dearborn, State, and Wabash were raised at about 7:30 a.m. to accommodate the low-flying helicopter, which made about six passes over two hours. Earlier in the morning, a helicopter flew low over the Chicago River while filming for Jupiter Ascending, another science fiction film shot in Chicago that summer.
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(Above) Marina City watched its neighbor to the southwest take shape in 2013. 111 West Wacker Drive is seen above on February 19, August 17, and October 23. (Click on images to view larger versions.)
The luxury apartment tower at West Wacker Drive and North Clark Street, built from the ruins of a project that failed five years ago, “topped out” on October 30, with the last beam placed at the top of the 60-story building. The first tenants moved in the next summer.
(Left) The reverse angle, from 111 West Wacker Drive looking back at Marina City on September 6.
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October 31. Marina City is a location in a web-based comic strip. Set in Chicago, Rival Angels follows the personal and professional rivalries of four fictional women who are professional wrestlers. The boyfriend of one of the wrestlers lives at Marina City.
Created by Milwaukee residents Alan Evans and Justin Riley, the series combines two of Alan’s interests, comic books and wrestling.
Photos by Steven Dahlman except where noted.
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