National Design Center signs lease

Several office buildings were competing for the National Design Center, but it was announced on September 27, 1962, that a ten-year lease had been signed with Marina Management Corporation.

(Left) Entrance to National Design Center near southwest corner of office building.

Based in New York, the National Design Center was a showcase, open to the public, of home furnishings and appliances. They would lease 35,000 square feet on the first four floors of the Marina City office building, a deal worth about $3 million ($31 million in 2024 dollars). An additional $1.5 million would be spent building an interior designed by the Chicago architecture firm of Brenner Danforth Rockwell and built by Erik A. Borg Company.

A slightly smaller showcase on East 53rd Street in New York had been open for four years and in the past year had attracted 750,000 visitors. It was estimated that 1.5 million people would visit the center at Marina City, scheduled to open in September 1963 with several hundred exhibitors.

(Left) Spiral staircase at National Design Center, located at Marina City, photographed by Bob Harr of Hedrich Blessing on April 4, 1966.

The National Design Center officially opened on March 2, 1964, on the west side of the Marina City office building. Hours were 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., seven days a week. Three floors of exhibits appealed to everyone from professional decorators to the do-it-yourself crowd. Exhibits featured home furnishings, fabrics, appliances, decorative items, and building products. Details on each item, like where to buy and how much it cost, were available at an information counter on the first floor that was staffed by 12 people. But you could not actually buy anything at the design center.

(Left) Exhibit area at National Design Center from This Is Marina City, a film by Arthur P. Mandler for Portland Cement Association.

There was an auditorium on the fourth floor for lectures, meetings, luncheons, concerts, and art exhibits. Later a bookshop was added to the main floor.

The general coordinator was Helen Schubert. Her design center would keep track of questions from visitors and send those questions to product manufacturers, to help them improve existing products and develop new products.

Schubert was a 1952 University of Wisconsin graduate who directed the National Design Center for many years. After that, she owned Helen Schubert Public Relations and in the early 1980s was honored for professional excellence by the Chicago chapter of Women in Communications.

(Left) Helen Schubert’s senior yearbook photo from Badger 1952, provided by University of Wisconsin-Madison Archives.

Written by Steven Dahlman
Presented for nonprofit educational purposes

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