North of the Chicago River, across from Wacker Drive between State and Dearborn Streets, two cylindrical towers that dominate the complex of Marina City will grab you.

You will feel something. Awe, wonder. Like me, you may not have the training in architecture or art to put into words what you are seeing. But you know that you are seeing something unique, and you are feeling something you cannot fully describe.

“You get that reaction when looking at pure truth,” explains art historian David Jameson. He has invested much thought into the architectural and artistic significance of Marina City, and he can help us understand what we are looking at from Wacker Drive.

“When you look at Marina City from the sidewalk or from across the river, it’s like an x-ray into the building itself. You’re not really looking at the building, you’re looking into the building.”

True, you can see right into the parking ramps, which are not normally shown off so explicitly.

“He didn’t cover up the parking structure,” notes Jameson, referring to Marina City’s architect, Bertrand Goldberg. “He could have put a curtain wall around that. He could have done all kinds of things. But he probably didn’t think it was ugly. So why even try to cover it up? It wouldn’t have even been a problem to him.”

Built on unused railroad property in the early 1960s at a cost of what today would be $288 million, Marina City is a Chicago icon and an international celebrity.

It was the first “mixed-use” complex in the United States to include housing and businesses. The towers were the tallest apartment buildings in the world – and for a short time, the tallest structures made of reinforced concrete. It was the fourth tallest building in Chicago and one of the city’s first all-electric buildings.

With 896 apartments on a three-and-one-half acre site, it is still one of the densest residential plans in the world.

How was it built? Why was it built? Who are the people who have lived and worked there?

Before the first tower opened in 1962, before groundbreaking in 1960, before the project was announced in 1959. To understand how Marina City took form, and continued evolving for 50 years, through triumph and tragedy, serving as home for thousands and inspiration for thousands more, we have to go back in time to October 8, 1871.