William McFetridge	John W. Baird	Swibel family – Howard, Charles, Seena, and Larry

It is September 14, 1959. An unmanned Russian spacecraft, Luna 2, has become the first man-made object to make contact with the moon. In three days, the United States will attempt to launch a navigation satellite but it will fail to reach orbit. In Chicago, Executive House, the first hotel built in the Loop in 40 years, has been open for eight months.

In Mayor Daley’s office at City Hall, Building Service Employees International Union president William L. McFetridge announces to local news media plans for a $25 million skyscraper apartment and commercial project. It will be part of a $1.5 billion plan to redevelop downtown Chicago.

(Above) 1959 aerial diagram by Bertrand Goldberg Associates of proposed Marina City project and its neighborhood along the Chicago River.

Marina City will be a four-building complex on the Chicago River, comprised of two 40-story towers each containing 560 apartments, a ten-story officer tower, and a four-story building with parking for 400 cars and 1,000 boats. Offices, restaurants, a theater and assembly hall, shops, swimming pool, and three-acre park will be accessed from State Street to the east and Dearborn Street to the west.

Monthly rents for the “air-conditioned apartments” will be $125 for an efficiency, $165 for a one-bedroom, and $210 for a two-bedroom.

Civic leaders praise the project. John W. Baird, president of the Metropolitan Housing and Planning Council, is “glad to see the trade unions investing their funds in urban renewal housing.”

Marina City will be “a pilot project in a national program of using union reserve funds to help insure the future of the downtown areas of major cities.”

If it goes well, McFetridge says his union is interested in similar projects in New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Cleveland, Denver, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

Within 48 hours of the announcement, 200 apartments are spoken for. One applicant sends a check for what today would be $1,700 to hold an apartment.

The name “Marina City” was the idea of Seena Swibel, the wife of Charles Swibel and the mother of Howard and Larry. If Bertrand Goldberg, whose nickname was “Bud,” had had his way, it would have been called River City.

“Bud came up with a bunch of different names and his preference was River City,” recalled Howard Swibel in 2008. “But my mother loved the name Marina City. And she told me she remembers discussing with Bud and insisting that it be Marina City. She liked the idea because the marina was there.”

Goldberg would later design a complex and get to name it River City. But Marina City was going to be built this time – and on one of Chicago“s most historic sites.