City Within a City: The Biography of Chicago’s Marina City
Spiral parking ramps leased
August 1961
(Above) Mike Chunko captured the complementing lines of the towers in 2008.
“The original concept of Marina City having been the convenience of living in the heart of the city and within walking distance of offices, shops, and restaurants, we did not expect all of the residents would be car owners.”
– Jerome Bernstein, Marina City Garage & Parking Corporation, 1964
In August 1961, Charles R. Swibel negotiated a 25-year lease of the 18-story spiral parking ramps for $200,000 per year (the equivalent of $2.1 million in 2024). Managing the 900-car garages would be Marina City Garage & Parking Corporation. The president of this newly formed company was Samuel Burke, a partner in the law firm of Burke, Russ & Rawson. Company officials also included Russell Bernstein and Jerome Bernstein, who operated the Washburn-Monroe Garage & Parking Corporation.
Swibel said the lease would allow him to review financial records of the garage each year and make sure parking rates charged to the public were held at moderate levels.
Attendants, who would use manlifts to get to the various floors quickly, would do all the parking. Holding areas at the base of each ramp would accommodate as many as 100 cars awaiting parking during peak periods.
(Above) How parking valets ride the belt manlift at Marina City. On the plaza level of the east tower, System Parking manager David Amponsah waits for a footboard to appear on the belt manlift. Amponsah (center) steps onto the footboard and (right) rides the belt manlift upward.
On February 11, 1963, the first passenger car made it to the 19th floor of the spiral parking ramp “without incident,” mused Chicago Daily Tribune reporter James M. Gavin.
“The ramp grade is a bit steeper through the first four floor levels,” Gavin noted. “From the fifth-floor level the grade is five percent, and a driver feels a little safer accelerating in low gear at 10 to 15 miles an hour. However, as the higher floors are reached and the city’s skyline begins to flash into view, the driver has a tendency to hug the core of the building.”
(Above left) Looking back down the west tower ramp from the 19th floor. East tower ramp in distance. The author, at left in photo, provides human scale. (Above right) The parking deck plan fits 32 parking spaces along the circumference of each level. Vehicles going up stay closer to the core than vehicles going down the ramp.
The monthly rate would be $30 when the garage officially opened a month later.
By July 1964, Jerome Bernstein had become part owner of Marina City Garage & Parking Corporation. He announced a deal with Hertz to offer rental cars to Marina City residents with just 15-minutes notice. At the time, only 25 percent of residents had a car parked at Marina City.
The garage was open 24 hours a day and provided gas, oil, lube, and washing. Leonard Goldin was the manager during the day. Ben Martin was the night manager.
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(Left) Close outer view of steel cables and barrier to keep cars from falling off the ramps at Marina City. The number printed at upper left on the column identifies the parking space (and not the floor number). These numbers begin with 1 in the west tower and 2 in the east tower. |
Written by Steven Dahlman
Presented for nonprofit educational purposes
