Snapshots of 2008-2009

Marina City is the setting for a murder mystery novel. Alex Matthews had written nine novels in which the main character is a Chicago therapist named Cassidy McCabe. Her latest, Murder’s Madness, published on April 13, 2008, places a schizophrenic patient in a condo unit at Marina City. The unit is owned by Cassidy’s new husband, crime reporter Zach Moran.

A four-foot version of Marina City – constructed of 12,000 LEGO bricks – is on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in 2008. Along with about 15 other LEGO structures, the Marina City model was part of the ART + Science = Architecture exhibit. Adam Tucker, an architect and certified LEGO professional, completed the Marina City model in time for it to make an appearance at Looptopia, a dusk-to-dawn artistic celebration, on May 2, 2008. The model was also displayed at Brickworld, a large exhibit of LEGO structures, in June.

Said Tucker, “It’s my hope that by seeing my work, children of all ages will be inspired to go home and create something themselves, to think outside the box, to think about a new way of doing things or looking at the world.” Photo provided by Adam Tucker.

Marina City is depicted as 4,714 cans of food for the 2008 “Canstruction Chicago” competition. The aptly-named “Tuna City” was built by 15 team members at 4240 Architecture and Charter Sills & Associates.

“Bold bean bridges stretch past beefy Smith & Wollensky and over the green/blue Chicago River,” reads the exhibit’s official description. It was displayed in the lobby of 350 West Mart Center along with 19 other food-can structures and won an award for Best Use of Labels. The food was donated to the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Photographed on June 10, 2008.

Wanted, the Universal Pictures action film with scenes shot near Marina City in 2007, is released on June 27, 2008. Marina City shows up in the film’s opening scene and in a chase scene shot on Wabash Avenue. For the late-night filming on Wabash, the residential towers at Marina City were lit by flood lights from the plaza at 330 North Wabash.

35,000 participants in the 2008 Bank of America Chicago Marathon run past Marina City on Sunday morning, October 12, 2008. Starting at Grant Park at 8:00 a.m., runners from all 50 states and more than 100 countries ran 26.2 miles through 29 neighborhoods of Chicago.

A drawing, made from a Marina City balcony using a special curved easel to create a realistic panoramic rendering, is on display at The Field Museum in February 2009. Mounted on a tripod, the easel has a concave metal grid that holds a large piece of curved drawing paper. A plaster head-cap helps keep the artist’s head stationary. Twins Ryan Oakes and Trevor Oakes invented the drawing method in 2004. (Left) Trevor recreates a view of Wacker Drive from the 29th floor of the east tower in October 2008. (Right) The finished artwork. Photos by Ryan Oakes and Trevor Oakes.

Elvis impersonator Pete Tidd selects a scarf from assistant Thomas Adamson while performing in a contest at Dick’s Last Resort at Marina City on January 8, 2009. The 36-year-old Lyons native won the contest and got $500.

With Marina City looking on, Odette Yustman fights the spirit that is slowly taking possession of her. She stars as Casey Beldon in the Rogue Pictures horror film The Unborn, released on January 9, 2009. Christy Lemire of the Chicago Sun-Times called it an “unintentionally hilarious horror film.”

With an unidentified patron tied up nearby in Saran Wrap, Dick’s Last Resort manager Richard Fulghum is interviewed live by WGN-TV feature reporter Ana Belaval for “Around Town,” a segment of WGN Morning News, on February 24, 2009.

Marina City is bursting at the seams with vegetation in a vision of 22nd century Chicago for the Burnham Plan Centennial that ran from September 4 through October 11, 2009. In a plan by Chicago architect Dirk Denison, the streets of Chicago are an interconnected grid of green spaces for urban farming and leisure use. With the automobile infrastructure antiquated throughout the city, the parking ramps at Marina City would be converted to hanging gardens. The design was one of eight proposals on exhibit at the Chicago Tourism Center.

Written by Steven Dahlman
Presented for nonprofit educational purposes

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