By Joan Maiman
Special to Inside
The twin "corn cob" towers of Marina City are among the most recognized landmarks in Chicago. The development marks its 40th anniversary this May. When Marina City opened in 1963, it was a revolutionary concept—a city within a city—to draw people to the city not just to work but to live.
A new way of city life
Bertrand Goldberg's design for Marina City was the subject of great controversy when it was first unveiled.
Goldberg was born in Chicago in 1913, and at the age of 19 he went to Berlin to work in the office of famed architect Mies van der Rohe. When Goldberg returned to Chicago, the city was undergoing great social and political changes. Goldberg saw architecture not just as a job but as a way of shaping society. He believed that architects and builders "had a large responsibility in developing the character of neighborhoods."
Most of the wealth in Chicago was moving to the suburbs and the city was stagnating as human and monetary resources disappeared. Goldberg saw enormous potential for developing a new way of living in the then-largely-undeveloped urban areas of the nation.
The FHA and the urban crisis
The urban crisis facing America in the 1940s began in 1934 when Congress created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to insure low-interest long term mortgages to home buyers. The FHA, not wanting to lose money by insuring high risk areas, categorically classified old center city areas as "at risk of blight." This action prompted banks to invest in suburban housing, adding to the exodus of talent and wealth from Chicago. Chicago Mayor Ed Kelly was able to direct some New Deal money into upgrading facilities and constructing new buildings within the city. These projects included the 1937-38 construction of the Jane Addams, Julia Lathrop and Trumbull Park Homes on the edge of downtown Chicago.
WWII and the returning GIs
During World War II the population of Chicago swelled as the city became second only to Detroit in industrial war production. The need for war factory workers brought a huge influx of poor whites and blacks; the city was ill-prepared to handle the housing needs of this new urban migration.
When the GIs returned home after the war, they used liberally granted federal loans and headed for the suburbs in search of the American Dream, single family homes with a white picket fence. Between 1945-1959 77 percent of all housing starts in the Chicago area were in the suburbs and three quarters of those were single family homes.
Unions and the dream
In 1959 the International Union of Building Maintenance Employees and their president William McFetridge asked Goldberg and Associates to design a building that would act as a magnet to bring people back to the city and would provide housing for union members. The union gave Goldberg a mandate to link architecture with social modeling.
Marina City was—and is—the tallest reinforced concrete structure in the world. It was awarded FHA loans, reversing almost 30 years of bias against city housing. Using Venice as a model for a high-density multi- functional urban complex that brought people into closely aligned living areas, Goldberg proposed building Marina city on the banks of the Chicago River. If Chicago as a whole was failing, Goldberg offered an alternative—"a city within a city." This complex would be built from the ground up to provide all that a person could need.
Enter the political fixer
In a city known for making the deal, Charles Swibel, future head of the CHA, had a major role in making Marina City a reality. Swibel chose a piece of real estate on the banks of the Chicago River between State and Dearborn streets and optioned it for $3 million even before getting FHA funding. Because of the property size, three acres, any large structure would have to have a vertical integration of function rather than the horizontal breadth that a larger site would allow. This was to be the ultimate "living above the store."
A 24-hour city within a city
Marina city was designed for 24-hours-a-day. Goldberg called this a two shift city where the fixed costs of building were shared by recreation, commerce and living. As Goldberg noted, "We cannot burden business buildings used 35 hours a week or apartment buildings used at night and over the weekend with our total tax load. We can no longer subsidize the single shift use of our expensive city utilities. In our cities within cities we shall turn our streets up into the air and stack the daytime and nighttime uses of our land."
Not only was this a radical concept in 1959—it was illegal in Chicago under zoning laws, as it mixed business, residential and entertainment. Marina City's express purpose was to pull work, sleep and play into proximity to one another so that residents would feel invested in the location where they lived. Marina City was the test zoning case that paved the way for future developments in the city to include the John Hancock Center and Water Tower Place. The FHA remained leery of backing such an urban project—a concern Goldberg well understood. "The city in our American ethic is regarded as the place of evil, the place where a good life cannot be, is not possible."
Securing FHA backing also required a new interpretation of what constituted "family" living. Marina City was designed for a new type of family—married couples and single individuals without children. (Traditionally even today couples leave the complex for the suburbs when infants become toddlers—a problem the city has failed to resolve.)
After Goldberg went to Washington to personally lobby for Marina City, in July 1961 the FHA issued a mortgage commitment of $17,819,000 to McFetridge and the union.
Marina City was to consist of 60 stories, including parking on the first 20 floors, a saddle shaped theatre, a rectilinear office building, restaurants, a bowling alley and an ice rink.
The residences were unique, being pie-shaped, starting at eight feet wide close to the core and moving out to 21 feet at the balcony. Goldberg saw the pie-shaped rooms as breaking the monotony of square rooms. Marina City would "engage" residents by pulling them from the center core toward the balconies.
Marina City was originally conceived of as a concrete structure. Using a circular design permitted the wind to move smoothly around the building, reducing the need to reinforce for the stresses of high winds.
Building from a central core
The design of Marina City also allowed for an innovative construction method—building a central core from which all the floors would be cantilevered. Goldberg also decided to make the entire complex electric, which allowed for individual choices about heating, cooling and lighting, requiring that each unit only be supplied with cold water, electricity and telephone connections. Each studio, one bedroom and two bedroom unit was virtually a self-contained "pod" regulated by the user.
Building the central core by the chimney method ahead of the ramp or apartment floors permitted construction economies. A hatchway for a temporary elevator was immediately available, creating a space for internal hoisting and a crane at the top of the structure. By the summer of 1962 the first tower was completed; the second one was completed later that year. People began to move in immediately and some literally saw the other tower rise next to them. Goldberg recognized the untapped potential of the Chicago River some 40 years before the city began to develop the area as a tourist and residential draw.
Glory days
According to a 1964 Marina City newsletter, life was good at the complex. A lease had been signed for a bowling alley, and TV station WLS (the ABC affiliate in Chicago) had placed an antenna on one of the sundecks of the tower.
A lobby boutique offered rare perfumes and gifts and even had a liquor department. The Marina City skating rink opened. Radio station WCFL had moved into an entire floor of the office complex.
A grocery store, a florist, and later a travel agency and drug store, flourished along with several restaurants in the complex. A health club was also added, making it possible for residents to work out or swim long before physical fitness became an industry.
Residents formed social groups; many activities such as dinner parties, boat trips and cultural activities added to the cachet of Marina City. It was the "in place" to entertain.
Marina City was not designed solely for a return on investment, as were the later John Hancock Center and Water Tower Place, but as an investment in city living. In 1974, only two percent of the towers' residents actually worked in the complex but a full 80 percent were within walking distance of their place of employment. Few would deny that it is Goldberg's legacy that Chicago is now populated with multi-use buildings.
Hard times for Marina City
By the late 1980s and early 1990s, Goldberg was once again involved with Marina City, this time to try to save it. In the mid-1970s the residences were converted into condos and the office buildings, theatre and marina were sold off to different owners in the face of financial bankruptcy.
For Goldberg, this financial ruin that destroyed the vision of a unified complex was the ultimate failure of Marina City. The apartments were owned by their occupants while the shops, office and theater were owned by a group of Texas investors who themselves went bankrupt in 1987.
The complex slowly went downhill and the concrete literally began to crumble.
Chicago developer John Marks bought the complex's retail portions and spiral parking (famed for the scene in the Steve McQueen movie "The Hunter" in which a car plummets some 20 stories down into the river) for $3.35 million in 1994 and invested some $30 million in repairs and renovation. There was debate over the removal of the theatre, which Goldberg contended would destroy much of the architectural integrity of the complex. In the end the House of Blues bought the theatre and spent $70 million in renovation. Later the New York-based Smith and Wollensky opened a steak house in a newly built facility, which some saw as destroying the lines of Marina City with its square box-like shape.
Crowds and congestion
The office building became the House of Blues Hotel and other businesses such as Bin 36 were opened. The changes have annoyed residents at times with crowds and parking problems. Hearings took place before the Chicago Liquor Commission to explore the possibility of voting the precinct dry. (Marina City constitutes its own precinct.) The hearings were prompted by several incidents, including an attack on a Marina City resident trying to enter the residences through a large crowd of House of Blues patrons in a line that stretched for blocks.
There was much discussion about the difficulty of mixing very large crowds with a large residential population in a small space—something never envisioned by Goldberg. After House of Blues officials pledged to add security and step up crowd control, the dry vote was dropped and House of Blues received a warning letter from the Liquor Commission.
The future
Today Marina City lacks city landmark protection although efforts to address this issue continue. The complex is facing special assessments to repair the aging complex, including the elevators, sundecks and balconies. The building boom in the Loop and Near North area have meant intense competition.
Marina City was a visionary project designed to bring people into the city from the suburbs to live. Today part of that dream has been realized, but the suburbs still draw many people who simply do not want to live in an urban environment. Chicago's record murder rate and failing public schools have also been a factor in driving people out of the city. High property taxes, sales taxes, and numerous other county and city fees for everything from phones to cable service to electricity have been a factor in making urban living, Goldberg's dream, less attractive to some.
Chicago has added population only through large numbers of immigrants, many undocumented. These new Chicago residents have once again brought the crisis in affordable housing to the forefront. Goldberg's dream of "cities with cities" has failed when it comes to affordable housing. Indeed today Chicago is tearing down many of the public housing high rises for the as-yet unproven concept of mixed income housing.
With the economic downturn, high unemployment and record city and state budget shortfalls, the future of Chicago and other large cities is uncertain. Nonetheless, a twin towered vision of what city life could be stands on the banks of the Chicago River—a tribute to Bertrand Goldberg and his determination to make cities livable. |
