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Marina City: The Brochure
“A unique architectural setting for 24-hour-a-day living, working and recreation in a ‘city within a city’ in downtown Chicago.”
In January 1966, Marina Management Corporation, property manager of the entire complex, printed a brochure about Marina City that it apparently sold to the public for 25 cents. The photograph on the cover is from 1964 or 1965. In the upper left and right corners is a logo for Marina City, representing an aerial view of the complex.
(Left) Front and back covers of brochure.
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The concept, reads the brochure, is to revitalize downtown Chicago by bringing in 900 families, create an entity that produces income and tax revenue for Chicago, and fill a need for housing for middle-income singles and small families.
The brochure details how the 896 apartments in the residential towers break down – 256 efficiency apartments on floors 21-52 of both towers, 576 one-bedroom apartments on floors 21-60, and 64 two-bedroom apartments on floors 53-60.
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On the 20th floors are laundry and storage rooms. Below that was “an automobile service facility for washing, greasing and minor repairs.”
Among the commercial tenants in early 1966 were National Design Center, Marina City Bank, Marina City Drugs & Liquors, Spencer’s Marina City Bowl, Bertrand Goldberg Associates, WFLD TV, WCFL Radio, State of Illinois Division of Highways & Waterways, Marina City Valet Service, and Faires Beauty Salon.
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(Left) Diners at a Marina City restaurant in the summer of 1965 watch a fashion show. In the distance is the Dearborn Street Bridge, completed just two years earlier. |
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In the lobby of the 16-story office building were a drug store (left) and Marina City Bank (right). |
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The theater building, seen in the architectural model at lower left, would not be completed until 1968, but Marina Management Corporation was more optimistic in 1966. The skating rink had been open for less than a year.
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The brochure boasted of Marina City’s prominent broadcast towers. Rising 284 feet 10¼ inches above the west tower was a tower and antenna for WBKB (now WLS television). A second antenna was used by WFLD-TV.
Guided tours were available for groups of 15 or more. During the summer, according to the brochure, the east tower observation deck was open to the public “at a nominal charge.”
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Clockwise from upper left...
Offices of Bertrand Goldberg Associates on the sixth floor of the office building.
Actor Gary Lockwood and Morris Swibel, Vice President of Marina Management Corporation, on roof of east tower in July 1965.
Close view of a parking ramp at Marina City.
Unidentified skaters.
Aerial view of Marina City.
Two professional models hired to portray residents taking advantage of “outdoor living on apartment balconies.”
38-lane bowling alley on the second floor of the office building.
Grocery and delicatessen at Marina City.
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